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

