6 | JULY 6 • 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. 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 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 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 continued from page 4