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12 | JULY 30 • 2020 

spark controversy was also ter-
ribly misplaced. That should 
have been in last week’
s issue 
so we knew what was coming, 
but that would have ruined the 
sensationalistic shock value of 
the blindside when we first saw 
the cover photo (I won’
t even ask 
about the purpose of the inside 
photo spread of her smiling and 
laughing as if we are and have 
always been best friends). Had 
your communication come first, 
I might have accepted it as an 
explanation; when it came after 
the fact, it sounded more like an 
excuse if not an apology.
I know there are many who 
would label me close-minded 
and xenophobic. I accept those 
compliments graciously but they 
are irrelevant to this matter. The 
issue here is that nobody who is 
antisemitic should have a place 
in our democratic government, 
and if your photo-op, interview 
and presentation influence even 
one person to consider support-
ing her, you have caused inex-
cusable and irreparable damage 
to the people who you are sup-
posed to represent. Some of my 
friends already refer to the JN as 
the “non-Jewish News” because 
of its watered-down Jewish con-
tent. I fear that they may now 
begin calling it “the anti-Jewish 
News.
”
Only three words repeatedly 
come to mind — shame on you!

— Joseph Greenbaum
 
Leaving Our Bubble
The job of a newspaper isn’
t to 
make the community it serves 
comfortable. Its role is to write 
stories that inform, inspire and 
even provoke. The team at the JN 
did that this week by devoting a 
cover package to Rashida Tlaib.
She’
s controversial, but they 
used their platform to talk to her 
about whatever they wanted and 
she accepted! Change is possible 
only if we look within ourselves 
and try to learn from whom we 
may not understand. If we leave 
our bubble, we will be better, 
stronger and wiser because of 

it. Props to the JN team and 
Andrew Lapin for starting a nec-
essary conversation.

— Erin Ben-Moche

Former Metro Detroiter, currently 

Digital Content Manager at Jewish 

Journal of Greater Los Angeles

‘
Soft-Pedaled’
Nothing wrong with interview-
ing our enemies. Hearing what 
we are up against. As you said: 
“
After all, dialogue is a sacred 
Jewish value.
”
But a reader immediately can 
see where this “interview” is 
headed by your choice of photos 
to use, showing a soft, non-ag-
gressive, smiling Rashida Tlaib; 
and beginning with an elbow-
bump greeting. 
You, the interviewer, can 
frame the interviewee, by the 
questions you DO ask, and in 
this case, the questions you DO 
NOT ask. Your obvious intent 
was to “soften” the persona of 
Rashida Tlaib.
Unasked questions included: 
Why do you single out Israel 
for condemnation and boycott, 
and give a “pass” to Syria gas-
sing fellow Muslims, Turkey’
s 
occupation of Cyprus, Hamas’
 
treatment of fellow Palestinians 
and many other mistreatment 
issues in the Middle East? Why 
do you ignore that Palestinians 
are blocking a peaceful res-
olution by refusing to sit at a 
negotiating table, or even to 
recognize Israel’
s right to exist? 
Why do you support the Black 
Lives Matter organization and 
their stated antisemitic views 
and actions? African-Americans 
deserve equal protection under 
the law and protection from 
individual police racism, but 
why do you choose an organi-
zation like BLM, which hypo-
critically supports, and acts out, 
harm to the Jewish people?
You “soft-pedaled” Tlaib’
s per-
sona by giving her a platform, 
with multiple smiling photos, 
hands on heart, to claim that 
she’
s only against Netanyahu’
s 
policies, and favors boycotting 

Israel’
s products as a protest 
against Israel — not Jews. You 
allowed Tlaib to come across as 
a woman who simply is fighting 
for human rights for everyone: 
Why should we Jews consider 
her Local Public Enemy No. 1? 
A comparison would be you 
interviewing Orville Hubbard, 
former Mayor of Dearborn, and 
allowing him to come across as 
a good mayor who just made 
sure the garbage was picked up 
on time.
Your “interview” was disin-
genuous to your readers, by only 
asking questions that hide the 
true Rashida Tlaib.

— Lawrence Freedman

‘
Commend’
I commend our JN and its lead-
ership for the Andrew Lapin 
interview with Rep. Rashida 
Tlaib and its quite unusually 
wide cover story, in spite of her 
known blatant anti-Israel opin-
ions, which since her election 
she is not shy to confess.
I hope and pray that this kind 
of respect and outreach shown 
her by the Jewish community 
will help her perhaps to be will-
ing to take a look at the other 
side, the Kstaeli side, of the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Only by the recognizing each 
other’
s claim for the land, the 
land both love, can there finally 
be a solution of this seemingly 
endless problem. This, aside 
from the fact that Rep. Tlaib 
has to remember that she was 
elected to care for her Michigan 
constituents and not to advance 
the Palestinian cause, as much as 
the latter is dear to her heart.

— Rachel Kapen

West Bloomfield
 
‘
Was It Necessary?’
I read your reason for inter-
viewing Rashida Tlaib, but was 
it necessary to give her a front-
page platform and such a big 
voice in the JN? She is no friend 
to Israel and the Jewish people. 
She and her cronies advocate for 

the boycott of Israel and demand 
that American military aid be 
withheld.
 What has she done for her 
13th district? Has she improved 
their lives or is her voice more 
turned toward criticizing and 
ostracizing us? She should stick 
to helping the district that voted 
her into Congress and stop criti-
cizing Israel.
 You mention that Jewish Voice 
for Peace supports her, but do 
people know that JVP is a radi-
cal anti-Israel group that advo-
cates the boycott of the State of 
Israel?
 I am disappointed with the JN 
giving her such a big voice.

— Lorry Cooper

‘
Thank You’
Thank you for the Rashida Tlaib 
interview. It allows for a com-
parison between her words and 
reality. 
She says that she is united 
with Jews in battling the same 
enemy. In reality, she allowed 
her Congressional office map to 
be “corrected” with the erasure 
of Israel. She tried to use the 
murder of Jews in New Jersey 
as a political tool. She rewrote 
history, bizarrely claiming her 
ancestors suffered through giv-
ing refuge to Jewish Holocaust 
survivors. In reality, local Arabs 
had been murdering Jews since 
the 1920s and worked with the 
British to keep survivors out. She 
celebrated “Nakba Day” with a 
tweet mourning the failure of 
five Arab armies to push the 
Jews into the sea. She’
s accused 
Jews of dual loyalty. This is sid-
ing with our enemies.
Her claim of “In Congress, I 
was instantly ‘
the Palestinian,
’
” 
is also dubious. It was Tlaib 
who constantly reminded us 
of her background. She wore a 
Palestinian thobe to her swear-
ing-in. She speaks frequently 
about her grandmother, but 
still used her as a political tool 
when refusing to visit her under 
conditions set by the Israeli gov-
ernment.

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