JANUARY 27 • 2022 | 21

He said the city had issued 
some proclamation against 
the group in 2004, before 
he became mayor, but that a 
2021 resolution condemning 
anti-Asian harassment had 
“resurfaced” the desire to 
issue something more force-
ful against this group.
Taylor has spoken out 
against the protests before 
and has visited the syna-
gogue to apologize directly to 
congregants.
The protesters “express 
antisemitic tropes, they ped-
dle in conspiracy and their 
goal is to disrupt an innocent 
congregation,” he told JTA. 
“That is entirely inconsistent 
with Ann Arbor’s values, full 
stop.”
But, Taylor said, the city 
had little power to take any 
further action against them. 
“People have a right to gather 
on public sidewalks and to 
speak there,” he said. “We 
can’t take action in inter-
vention of anyone’s First 
Amendment right.”
Caine said that Ann Arbor, 
a college town with a long 
history of progressive politics 
and leftist social movements, 
has a tendency to look the 
other way when Jews are 
being targeted.
“It did feel to us, it really 
did — not just to me — that 
Ann Arbor was no place for 
hate, except for hating Jews,” 
he said.
But the synagogue held out 
faith that the city would take 
a stand, which is partly why 
Beth Israel had declined to 
get involved in its own con-
gregant’s lawsuit, Caine said. 
“We had to consciously 
ask ourselves, ‘Is the city our 
enemy?’” he said. “We have 
to understand they are not.”
Ann Arbor City Council 
meetings have themselves 

been regular demonstration 
sites for local anti-Israel 
activists whom observers 
say often cross the line into 
antisemitism. 
Even at the meeting at 
which the resolution was 
passed, a group during the 
public comment period held 
up an anti-Israel sign for the 
city council camera behind 
Caine, synagogue president 
Deborah Loewenberg Ball 
and Eileen Freed, executive 
director of the Jewish 
Federation of Greater Ann 
Arbor, as they spoke in 
support of the resolution. 
The activists also chanted 
“Stop shooting Palestinians!” 
after each Jewish speaker 
finished their remarks.
These Ann Arbor 
residents, who frequently 
push the city council to 
adopt anti-Israel resolutions, 
also associate with the Beth 
Israel synagogue protesters. 
One local anti-Israel 
activist, environmental 
toxicologist Mozhgan 
Savabieasfahani, recently 
declared her intent to run 
for city council following 
an unsuccessful run in 2020 
in which she had singled 
out Jewish donors to her 
opponents in social media 
posts.
Although Caine expects 
the protesters to continue 
their weekly actions, he 
said the statement from 
the city will still help the 
congregation a great deal. 
“When you walk into the 
synagogue, there’s a pamphlet 
that explains what’s happen-
ing outside,” he said. “So 
what I now can put in is, 
‘I want you to know that 
this doesn’t represent Ann 
Arbor’” — and then, he said, 
he will quote the resolu- 
tion. 

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