O
n June 7, Shirah Fish
of Oak Park scrolled
through her Facebook
account, oblivious to how it
would impact her next few
weeks.
On the much-loved “Jewish
Moms of Metro Detroit” page,
she saw a post that began, “With
everything that’
s going on in the
country right now. I want to try
and show support to …
”
Fish smiled, she thought she
knew where this was going and
that felt good. But the sentence
ended not with “the Black
Jewish community” as she’
d
expected, but with “the police.
”
Fish was taken aback.
“I’
m not anti-police,
” Fish
explained. “But I felt that it
wouldn’
t be right to give a public
show of support to the police as
a group at this time.
”
Fish commented that as a
Black Jewish woman she was
disappointed in the post and felt
that, if anything, the powerful
support of a group of 2,200+
Jewish moms would be better
directed elsewhere.
Within minutes she was
inundated with supportive
comments and approximately
50 private messages from fellow
J-moms who wanted to offer
tangible help to the Black Lives
Matter movement but didn’
t
know how.
“I felt like a deer caught in
headlights,
” Fish said. She hadn’
t
really thought things through at
that point. But she was willing
to start.
That night, she conferred
with Ashira Leah Solomon
and Aliza Bracha Klein and,
within days, Michigan Jewish
Womyn Together (MJWT) was
launched. Within 24 hours,
their Facebook page had over
100 members. As it was mostly
made up of Jewish moms, they
thought helping Black moms
would be most fitting.
“The childbirth statistics for
Black moms are disturbing,
”
Fish said.
According to the CDC, Black
women are three times more
likely to die in childbirth than
white women. The CDC also
says that the rate of preterm
births for Black moms is 50%
higher than the rate for white
moms. That particularly struck
home for Fish. Of her children,
Noemie, 16, Lea, 13, Hudi, 12,
Rafi, 4, and twins Dassi and
Zach, 1, four were born prema-
turely.
Fish is a single mom and can
especially sympathize with the
challenges of raising children
while struggling financially.
“I’
ve had a rough time in the
last few years,
” Fish said. “I know
firsthand that in America, food
is not an issue. There are food
stamps, WIC, farmers’
markets.
There’
s food in abundance. But
if you can’
t afford diapers, then
what?”
With that in mind, Fish spear-
headed a baby drive. More than
40 donors immediately stepped
up with 20+ cases of diapers and
wipes, bulging bags of gently
used baby clothing and assorted
baby equipment and parapher-
nalia. Within one week, the stor-
age space was full to bursting.
Fish polled the group mem-
bers for which organization
their donations should go to.
The winner was the Lighthouse-
PATH program, a transitional
housing program for women
and children, most of whom
are fleeing domestic violence
situations.
MJWT has other projects
in the works, too. Noemie
Fish wants to create a book for
kids about diversity within the
Jewish community. Ashira Leah
Solomon plans on creating a
cookbook interwoven with sto-
ries from recipe contributors.
“Food is a tool that brings
people together,
” Solomon said.
“My hope is that each time we
open this cookbook, we will
reflect on the cherished value
of people as individuals and the
beauty of unification. As we
modify cookbook recipes to suit
our individual tastes, the hope
is that we should embrace those
differences that bring authentici-
ty to our table and to our world.
”
This group is just getting
started, but they’
re hoping to
make a difference, one step at a
time.
The Baby Drive is running
until July 15. Donations can be
dropped off or shipped to BLM
Baby Drive/Shirah Fish 14611
Borgman St., Oak Park, MI
48237. For more information,
call (248) 607-4549.
To contribute recipes or for more
information about the cookbook, email
ashira.mail@gmail.com.
BLM
Baby
Drive
ROCHEL BURSTYN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I know fi
rsthand that in America,
food is not an issue. There are food
stamps, WIC, farmers’ markets.
There’s food in abundance. But if
you can’t aff
ord diapers, then what?
— SHIRAH FISH
22 | JULY 9 • 2020
Michigan’
s Jewish
moms donated to
the baby drive en
masse.
COURTESY OF SHIRAH FISH
Jews in the D
Je s
t e
jews and racial justice