‘This Problem Is Here’
Following MSU swastika, Rep. Slotkin hosts East Lansing forum on anti-Semitism.
CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER
Jews in the D
U
.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin
brought members of the com-
munity and a panel of speakers
together at the East Lansing Public Library
on Sunday, Feb. 23, for a conversation sur-
rounding a recent local spike in anti-Semit-
ic acts.
The event took place nearly a week after
a swastika was found spray-painted in the
snow outside of a Michigan State University
fraternity house. The incident is currently
under investigation by the East Lansing
Police Department.
Slotkin (D), whose district includes the
Lansing area, also referenced two other
recent anti-Semitic events on MSU’
s cam-
pus.
“We have seen incidents take place here,
particularly in our community of greater
Lansing,
” Slotkin said to the crowd. “We
know that among other incidents, our
Michigan State Hillel was vandalized this
past October during Sukkot … We just had
a swastika painted outside a fraternity, and
a mezuzah was ripped off a student’
s door
just off campus during the fall. This prob-
lem is here, and it is not going away.
”
Slotkin discussed the Homeland Security
Committee that she serves on in Congress
and its focus on the rise of domestic terror-
ism, and noted that local terrorist groups in
white supremacist circles and foreign ter-
rorist groups such as the Islamic State share
similarities in recruiting tactics.
Roughly 120 people attended the forum.
The crowd was mostly older, with minimal
representation from MSU students.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel,
the Anti-Defamation League of Michigan’
s
Regional Director Carolyn Normandin,
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit’
s
Director of Community-Wide Security
Gary Sikorski and two local FBI agents
were also on the panel.
“Last year we created a hate crimes unit
to battle the onslaught of hate crimes that
are being perpetrated against minority
communities in our state,
” Nessel said to the
crowd. “It is my intent to be as aggressive as
possible in prosecuting these cases.
“We are not only aggressively investi-
gating and prosecuting these crimes, but
we are also working with the Michigan
Department of Civil Rights on education-
al programs,
” Nessel added. “Our office
has also started working on probationary
requirements for people who are found
guilty of a hate crime because, to me, the
best practice is not to throw people in jail,
but to educate them on what it means to
the whole community when you commit a
crime with this type of bias.
”
The panelists discussed their roles and
detailed what they have done to help fight
anti-Semitism. They also provided insight
on what to do if you witness an anti-Semitic
or hate crime and how to report it.
“Report, report, report. If you take
nothing else away from this forum, at least
remember to always report something
when you see it,
” Normandin said. “These
incidents are taken very seriously. At the
ADL, we track all of these actions and help
take control of the narrative.
”
Near the end of the forum, Slotkin
opened up the floor for questions. Audience
members voiced concerns surrounding
freedom of speech and hate speech, battling
anti-Semitism in the workplace and securi-
ty in places of worship.
“I think the main takeaway from this
event was that if you experience anti-Sem-
itism or any other hate crime, you must
report it.
” Slotkin later told the Jewish News.
“We must take them seriously because
an isolated incident today can represent
a trend later on for more dangerous inci-
dents.
”
This was Slotkin’
s first community forum
on the topic, and her next move is to host a
similar event for college students.
“Even though we had leaders here from
MSU Hillel, I believe that our next step is
to do something like this on our campus-
es,
” Slotkin said. “We need to educate our
students and help them come together as a
community.
”
CORRIE COLF
20 | FEBRUARY 27 • 2020
Rep. Elissa Slotkin
addresses attendees at a
forum on anti-Semitism
at Michigan State
University.