6 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020
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Editor’
s Note
Rosh Hashanah Love
I
stepped outside the other day,
after my morning round of
Zoom meetings and endless
emails, only to realize — with
some surprise — that a pleasant
chill had lifted the air. Fall is here.
Fall, in Michigan!
What a blessing!
My primary
association with
Rosh Hashanah,
and my favorite
thing about it, is
that it comes in
the fall. You see,
I’
m a big fan of Michigan’
s brisk,
light-jacket weather, the kind that
invites you to huddle with loved
ones as you stroll outside in long
pants and close-toed shoes, per-
haps while on your way to pick
apples for dipping in honey.
With all due respect to the
many JN readers who have made
states with warmer climates their
second (or permanent) home, I
will never pass up an opportunity
to watch the seasons change. To
me, it simply isn’
t the New Year
without a Michigan fall.
Usually, of course, the season-
al shift is much more apparent.
There’
d be more places to go,
including, you know, shul. So the
promise of new journeys ahead
for the new year would actually
feel tangible.
One of the challenges this year
is that, to many, there is no per-
ceptible switch from our spring
and summer doldrums to now.
The COVID-19 pandemic is still
a gigantic presence in our lives,
preventing us from congregating
in shul, most schools or anywhere
else. You know by now all the
other challenges we are facing
as a Jewish community and as
American citizens. So will we
feel different in 5781? Can we
still wish each other a “sweet new
year” if this year doesn’
t feel “new”
or even particularly “sweet?”
But there are, indeed, still
changes happening around us —
even if we can’
t see them. Even
as we sit isolated, we are growing
wiser and more aware of the
challenges ahead (and those now
behind). It was hard, and often
painful, but we’
ve learned from all
of this. We can add basically the
entirety of last year to the list of
hardships our people have found a
way to survive.
Then, we can use that knowl-
edge to carefully take stock of the
year ahead, in which our creativity
and ingenuity, as well as both
our survival instincts and our
hard-wired sense of communal
purpose, will have a chance to
shine and see us through. Well,
let’
s focus on the next few months
first. The period between now and
Election Day feels like another
year in and of itself.
Rest assured, the Jewish News
will be there. Your journeys, your
challenges, are ours, too. And hey,
it’
s fall in Michigan. The seasons
are changing. That’
s a celebration.
Enjoy it. From all of us, l’
shanah
tovah!
Andrew
Lapin
Editor
from coarse double digits that
“rough up” surfaces (skin is
a surface) and even the very
fine (or just fine) triple figures,
I feel super like Mario going
from 3000 to 5000 to 7000 grit
sandpaper, all while retaining
my finger prints.
You can also get a tumbler
(or, if you’
re me, three) and
work your way up from 80 to
1200 grit, powder into slurry.
It’
s gratifying to set and forget
for a week at a time, but I
prefer getting stoned the old
fashioned way: get my damn
kids to go to sleep, turn off
my phone and rock out with
some quartz, ultrafine paper
and mustachioed reruns of
Jeopardy.
Resolved: Rock polishing
is the trivial pursuit for our
time. Fidget spinners were all
well and good way back in the
Before Times (2017), but they
lack the gravitas this moment
demands. Rock polishing is
less obsessive compulsive (and
more grown up) than adult
coloring books. Constructive
like knitting but with less
carpal tunnel. And stones are
not slime or unicorns, which
makes them inherently prefer-
able to slime and unicorns.
We have the power — with
a keen eye, a decent grip and a
little bit of patience — to cre-
ate something beautiful. Not
by glossing over its imperfec-
tions or diminishing its core,
but by refining rough edges to
reveal an essential, immutable
value.
Consider it a metaphor for
what we carry into the new
year, for how we carry our-
selves.
And don’
t take it for
granite.
community, Israel and Jews
throughout the world to the
general community and beyond,
and to establish collaborative rela-
tionships with other ethnic, racial,
civic and religious groups.
Our community relations work
is developed through consensus
on issues important to many of
us. JCRC/AJC’
s board is made
up of Democrats, Republicans,
Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Jews
of color. We are young and old,
and religious and secular, but we
happen to agree on many things,
like the safety and well-being
of Jewish Detroiters and other
Jews throughout the world. We
also strongly support the State
of Israel, its continuing security
needs, and a fair, secure and last-
ing peace between Israelis and
Palestinians. We hope the recent
peace agreement between Israel
and the UAE — and soon other
Gulf and African countries — will
bring peace sooner. No doubt
Israel is stronger with these new
alliances.
Likewise, the Detroit Jewish
community is stronger when
allied with our brothers and sis-
ters from other faiths and ethnic
groups. Solely fighting antisem-
itism while ignoring increasing
levels of racism is antithetical to
Rabbi Hillel’
s wise admonition,
“If I am only for myself, what
am I?” Our organization stands
in solidarity with our African
American, Chaldean, Hindu and
Muslim brothers and sisters. We
build alliances that protect all
minority groups — not just the
Jewish community.
There are those who
argue the
center in this country has col-
lapsed. I strongly disagree. The
vast majority of us share common
values and goals. We just need
to tune out the extremists on the
left and right, and be more vocal,
active and effective in our work.
It’
s no longer enough to simply
identify injustice. It’
s time to fight
and eradicate hate in all its forms.
Please join us.
On behalf of the board of
JCRC/AJC, we wish you all a
happy and, most importantly,
healthy New Year.
Seth D. Gould, president of JCRC/AJC
– Detroit, is a partner of the Miller
Law Firm, PC, specializing in busi-
ness litigation.
Action from page 5
New Year’
s from page 5