14 | APRIL 23 • 2020 

“It makes it virtually impossible 
to do things like host homeless 
people or give sanctuary to ref-
ugees,
” he said. “I just can’
t open 
the door and have people come 
in and out like they might do at a 
church, and those kinds of things 
do sadden me.
” 
He thinks it’
s possible the pro-
tests have discouraged some peo-
ple from coming to synagogue or 
joining the congregation. 
“I suspect that many people 
get used to it, even though I 
know some never do. But I can 
tell clearly that when people are 
coming for the first or second 
time, they’
re showing up for a 
bar mitzvah or showing up for 
a baby naming, it’
s horrifying,
” 
Caine said. “I suspect it’
s probable 
that people have said, ‘
That’
s not 
a place I really want to go back to 
for that reason.
’
”

THE CITY’
S RESPONSE
Caine said he hasn’
t felt much 
support from the Ann Arbor city 
government. 
“I would like to see Beth Israel 
form a more constructive and 
positive relationship with the city 
of Ann Arbor,
” he said. “I have 
reached out to people in the city 
government, and my experience 
has been that they feel very 
resigned to the fact that this is 
clearly all perfectly a part of free 
speech.
” 
The city’
s involvement — or 
rather, its lack thereof — has 
become a central part of the 
lawsuit. Susselman believes the 
protesters’
 actions violate Ann 
Arbor City Code. He contends 
they should be required to apply 
for permits for their protests, and 
that city officials have been ignor-
ing the regulation.
Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher 
Taylor said he couldn’
t comment 
on the lawsuit or on Ann Arbor’
s 
specific permitting guidelines, 

but he told the JN he found the 
protests “disgraceful and deeply 
misguided.
” 
Despite his personal feelings, 
though, Taylor said he and other 
government officials don’
t have 
the right to restrict the protesters’
 
speech. 
“The sidewalk is public space, 
and people in America have a 
right to occupy public space and 
to protest on public space,
” he 
said. “They have the right to say 
wise things and they have the 
right to say unwise things, things 
which are admirable and things 
which are loathsome.
” 
For Caine, though, it goes 
deeper than the mayor not taking 
legal action against the protesters. 

He feels many Ann Arborites see 
the protesters as advocating for 
Palestinian rights. He thought 
that, too, when he first moved to 
Ann Arbor. 
“I took it as a typical sort of… 
progressive, if misguided, way 
of advocating for Palestinian 
human rights. But now I under-
stand Henry Herskovitz better 
and understand the group better. 
And I think most people don’
t,
” 
he said. 
Caine, who identifies political-
ly as liberal, said he sees this as 
indicative of a larger problem: He 
feels progressive spaces no longer 
recognize the existence or severity 
of anti-Semitism. 
“The one thing that struck 
me moving here is that when I 
visited here with my family the 
first time, one of the first things I 
noticed was the signs in people’
s 
front yards that say, ‘
No Place For 
Hate.
’
 And then once I moved 
here, I immediately saw that, you 

know, Ann Arbor is no place for 
hate — unless you’
re a Jew. And 
that seems to be widely accepted,
” 
he said. 
According to Deborah Dash 
Moore, a Judaic Studies professor 
at the University of Michigan and 
a member of Ann Arbor’
s Jewish 
community, anti-Semitism at its 
core assumes Jews are in positions 
of power, even when they aren’
t. 
“To see that Jews can be vul-
nerable despite holding positions 
of power is a kind of oxymoron” 
to some people, she said. 
Much of the conversation sur-
rounding anti-Semitism today 
revolves around how to separate 
it from legitimate critiques of the 
Israeli government. 

“
And can you distinguish 
[anti-Semitism] from saying 
that, you know, Israelis unlaw-
fully occupy certain territories?” 
Moore said. “Yeah. You can 
distinguish that. Can you distin-
guish it from saying that Israelis 
have two legal systems in those 
occupied territories, one for 
Palestinians and one for Israelis? 
You can.
”
During Michigan’
s shelter-in-
place ruling, Caine has moved 
Beth Israel services online. But 
the protests continue, their 
already small numbers not much 
impacted by the coronavirus.
Herskovitz is taking time off 
due to what he calls the “corona 
issue,
” but said the remaining 
protesters are practicing social 
distancing by standing “at least 
50 feet apart.
” He said he also 
believes that continuing the pro-
tests helps prove the group is not 
motivated by hate. 
“The presence of vigilers with-

out the presence of congregants 
supports our contention that the 
target audience of our protests is 
the general public, and not Jewish 
individuals like Ms. Brysk and 
Mr. Gerber,
” Herskovitz told JN in 
an email. 
The group activities continue 
online, as well. In a blog post 
published April 4, Mark wrote 
about that week’
s protest. 
“We are the only group, maybe 
in the entire world, who has prov-
en an essential need to exercise 
our Constitutional rights against 
the (((Masters of Chaos))), who 
will never rest until their boot has 
happily crushed the windpipe of 
the Gentiles,
” Mark’
s post reads, 
employing the triple parentheses 
commonly used as code for Jews 
on alt-right and neo-Nazi forums.

HOW MUCH LONGER?
That cold day in February, Mark 
says he’
s not sure how much lon-
ger the protests will go on. 
“I’
m the young gun, right?” he 
says. “I’
m two decades below [the 
others].
” 
Mark is named as a defendant 
in the lawsuit along with four 
other protesters, and says he 
thinks the suit is “so frivolous and 
stupid.
”
For Susselman and the plain-
tiffs, though, the suit is about 
standing up for themselves. 
“It is unacceptable for Jews 
to tolerate being harassed and 
insulted with respect to their 
religion and their support for the 
State of Israel as they approach 
their place of worship,
” he said. 
“No religious segment of our 
society would tolerate such dis-
paragement in proximity to their 
place of worship, and Jews should 
not tolerate it either.
” 
Regardless of the lawsuit’
s out-
come, once the older protesters 
can’
t come anymore, “it’
s gonna 
die,
” Mark says. He doesn’
t want 
to come to Beth Israel by himself, 
and it’
s difficult to get new people 
to join. 
When asked why, Mark says, 
“Jewish power, absolutely.
” 

Jews in the D

“We love our country, and we love the 
Palestinians. We hate what Jews are 
doing in the Jewish state … but we 

don’t hate [Jews].”

— HENRY HERSKOVITZ

continued from page 13

