6 | FEBRUARY 27 • 2020 

guest column
Finding Hope in a Spring

Views

I

magine checkpoints lining 8 Mile Road. 
A bus approaches the border of Detroit 
and the suburbs, headed for Oakland 
County, and two heavily armed officers 
step on board to check IDs. 
Depending on your residency 
status and ability to obtain 
a rare permit from Oakland 
County’
s government, you’
re 
permitted to cross. Few 
Detroiters are able to obtain 
these permits, but resi-
dents of the majority-white 
Oakland County are able to travel freely.
In Detroit, we know about segregation. 
We can see the long-lasting impact of its 
history in our communities. As American 
Jews, we denounce these practices in 
the United States. So why do we allow 
these systems of oppression in Israel and 
Palestine? 
Some say that it’
s for security, our 
safety. Some speak of their fear — of the 
worst that could happen to Israel, and to us. 

These are valid concerns and emotions 
for a community that faces continued vio-
lence and trauma. We want a safe place to 
live and thrive, like all people. I hear this 
and honor this desire. But is a violent mili-
tary occupation the answer? Does this really 
keep our community safe?
A few days into the new year, I traveled 
with a group of more than 150 Palestinians, 
Israelis and diaspora Jews like myself to Ein 
Albeida Spring, a central water source that 

villages in the South Hebron hills in the 
West Bank have depended on for centuries. 
The goal was to restore Palestinian access to 
this central water source, which was histor-
ically used to nourish these communities. 
The day was planned and led by Palestinian 
activists, as well as the Center for Jewish 
Nonviolence. 
The spring is located in Area C, mean-
ing that it’
s under complete Israeli military 
and civil control. Fifteen years ago, settlers 

Lisa Tencer

COURTESY OF LISA TENCER

editor’
s note

The Dinner Table
G

rowing up, I was used to spirited 
debate in my family. That conven-
tional wisdom of avoiding politics 
at the dinner table wasn’
t really a thing; at 
our dinner table, someone would often say, 
“What do you think about this?” and just 
kind of see what happened. 
Sometimes we fought. But we 
always came back together in 
the end, because, well, that’
s 
what families should do.
At its best, our Views sec-
tion can be the same. It’
s a big 
dinner table for all of us, and 
I’
m naïve enough to believe 
we can have a decent meal with our neigh-
bors without throwing food. 
Those meals take many forms. We like 
to feature light, humorous pieces and 
thoughtful personal narratives from our 
community. We will also soon be bringing 
on some regular local columnists. 

Sometimes we may run unsigned edito-
rials that represent the institutional voice 
of the publication. And, when appropriate, 
we also publish reader submissions that 
wade into the issues that most animate 
American Jews, including Israel, when 
there is something of new merit to be dis-
cussed. Sometimes, as loyal readers know, 
that means running voices from AIPAC 
or the Michigan Jewish Action Council; 
sometimes, as in this week, it means a 
voice from IfNotNow.
I don’
t want my role in this process to feel 
sinister or opaque. So I’
m being transparent 
with you now, while my tenure is young 
and I still have some wiggle room. To tell 
the truth, it makes me happy to receive 
reader submissions from across the Jewish 
ideological spectrum. To me, that means 
we can be seen as a welcoming place for 
different Jews who might not otherwise 
have a respectful (key word) dialogue with 

each other. That certainly sounds like the 
“
community resource” part of JN we’
re all 
fighting to preserve in the first place.
Of course, a too-permissive opinion sec-
tion in such polarizing times can become 
the domain of mudslingers and bad actors. 
So there have to be some guardrails. JN’
s 
historic editorial standards provide us with 
guidance, but there will always be new 
judgment calls to make. I’
ve been talking 
about it with Arthur Horwitz around the 
office, and we are still figuring this out. Can 
a Jewish publication be both a free and open 
exchange of ideas and a true unifier for the 
Jewish community? 
For now, I want to believe it can. Metro 
Detroit’
s Jews are going to disagree about 
many things and, as your editor, I’
d be a 
fool to pretend otherwise, especially during 
an election year. We may fight, but in the 
end we all have to eat anyway. So we may 
as well sit down to dinner. 

Andrew Lapin

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