joint programs per year with
Kalamazoo’s Temple B’nai
Israel (TBI) and Chabad of
Kalamazoo with the help
of the Jewish Federation of
Kalamazoo and Southwest
Michigan. CoM also does
a lot of programming with
TBI itself, bringing the two
communities together.
CoM makes up one half of
the Marvin and Rosalie Okun
Kalamazoo Community
Jewish School operation,
a joint endeavor with TBI
launched in 2016 from a
desire to have all Jewish
children in the community
learn together. About 45
children are enrolled in
classes ranging from pre-K to
high school. Classes are held
at both congregations and are
led by teachers and rabbis.
“I think the location, the
fact we’re in Kalamazoo,
is part of what makes us
special,
” Estrin said. “It’s a
university town, and you’ve
got a lot of independent
bookstores and independent
coffee houses and that kind of
feeling around.
“Both the Kalamazoo
community and the Kala-
mazoo Jewish community are
incredibly strong and vibrant.
They’re not traditional Detroit
Jews, so to speak; they live in
Kalamazoo — and that choice
already says something about
them.
”
CoM is continuing to grow
just as it always has over
the years and is currently
planning two projects. One is
to create an outdoor garden/
playground/gathering space;
the other is to expand its
sukkah to triple the current
size.
“I think just the way people
gather is really beautiful,
”
Estrin said of the CoM
community. “There’s really
a friendliness. Everybody’s
welcome no matter who you
are, what you look like or
what you believe. We want to
welcome people in wherever
they are.
”
Members enjoyed a cross-
country skiing activity
together.
the Marvin and Rosalie Okun
Members enjoyed a cross-
Watch Ask the
Rabbi with
Rabbi Estrin
Denial in D.C.
Supreme Court declines to hear two
dif
erent attempts to stop longtime
Ann Arbor synagogue protesters.
ANDREW LAPIN JTA.ORG
T
he U.S. Supreme Court
has declined to hear two
different requests to take up
a suit against a group of protesters
who have gathered weekly outside
an Ann Arbor synagogue for nearly
two decades holding anti-Israel and
antisemitic signs, seemingly closing
off any remaining legal avenues
against the long-running display.
The court issued orders in March
and May denying petitions brought
by two different congregants who
had argued that the protests target-
ed Jews at their place of worship,
violating their First Amendment
right to freely exercise their religion.
The plaintiffs belong to two
different congregations that both
meet in the same synagogue
building: Conservative Beth Israel
Congregation and the Jewish
Renewal-affiliated Pardes Hannah
Congregation. Neither congregation
was involved in the lawsuits.
The two congregants, one of
whom is a Holocaust survivor, had
first brought a joint lawsuit against
the protesters, the city and Ann
Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor
in 2019. Lower courts dismissed
it on First Amendment grounds,
and a judge ordered the plaintiffs
to pay the protesters’ legal fees.
Following a dispute between one of
the plaintiffs, Marvin Gerber, and
their attorney, Marc Susselman, the
suit was broken up and two sepa-
rate petitions under two separate
attorneys were filed to the Supreme
Court.
Both of those petitions have now
been declined; Gerber’s was rejected
most recently, on May 16.
Gerber had retained the well-
known Jewish attorney Nathan
Lewin, a veteran of the Supreme
Court who has argued multiple
Jewish-interest cases and who was
a close friend of former Justice
Antonin Scalia.
“I am shocked and dismayed that
the Supreme Court and the Court
of Appeals view antisemitic pick-
eting timed and designed to harass
and intimidate Jews only when they
come to pray — clearly protected
by the First Amendment’s Religion
Clause — as free speech that may
not be curtailed,
” Lewin said.
He compared the case to a law
that makes it a federal crime to
protest or picket near a judge’s res-
idence in order to influence a deci-
sion — a law that has been in the
news lately as abortion rights pro-
testers upset with a leaked Supreme
Court draft appearing to overturn
uuu have protested outside the
homes of conservative justices.
Jewish groups, including
Agudath Israel of America, the
Rabbinical Council of America
and the Orthodox Jewish Chamber
of Commerce, filed friend-of-the-
court briefs on the plaintiffs’ behalf.
Earlier this year, the Ann Arbor
City Council issued a formal res-
olution condemning the protests
as antisemitic. The protesters,
who claim they are opposed to
Israeli policy, have held signs with
messages including “Jewish Power
Corrupts.
”
JUNE 2 • 2022 | 23
A protester stands
outside Beth Israel
Congregation in
Ann Arbor in 2020.
ALEX SHERMAN/JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY