‘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. 

