6 | SEPTEMBER 24 • 2020 

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walked me over. Then he said to 
me, in French of course, “You are 
back in America. France gave this 
land to your country in gratitude 
for saving ours. You are home.
” 
We stood in that sacred land, 
every which way seeing perfect 
lines of stark white grave markers. 
Again, this was winter, and it was 
bare and cold, as it really should be 
for something so monumental.
This day was a high point of my 
life, a dividing line. Until then, I 
thought it was just dumb old war 
stories that everybody’
s dad had. 
But at that moment, I understood.
So, you can imagine the depth 
of my horror and absolute disgust 
(yours, too, I am sure!) to hear 
that President Trump disrespected, 
actually denigrated, those lost war 
heroes who di 
ed or were injured in 
battle, according to a recent report 
in The Atlantic. My dad was hon-
orably discharged for a physical 
injury during battle. His eardrums 
were blown out from the guns. Per 
Trump, he is a “loser.
” Trump dis-
misses my dad’
s sacrifice.
I’
m speechless. I had to take 
another look at this Normandy 
cemetery, located right at the 
beaches where these brave men 
lost their lives, to remind myself 
of the utter depravity of this man’
s 
soul.
May they rest in peace. I hope 
my beloved dad is, too. 

Donna Klein lives in Birmingham. She is a 

member of Temple Emanu-El. 

Y

ou watched my 
brother die. That 
could have been me.” 
In June, Philonise Floyd 
shared these words with the 
United Nations 
Human Rights 
Council. 
Floyd’
s 
testimony 
before the 
council came 
as 26 million 
Americans 
took to the streets to 
demand racial, criminal, 
carceral, health and 
economic justice for Black 
Americans in the wake of 
the murder of George Floyd 
by a Minneapolis police 
officer.
Three months later, with 
the protests continuing, 
winning battles at the 
local level and igniting 
broader conversations about 
inequality in America, one 
thing has become clear: this 
High Holiday season, the 
Black community has blown 
the shofar of racial justice 
to reawaken, re-engage, 
and reinvigorate the Jewish 
community’
s commitment 
to justice for all. 
The connection between 
the Jewish and Black 
communities has been 
strong for decades. In a 
1966 article on the evils 
of antisemitism, the Rev. 
Martin Luther King Jr. 
wrote, “In the struggle for 
human rights, as well as in 
the struggle for the upward 

march of our civilization, 
we have deep need for the 
partnership, fellowship 
and courage of our Jewish 
Brother.” 
Five years later, my father, 
Sander Levin, traveled to 
Mississippi to register voters 
with civil rights legend and 
recently passed member of 
Congress John Lewis, one 
of countless examples of 
Jewish involvement in the 
voting rights struggle.
But the High Holidays 
do not merely call for the 
celebration of community 
and history. The Jewish 
New Year is a time to 
imagine the world as it 
should be: compassionate, 
just and enriching.

ARE WE DOING ENOUGH?
This year, facing an 
economic, racial justice and 
public health crisis, it is a 
time for us to ask: Are we 
doing enough to stand with 
the Black community?
Are we educating 
ourselves and organizing 
around school funding 
in Michigan — a major 
contributing factor to 
inequality and modern-
day segregation? Have 
we reckoned with the 
militarization of police 
departments? Are we 
working intentionally 
toward comprehensive 
police reform at the 
national level by supporting 
legislation like the George 
Floyd Justice in Policing 

Act? 
Are we listening to 
Philonise Floyd, seeing his 
brother as a human being 
who did not deserve this 
violence and loss? 
I believe the Jewish 
community can face these 
challenges. If we are true 
to our faith, I believe we 
must. I’
m reminded of 
the Talmudic aphorism, o 
chavruta o mituta — either 
companionship or death.
With hundreds of 
thousands of Americans 
dying from the coronavirus 
— disproportionately 
people of color — and 
hundreds dying at the hands 
of the police, the choice 
between coming together 
to organize a new, equal 
society and continuing with 
the status quo could not be 
more clear. 
The effort to dismantle 
our structurally racist 
economic, educational 
and carceral systems 
will not be easy. Black 
household wealth — 
already mere cents on the 
dollar when compared to 
white household wealth — 
decreased by almost half 
during the Great Recession 
and has stagnated since. 
In fact, the Black-white 
wealth gap today is as wide 
as it was in 1968. 
Sixty-six years after the 
passage of Brown vs. Board 
of Education, the Supreme 
Court case that made illegal 
school segregation, 40% 

guest column

Blowing the Shofar 

of Racial Justice

continued from page 5

Rep. Andy 
Levin

continued on page 10

Donna Klein’
s 
parents

EN