6 | MARCH 23 • 2023 1942 - 2023 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. 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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 Executive Director: Marni Raitt 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 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 continued on page 8 guest column Taking Sides on Israel’s Crisis of the Judiciary A merican Jews, you have to choose sides on Israel, ” declared Thomas Friedman (3/7/23) in the New York Times for all the world to read. He adds, “Israel is facing its biggest internal clash since its found- ing, and for every rabbi and every Jewish leader in America to stay silent about this fight is to become irrelevant. ” While I agree with the opinion writer that Jewish leaders must speak against the government’s efforts to under- mine the judiciary, we must also ensure that the “side” on which all of us fall is on the side of the success of the Jewish State of Israel. Friedman calls Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts to limit the role of the judiciary a “putsch. ” Israeli scholar Yuval Noah Harari calls it “an antidemo- cratic coup” (Washington Post, 2/23/23). In fact, many of Israel’s leading thinkers are marching in protest alongside hundreds of thousands of others. Most recently, in an unprecedented act of resistance, Israeli reservist Air Force pilots are refusing their call to service if the Netanyahu government continues its assault on the Supreme Court. Personally speaking, many of my Israeli teachers and friends — Torah scholars and dedicated citizens — are outspoken in their condemnation of the proposed changes that would, in effect, eliminate, impugn, or threaten the rights of Israeli citizens and especially its minorities. After all, in teaching the world that each person is created in God’s image, Jews were the first to affirm the dignity of every human and the subsequent notion of inalienable rights. What Israelis are also pro- testing are the coalition politics that empowered extremists to gain significant ministry posi- tions and influence the policies of a nation-state whose major- ity voted against them. I share my teachers’ and friends’ fears and thus their objections, and I believe similarly that we should condemn extremist behavior and rhetoric whenever and wherever we see it. Friedman demands that we choose sides, but it’s unclear between which two sides he is demanding we choose. Though I might disagree with policy deci- sions of the current coalition and express those concerns to my fel- low Jews, I will continue to travel to the Jewish State for my own learning and spirituality, and I will continue to bring children, teens and adults there to benefit from the powerful mark Israel leaves on the souls of all who open themselves. What does it mean to “choose sides” when I believe that a positive relation- ship with Israel is vital to Jewish life and that Judaism demands we perpetuate the well-being of the first Jewish state in 2,000 years? Moreover, someone once said that to be a Jew is to live with your passport at the ready. Jew-hatred is rising dramati- cally in the U.S. While we hope that America is different and while the post-World War II era Rabbi Aaron Starr P 248-569-5000 | 25155 Greenfield Road, Southfield | @grove.kosher.detroit Hours S 8 AM - 7 PM M - W 8 AM - 8 PM T 8 AM - 9:30 PM F 7:30 AM - 6 PM S Holiday Hours DETROIT | SURFSIDE | BOCA | HOLLYWOOD | DELRAY BEACH | CLEVELAND ALL YOUR PASSOVER QUESTIONS HAVE ONE ANSWER: