6 | MAY 4 • 2023 

1942 - 2023

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
FOUNDATION
go to the website
www.djnfoundation.org

The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) 

is published every Thursday at 

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Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical 

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additional mailing offices. 

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Detroit Jewish News, 

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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
 
 
 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 
 

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that does not involve permanent-
ly and completely dismantling 
the Jewish state. 

— Stephen M. Flatow 

Long Branch, NJ
Editor’s note: Stephen Flatow’s 
daughter Alisa was murdered in 
a 1995 suicide bombing in Gaza.

Michiganders’ 
Right to Bear Arms 
Regarding “When Is Enough 
Enough?” (April 20, page 12), 
it is true that there are argu-
ments over the meaning of 
the U.S. Constitution’s Second 
Amendment, though in recent 
years, the SCOTUS has inter-
preted it to include an individual 
right to own weapons. 
I’d like to point out the text 
of the Michigan Constitution, 
Article 1 Sec. 6: “Every person 
has a right to keep and bear arms 
for the defense of himself and the 
state.
” I believe this is unambigu-
ous — in Michigan, the right to 
own and carry firearms is in fact 
an individual civil right. 

If the JCRC/AJC is serious 
about gun control, they should 
be working on amending the 
Michigan Constitution. 

— Moses Fridman 

submitted online

Piles of Fear 
and Loathing
In his essay in the April 20 
Jewish News, Avishay Hayut 
wrote of the new chair of the 
Michigan Republican Party, 
Kristina Karamo, and her scare 
tactics when comparing pro-
posed gun control legislation to 
the Holocaust, (“What Do You 
Think When You See a Pile of 
Rings from Auschwitz?” page 
6.) She used a horrific image to 
claim that “’they’re coming to 
take your freedom, stoking hate 
and fear.
”
This is not a new tactic by 
the NRA, pro-gun lobby, and 
so many Republican politicians 
to conflate any gun legislation, 
including banning military 
assault rifles, with a “slippery 
slope” toward banning all guns. 

There are more guns in the 
U.S. than people but every 
time the gun lobby scares gun 
owners, gun sales increase. As 
Hayut reiterates, “Freedom is not 
defined by the number of guns 
one has.
” Freedom to purchase 
military-style weapons has led 
to hundreds of mass shootings 
(more than 160 so far in 2023), 
killing more and scaring more 
people.
“When one wants to spread 
fear and hate,
” Hayut writes, “it 
doesn’t matter so long as the 
image serves the purpose to dog 
whistle constituents.
” A few pages 
later, Jeannie Weiner points out, 
“Our country is awash in guns.
” 
(“When is Enough, Enough?” 
April 20, page 12) “The rate of 
deaths in children from firearms 
is the highest in the United States 
by far.
”
Like Jeannie, I “continue to 
feel despair” that Republican-led 
legislatures across the country, 
driven by anger and fear and 
devoted to the NRA and backed 
by the conservative Supreme 

Court, will not do anything to 
drive violence down. They will 
continue to focus hate cam-
paigns against LGBTQ people 
and “libs” and hunker down 
with their guns and paranoia 
and make the majority of the 
population who want to reduce 
gun deaths feel stuck in polit-
ical quicksand. Thankfully, 
Michigan, with Democrats now 
in charge, will finally be able to 
take some action on gun control 
legislation. 
I would like to believe Hayut 
when he concludes, “Let’s choose 
love,
” but I don’t believe that 
love will do anything to end the 
madness of violence that is crip-
pling the United States. Our only 
chance is overwhelming voting 
in elections against any political 
candidate who propagates piles 
of fear and loathing and unlimit-
ed freedom to purchase any and 
all weapons. Let Michigan be the 
example of potential for change 
in this gun-forsaken country. 

— Arnie Goldman

Farmington Hills

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued from page 4

