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

