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6 | FEBRUARY 20 • 2020
editor’
s note
Building the Big Tent
essay
We Do Have Allies, You Know?
I
’
m excited to share this
week’
s JN cover story
with you although I can’
t
take credit for it because
it was in the works before
I arrived here. Our pair of
features on
Jews of color in
Metro Detroit
give us the
opportunity to
tell the kinds
of Jewish sto-
ries we unfor-
tunately tend to overlook
when we talk about “the
Jews” as a single identity.
We don’
t want this focus
to be a one-time thing. My
hope is that we at the JN
can make a regular, standing
commitment to telling the
stories of Jews from diverse
backgrounds, including Jews
of color, Jews from migrant
communities, Jews in inter-
faith families and Jews from
the LGBTQ+ community.
Because, really, all of us
are part of one community:
the Metro Detroit Jewish
community. We should all
feel comfortable around
each other. And I want to
make sure the JN continues
to be a place where we can
all gather: a big tent, if you
will. Of course, one or two
features aren’
t going to build
that tent.
With that in mind, I’
d like
to extend the following invi-
tation. If you would like to
share your own experiences
as a member of an under-
represented Jewish identity,
please reach out and share
with us. We’
d love to feature
your story in these pages
and on our website.
As I am still reacquainting
myself with Jewish Detroit
after several years away, I’
m
thinking about all your sto-
ries the same way I approach
an Indian buffet: I want to
have as many different fla-
vors as I can.
This is also the time for
me to apologize to anyone
who tried to email me or the
editorial staff at our “ren-
media.us” addresses over
the past couple weeks, only
to receive
a bounce-back
message in return saying the
address was undeliverable.
We were dealing with
some in-house technical dif-
ficulties, and they impacted
our entire editorial team’
s
ability to access our regular
staff emails. I am sure this
caused frustration for some
of you — I know it did us.
Thankfully, the problem
has been resolved and our
email addresses are once
again working properly. If
you sent an email to our
editorial staff in the past few
weeks and didn’
t hear back,
please resend it.
Thanks very much for
your savlanut (patience) and
understanding.
Andrew Lapin
through May is tech-inten-
sive — online outreach, photo
archives, video editing, CRM,
IMs, alums, emails, Sporcles
— such that June, July and
August might, per camp’
s
Nebagamission, “create a ref-
uge from the real world, giving
children the space they need to
discover themselves, to nurture
a diverse and caring commu-
nity, to challenge boys in ways
that help them discover how
capable they are and to engen-
der a love of the outdoors in
our campers.”
Like filling in a scorecard
from the scouts’
seats, easier
said than swung.
Also, Louis and Maggie are
adorable. His knitting, her cro-
cheting. His cooking, her bak-
ing. Their dueling sourdoughs.
His vacuuming and White
Sox, her laundry and Cubs.
Their tandem bike. His softball
fandom upon learning that U.
Chicago had sports teams. (Go
Maroons!) Her MLB All-Star
breaks spent at a Paul Bunyan-
themed boys camp.
That tandem bike.
And they don’
t live in
Detroit out of some sense of
duty or sacrifice. They live in
Detroit because it has a density
and diversity of peers and beers
(and other culinary, cultural,
artistic, authentic, social and
sportsball amenities) unrivaled
this side of the Wiener’
s Circle.
Louis and Maggie have a
go-to cheesemonger (Emily)
at Eastern Market. Dally in the
Alley i
s behind their house.
Thanksgiving may have been
a caravan back to Chicago, but
— a departure from decades
of dodging Detroit — Horace’
s
house hosted 19 for a West
Forest Friendsgiving. With two
sourdoughs.
jewfro from page 5
W
ith the recent
surge in anti-
Semitic attacks, it’
s
easy to see why many Jews
feel increasingly isolated and
alone. Sadly,
that’
s an all-too-
familiar feeling
for us. But if
our eyes are
open, we must
acknowledge
we’
ve also
seen genuine, heartwarming
gestures of solidarity and
support for Jews in recent
months. This might be hard
to accept for those Jews who
tend to distrust non-Jews, but
they are closing their eyes to
an undeniable and beautiful
fact that we should appreciate
and nurture: We Jews have
allies. Plenty of them.
Recent examples are
everywhere and sometimes in
the unlikeliest of places.
• Last month two Russian
cosmonauts, while on a
spacewalk outside of the
International Space Station,
commemorated International
Holocaust Remembrance
Day by displaying a sign
transcribed in both English
and Russian, with the words
“We Remember.”
• Last month in Tehran,
Iran (of all places), at Shahid
Behesti University during
an anti-government protest,
the students refused to walk
on a large painting of the
Israeli flag on the ground and
instead chose to walk around
Mark Jacobs
continued on page 10