continued on page 12

expressed a desire to “make sure 
that progressive movements are 
never tainted by antisemitism.
”
Second, Beinart added, 
“Zionist Jews should not be 
excluded from progressive 
spaces.
” He then parsed the 
ways different Jews define 
Zionism and debate it amongst 
themselves. The JN is just such 
an organization: we are a Zionist 
publication, but that doesn’t 
prevent us from having honest 
conversations about the term. 
No one else elaborated on 
this point (JVP defines itself as 
anti-Zionist). But if you wanted 
a productive topic to explore 
in a left-leaning dialogue about 
“dismantling antisemitism,
” that 
seems like a pretty good one.
In her concluding remarks, 

Tlaib also acknowledged 
antisemitism on the left. “It’s a 
problem in our country,
” she 
said. “If anybody comes through 
my doors or through any forum 
to try to push antisemitism 
forward, you will hear me being 
loud with my 
bullhorn to 
tell them to 
get the hell 
out.
” 
So how 
do we know 
when that 
bullhorn comes out?
By way of explanation 
for why the panel was titled 
“Dismantling Antisemitism,
” 
JVP’s Tallie Ben Daniel said 
that antisemitism is “used as a 
political tool and used to divide 

people … Humans have made 
it. Humans can undo it.
” 
But how, and who will 
dismantle it? Everyone has 
different ideas. On Dec. 16, an 
oppositional panel with the 
similar title “Dismantling Anti-
Semitism: Jews 
Talk Justice” was 
held by Combat 
Anti-Semitism, 
a coalition 
of many 
Jewish and 
Zionist groups 
including AJC, Hadassah 
and the Jewish Federations of 
North America. This event 
heavily featured Jewish and 
pro-Israel voices, and was 
largely devoted to defending 
the IHRA
’s definition. Ethiopian 

Israeli activist Ashager Araro 
introduced some nuance when 
she noted that she still criticizes 
Israel often, but that she believes 
a line does exist between that 
and outright antisemitism. 
For now, the debate over 
antisemitism remains stuck. 
Before we can dismantle it, we 
must get better at defining it. 
And that’s something not even 
Jews can agree on right now.
For us, the Antisemitism 
Project is not over. The JN will 
continue to pursue stories about 
this topic beyond 2020. And we 
will continue to engage figures 
from all sides of the debate 
about this singularly important 
topic. We hope that we can 
continue to find responsible 
ways to do so. 

AntiSemitism

the

Project

AntiSemitism
AntiSemitism

DARKNESS TO LIGHT continued from page 8

other to take the place of our 
large corps of volunteers who 
could no longer come to the 
warehouse to work. 
March 30: “With every 
call and email there is a new 
challenge, a new issue that needs 
attention … It’s truly energy- 
zapping and taking an emotional 
toll on all of us …
” 
From the early days of the 
pandemic, our board, led by 
our president, Alan Reiter, 
was extremely supportive and 
helpful as we grappled with 
many unanswered questions: 
How would we reassure 
our clients that they would 
continue to receive groceries? 
 
Would our client numbers 
increase significantly? How 
much more would food costs 
rise? Would we find new 
sources for groceries since 
some vendors cut us off? 
How to accomplish the tasks 
of our volunteer work force 
who couldn’t come to the 
warehouse? How long would 
this last? 

While these questions 
constantly swarmed in my 
head, I was confident about 
a few things: In addition 
to board support, our 
sister agencies, donors and 
volunteers would come to 
our assistance wherever and 
whenever it was needed. 
Federation immediately 
generously provided us with 
additional funds to purchase 
food for client families for 

Passover. Jewish Family 
Service provided us with 
drivers and vans to help make 
grocery deliveries five days 
a week (and continues to do 
so), donations started coming 
in from a variety of sources, 
and volunteers adopted to 
our new way of distributing 
groceries by signing up to do 
deliveries to clients’ homes. 
And, throughout these nine 
months, our board continues 

to make themselves available 
to our team with their 
partnership, encouragement 
and trust.
I continued to write in 
my journal through the end 
of April, when COVID-
19 became the new norm, 
and I didn’t feel the need 
to document my angst and 
how we were managing. I 
attribute this mostly to our 
small team who truly stepped 
up during these turbulent 
times: David Jaffee, our 
Warehouse Manager, who 
found other sources for 
grocery purchases and made 
a quick and decisive switch 
to a totally new operating 
model, Darlene Rothman, 
our Client/Volunteer 
Manager, who dealt with 
clients’ and volunteers’ 
scheduling, a mountain of 
new client applications and 
other concerns, Daniella 
HarPaz Mechnikov, who 
took the lead in coordinating 
the logistics of grocery 

From Yad Ezra’s annual event in September. Front Row: Daniella HarPaz Mechnikov, 
Lea Luger, Lucinda Rosen (2020 honoree), Darlene Rothman, Jody Kaplan, Detroit 
Circus Performer. Back Row: Detroit Circus Performer, Alan Reiter (Yad Ezra pres-
ident), Sandy Rosen (2020 honoree), Stathis Pauls, Josh Gordon, David Jaffee, 
Heather Axe, Detroit Circus Performer.

 DECEMBER 24 • 2020 | 11

