6 | JULY 6 • 2023 

1942 - 2023

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
FOUNDATION
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www.djnfoundation.org

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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: Michael J. Eizelman 
 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, Shari S. Cohen, 
Louis Finkelman, Samantha Foon, 
Yevgeniya Gazman, Stacy Gittleman, 
Esther Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis, 
Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, 
Alan Muskovitz, Karen Schwartz, 
Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein, 
Nathaniel Warshay, Julie Smith Yolles, 
Ashley Zlatopolsky 

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Director of Advertising: Keith Farber
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Senior Account Executive: 
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| Business Office
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PURELY COMMENTARY

perfunctory, procedural gesture 
of support for a community 
alarmed by an uptick in antise-
mitic violence. While this might 
seem to be uncontroversial and 
worthy of unanimous support 
by design, it was passed in 
spite of direct “no” votes from 
two council members and four 
“abstentions” from Democrat 
council members who conclud-
ed that fighting antisemitism 
was a controversial position 
unworthy of their unqualified 
support.
This was followed in May 
by five Democrats (all DSA- 
endorsed) in the New York State 
Assembly introducing a bill, 
“Not on our dime!: Ending New 
York funding of Israeli settler 
violence act,
” to prohibit New 
York nonprofits “from engag-
ing in unauthorized support of 
Israeli settlement activity,
” vio-
lation of which would provide 
authorization to the state attor-
ney general to revoke tax-ex-
empt status. This activity could 
include support for victims of 

terror attacks occurring in the 
West Bank or East Jerusalem.
“Not on our dime!” was 
introduced by Zohran 
Mamdami of Queens, whose 
mother is prominent film 
director Mira Nair and whose 
father, Harvard-educated 
Ugandan academic Mahmoud 
Mamdani, has a long history 
of voluble anti-Zionist rhet-
oric. The bill was sponsored 
by State Sen. Jabari Brisport, a 
teacher and DSA activist from 
Brooklyn. They were joined by 
three DSA-member cosponsors 
who immigrated from Nepal, 
Haiti and Peru. But note, these 
elected officials represent DSA 
and adjacent left-wing, anti-co-
lonialist ideology rather than 
a groundswell of anti-Zionist 
fervor in New York’s immigrant 
communities.

JEWISH ‘PROGRESSIVES’
While Jews are still well-rep-
resented among Democratic 
elected officials, they have 
struggled to recruit progres-

sives to join them in simple 
condemnations of antisemitism 
or in support of the victims of 
terrorism. Instead, progressives 
have formed their own osten-
sibly Jewish organizations like 
Jews for Racial and Economic 
Justice (JFREJ), and the Jewish 
Vote, far-left anti-Zionist enti-
ties created for the purpose of 
inoculating anti-Zionist radicals 
against accusations of antisem-
itism while also supporting the 
general policies of the hard-left 
progressive movement and 
Democratic Socialists.
With the star-making elec-
tion to Congress of Queens 
Democratic Socialists of 
America member Alexandria 
Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, DSA 
has vastly increased its mem-
bership and influence, especially 
in New York. While becoming 
younger and more ethnically 
diverse, DSA reoriented in favor 
of a harder-left, anti-imperialist 
stance. Today’s DSA-backed 
candidates seem to agree with 
Leo Strauss’ observation that 

antisemitism (in the form of 
anti-Zionism) is a useful tool 
for socialists who see fools as an 
important constituency.
The relationship between 
anti-Israel pressure groups, the 
Progressive movement, and 
hard-left politicians is easy to 
trace. For example, the director 
of the New York City Council’s 
Progressive Caucus is Emily 
F. Mayer, co-founder of If 
Not Now, yet another far-left 
anti-Israel pressure group. Her 
husband is Democratic opera-
tive Waleed Shahid. They were 
married in a wedding officiated 
by New York City Comptroller 
and self-described Democratic 
Socialist Brad Lander, who was 
instrumental in forming the 
very first Progressive Caucus 
while serving in the Council.
Lander is an able politician 
almost certain to run for mayor 
in the next cycle with the full 
support of NYC’s formidable 
Progressive elections appara-
tus, including the DSA and 
Working Families Party. A 

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