6 | OCTOBER 27 • 2022 

1942 - 2022

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

To make a donation to the 
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
FOUNDATION
go to the website
www.djnfoundation.org

The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) 

is published every Thursday at 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical 

postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and 

additional mailing offices. 

Postmaster: send changes to: 

Detroit Jewish News, 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

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:
 Rachel Sweet
 rsweet@thejewishnews.com
Contributing Editors: 
David Sachs, Keri Guten Cohen
Staff Reporter: 
Danny Schwartz 
dschwartz@thejewishnews.com
Editorial Assistant: 
Sy Manello
smanello@thejewishnews.com 
Digital Manager:
Elizabeth King 
eking@thejewishnews.com 

Contributing Writers:
Nate Bloom, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne 
Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Shari S. 
Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Louis 
Finkelman, Stacy Gittleman, Esther 
Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer 
Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, 

Robin Schwartz, Mike Smith, Steve Stein, 
Julie Smith Yolles, 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: Kaitlyn Iezzi, Kelly Kosek, 
 Deborah Schultz, Michelle Sheridan 

PURELY COMMENTARY

are feeling canceled while 
simultaneously seeking to 
cancel others as well.
So how can we explain 
why Jews have abandoned 
their argumentative tradition 
in favor of shutting down 
debate and free speech, 
even as Jews themselves feel 
especially aggrieved and 
marginalized? One way to 
explain all of this is what 
I call “Jewish defensive 
assimilation” and it does 
not bode well for Jewish 
collegiate students. 
In pre-war Europe, many 
Jews felt intense disdain and 
pressure against them; rather 
than speak up and push back, 
many took an appeasement 
approach thinking that 
by looking like they are 
part of an illiberal and 
dangerous group or ideas, the 
antisemitism could be held 
in check. 
Similarly, the tendency 

for 20th-century American 
Jews to align with liberal and 
progressive causes may be 
seen as partially motivated 
by a selective reading of the 
Jewish tradition, and the 
motivation to align with the 
forces most unsympathetic 
to Jewish group vitality and 
survival. 
Today, we see Jews buying 
into regular messaging 
asserting Jewish privilege, 
comparing Zionism to 
Nazism, blaming Jews for 
oppression in America, and 
attacking American Jews 
for exercising their rights 
as citizens have become the 
norm. Schools hold events 
that speak about Jewish 
blood libel far too often and 
host speakers who describe 
Israel supporters as “Fascists. 
Terrorists. Colonizers” and 
believe that Zionism is a 
“death cult,” “murderous,” 
“genocidal” and “sadistic.”

Antisemitic actions are 
reaching record levels around 
the country and on college 
and university campuses. 
Jewish students are making a 
mistake by trying to appease 
their liberal peers who are 
pedaling such hate toward 
them. Looking woke and 
supportive of progressive 
values may temporarily 
placate these impulses of 
hate, but these leftist ideas 
are not inclusive, open or 
supportive of diversity. 
Rather, they have a narrow 
and particularistic view of 
what society and power look 
like and for them, the Jewish 
community and traditions 
are not a welcome part. Jews 
have historically fought for 
those without power along 
with promoting the values 
of free exchange and self-
determination.
The frequent acts of both 
appeasement and silence via 

defensive assimilation put 
the Jewish community at real 
risk. It is worth remembering 
Justice Brandeis’ prescient 
statement: “If there be time 
to expose through discussion, 
the falsehoods and fallacies, 
to avert the evil by the 
processes of education, the 
remedy to be applied is more 
speech, not enforced silence.” 
 It is now time for the 
Jewish community to 
stop being defensive, but 
offensive, and demand that 
the calls for its exclusion and 
destruction stop. 

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor 
of politics at Sarah Lawrence 
College and a nonresident senior 
fellow at the American Enterprise 
Institute, a public policy think 
tank. Abrams is currently on 
the Board of Directors of FIRE 
(Foundation for Individual Rights 
and Expression). This was first 
published in the Jewish Journal.

NEW STUDY from page 4

