10 | OCTOBER 22 • 2020
VIEWS
continued on page 12
Any action is justified when
you believe the other side is
evil.
Their extreme voices are
being amplified on social
media, where we are all siloing
ourselves inside increasingly
extreme echo chambers (watch
the new Netflix documentary
The Social Dilemma for more).
But they’
re also being embold-
ened by current political dis-
course — loaded phrases like
“Liberate Michigan” can be
just as intimidating as loaded
weapons in public spaces.
And, unsurprisingly, more
and more of these strands lead
back to antisemitism.
To take just one example:
the QAnon conspiracy theory,
a series of incoherent beliefs
about President Trump waging
a secret war on the “deep state,”
has found a wide audience via
social media. A recent story
in the New York Times reports
that QAnon has found a toe-
hold in Germany — where
Attila Hildmann, a far-right
YouTuber (who is also a celeb-
rity vegan chef), attaches Q to
his own beliefs that German
Chancellor Angela Merkel is a
“Zionist Jew” who has aligned
with the Rothschilds to estab-
lish a “new world order.”
Here’
s another example:
During the racial justice pro-
tests this summer, mobs of
people in Los Angeles van-
dalized synagogues, Jewish-
owned businesses and a
statue of Raoul Wallenberg,
the diplomat and University
of Michigan alum who saved
thousands of Jews during the
Holocaust.
Just like in 1939, none of this
needs to make perfect sense to
the people who believe it. The
theories just need to promote a
broader atmosphere of fear and
distrust and unite their follow-
ers against a common enemy
(and the Jews are always a con-
venient common enemy).
Such mindsets also convince
people that any other news
source is “biased,” deceitful or
just outright making things
up. They push their followers
to go further and further into
their own filter bubbles to find
the “real” answers — just as
Coughlin did to his followers.
There is clearly an undercur-
rent of anger and hostility here,
and it’
s bubbling over in terri-
fying ways during an already
inflamed election cycle. When
I read about these new militias,
I can feel my sense of time col-
lapsing. Very little of the argu-
ments have changed. But that is
also what makes this moment
slightly more bearable: the
knowledge that we have been
here before.
I don’
t know what’
s coming
for us on Election Day or the
weeks after. But I do know
that the JN strives to remain,
as always, a source of strength
and support for our commu-
nity, to hold the line against
misinformation and violent
outbursts while championing
our shared Jewish values. We
know that fear and paranoia do
more harm than good, and that
we need to take such violent
incursions into our lives with
the utmost seriousness.
We are walking a path our
people have walked many
times before. As long as we can
see that path, and trust each
other as we venture through it,
we can see the way out.
essay
JCC Memories
I
was truly caught off guard by
the emotion that overcame
me as I cleaned out my lock-
er of the JCC Health Club. I
never really thought of myself as
a writer, but there were so many
memories I just
had to set them
all on paper.
My life has
revolved around
the JCC (mostly
because of the
gym) and while I
am sad to see this
part of the building go, I know
that we will experience new and
just as meaningful memories
with all that the JCC still has to
offer.
The closing of the fitness
portion of the JCC has had a
profound impact on anyone
who ever stepped foot into that
part of the building. Decades of
memories fill every wall, floor
and hallway. And while it is sad
that the footprint of the JCC
may be changing, there will still
be so much that the JCC will
have to offer.
As we move ahead through
these challenging times, the
JCC will soon be a place to
meet with friends and make
new ones, take our kids to pre-
school and camp, learn and be
entertained, celebrate simchahs
and community. Our memories
of what we have experienced in
the gyms and the locker rooms,
will only be enhanced by what
will be to come.
Back in the early or mid-’
70s
I remember walking through
the halls of the massive Jewish
Community Center on Maple
and Drake still under construc-
tion. My parents and I were
on a tour of the new facility. I
distinctly remember stopping to
(try and) take a drink at a dusty
water fountain, but it was not
yet operational. It was the foun-
tain near the windows to the
gym. Looking down from that
spot was the coolest vantage
point to a gym I had ever seen.
There was just so much to see
from there. Who would have
thought that years later, that
gym would play such a huge
role in my life?
I spent hours at the JCC.
In the gym. In the pool.
Wandering around the build-
ing. I would patiently wait until
1 p.m. on Saturday to get in.
Chatted with Mildred and Fritz,
well, he didn’
t chat much … Ate
french fries at Sperbers. Hung
out in Room 333. BBYO events
in Shiffman Hall.
Oddly, I pride myself on
the ability to have been able
to sneak into not only the
Health Club, but also most
other parts of the building.
I have been in the stairwells
to the roof. The backroom of
Building Services where you
could smell the stench of stale
cigarettes long before you got
there. Meandered up and down
through different elevators on
a wheelchair just to get to the
pool. I have been in the build-
ing by myself at 3 a.m. I was a
camper … a counselor … bus
duty. I gave my first pint (of
many) of blood at a JCC Red
Cross event in 1984. I would
play in the gym while my par-
ents worked out in the Health
Club. We’
d meet for dinner in
the HC dining room. Does any-
continued from page 8
Karen
Gordon