6 | JUNE 3 • 2021 

1942 - 2021

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
FOUNDATION
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www.djnfoundation.org

The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) 

is published every Thursday at 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical 

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additional mailing offices. 

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Detroit Jewish News, 

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Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334

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, reflecting 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.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
32255 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 205,
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248-354-6060
thejewishnews.com

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
Associate Editor: David Sachs
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Social Media and Digital Producer:
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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, Shelli Leibman Dorfman, Louis 
Finkelman, Stacy Gittleman, Esther 
Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer 
Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, 
Robin Schwartz, Mike Smith, Steve Stein, 
Ashley Zlatopolsky

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PURELY COMMENTARY

REDISTRICTING PROCESS from page 4

community spanning several 
municipalities. 
To ensure fair 
representation, it is 
incumbent upon the public 
to advise the MICRC of 
the communities of interest 
throughout the state. To that 
end, the MICRC is holding 
public hearings, including 
ones at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 
8, at Suburban Showplace in 
Novi and at 6 p.m. Thursday, 
June 10, at the Marriott in 
Pontiac.
Engaging with the 2022 
redistricting process is 
critical to Metro Detroit’s 
Jewish community. Not only 
does the Jewish community 
constitute a community of 
interest under redistricting 
guidelines, but, since 2010, 
West Bloomfield Township, 
the municipality with the 
greatest number of Jews 

in the state, has been 
gerrymandered to ensure that 
a municipality almost 25% 
Jewish that consistently votes 
for Democratic presidential 
nominees by almost 2:1 
margins has been represented 
almost continuously by 
Republicans in the Michigan 
legislature. 
West Bloomfield also bears 
the distinction as one of the 
only municipalities in the 
entire state that has been 
divided between two districts 
on both the state legislative 
and congressional maps. It 
has also been separated from 
neighboring communities 
like Orchard Lake, Sylvan 
Lake and Keego Harbor 
— which all share similar 
interests. 
Divisions like those in 
West Bloomfield disempower 
communities and inhibit 

collective political action, as 
even the most attuned voters 
struggle to remember which 
district they live in and who 
represents them.
To rectify gerrymanders 
like those in West 
Bloomfield, as well as ensure 
the MICRC considers Jews 
as a community of interest 
in other municipalities we 
live in, such as Huntington 
Woods, Farmington Hills, 
Bloomfield, Southfield, 
Birmingham and Franklin, 
Jewish Detroiters must be 
present and engaged with the 
Redistricting Commission’s 
hearings.
At a time of rising anti-
Jewish hatred (Oakland 
County alone has witnessed 
35 anti-Jewish incidents over 
the past four years out of 150 
statewide, according to the 
Anti-Defamation League) 

and threats to voting rights, 
environmental conservation 
and other critical issues, 
the Jewish community must 
actively engage with the 2022 
redistricting process and 
advocate for our community 
before the Michigan 
Independent Citizens 
Redistricting Commission. 

For more resources on the 
2022 redistricting process, visit 
www.michiganredistricting.
org or contact Noah Arbit at 
noah@mijewishdems.org.

Noah Arbit is the founder 
and chairman of the Michigan 
Democratic Jewish Caucus. 
A native of West Bloomfield 
Township, he also serves as 
director of communications for 
the Oakland County Prosecutor’s 
Office.

