1942 - 2021 Covering and Connecting Jewish Detroit Every Week To make a donation to the DETROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.djnfoundation.org Publisher The Detroit Jewish News Foundation | Board of Directors: Chair: Gary Torgow Vice President: David Kramer Secretary: Robin Axelrod Treasurer: Max Berlin Board members: Larry Jackier, Jeffrey Schlussel, Mark Zausmer Senior Advisor to the Board: Mark Davidoff Alene and Graham Landau Archivist Chair: Mike Smith Founding President & Publisher Emeritus: Arthur Horwitz Founding Publisher Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory | Editorial DIrector of Editorial: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@thejewishnews.com Copy Editor: David Sachs dsachs@thejewishnews.com Social Media and Digital Producer: Nathan Vicar nvicar@thejewishnews.com Staff Reporter: Danny Schwartz dschwartz@thejewishnews.com Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@thejewishnews.com Senior Columnist: Danny Raskin dannyraskin2132@gmail.com Contributing Writers: Nate Bloom, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Alicia Chandler, Shelli Leibman Dorfman, Ben Falik, Louis Finkelman, Stacy Gittleman, Esther Allweiss Ingber, Mark Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, Robin Schwartz, Mike Smith, Steve Stein, Ashley Zlatopolsky | Advertising Sales Director of Advertising: Keith Farber kfarber@thejewishnews.com Senior Account Executive: Kathy Harvey-Mitton kmitton@thejewishnews.com | Business Office Director of Operations: Amy Gill agill@thejewishnews.com Operations Manager: Andrea Gusho agusho@thejewishnews.com Operations Assistant: Ashlee Szabo Circulation: Danielle Smith Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner | Production By Farago & Associates Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Kelly Kosek, Kaitlyn Schoen, Michelle Sheridan MISSION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will be of service to the Jewish community. The Detroit Jewish News will inform and educate the Jewish and general community to preserve, protect and sustain the Jewish people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel. VISION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will operate to appeal to the broadest segments of the greater Detroit Jewish community, refl ecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity. The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Thursday at 32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical postage paid at Farmington Hills, Michigan, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 32255 Northwestern Hwy., #205, Farmington Hills, MI 48334. DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 32255 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 205, Farmington Hills, MI 48334 248-354-6060 thejewishnews.com 8 | MARCH 4 • 2021 guest column Not Funny, Very Hateful O n NBC’s Saturday Night Live on Feb. 20, comedian Michael Che “joked” that Israel had vaccinated half of its population — the Jewish half. The point is not wheth- er Che or the “joke” were antisemitic. The questions are whether it is true and if it encourages prejudice and violence against Jews. Critiquing Israel is fine. Israelis and Jews do it all the time. However, a one-off joke about Jews keeping a vaccine only for themselves, without context and devoid of any truth is not — given Jewish history and current threats — a critique. And the joke did not appear out of nowhere. The joke would not have been made if the audience had not been subjected to weeks of misinformation and unfair allegations against Israel for the alleged sin of not provid- ing vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. In short, it was the natural outcome of a sustained cam- paign of lies — the types of lies that have led to injury and death to Jews in the past. Israel is vaccinating all its citizens regardless of reli- gion or ethnic or national background. This includes the almost 2 million Israeli citizens who are Arab. This is unremarkable because all Israelis are covered equally by Israel’s universal health care system. What prompted the “joke” was undoubtedly the unfair and unjustified charges that Israel is not providing the vaccine to the West Bank and Gaza. The “joke” was neither funny nor accurate. On Dec. 21, the Palestinian Authority declared that it was not seeking vaccines from Israel and that it was secur- ing its own supplies. Israeli offers to coordinate efforts were rejected. But once several human Alan Edelstein Times of Israel PURELY COMMENTARY continued on page 12 SCREENSHOT, JNS SNL “Weekend Update” anchor Michael Che