6 | JULY 27 • 2023
1942 - 2023
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
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people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel.
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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
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thejewishnews.com
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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
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Esther Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis,
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guest column
Republicans and Democrats
Are Not Enemies
A
recent Wall Street
Journal article
reported that about
80% of Republicans and
roughly the same number
of Democrats
believe that the
other party’s
agenda, “if not
stopped, will
destroy America
as we know it.”
We are a
nation of
citizens living in fear — not
of external enemies, but of
each other. The greater our
fears are, the less we listen to
each other; and, when we do
speak, the language employed
is nearly as dangerous as a
weapon of war.
Perhaps now more than
ever, rather than retreating
into our respective political
camps, we Jews must engage
in our historical practice of
civil discourse across party
lines, and we must model this
counter-cultural behavior for
our fellow Americans to see.
With this backdrop of
radical partisanship, I,
along with 22 other North
American rabbis and three
Israeli rabbis, recently earned
the title, “Senior Rabbinic
Fellow of the Shalom
Hartman Institute.”
Our graduation marked
the conclusion of four years
of study, including 15 weeks
in Israel and more than 100
hours of online learning
with the Shalom Hartman
Institute: a leading center
of Jewish thought and
education whose mission
“is to strengthen Jewish
peoplehood, identity and
pluralism; to enhance the
Jewish and democratic
character of Israel; and to
ensure that Judaism is a
compelling force for good in
the 21st century.”
Hartman brings forth the
Talmud’s Tractate Eruvin 13b
as one of its foundational
texts. For nearly three years,
the schools of Hillel and
Shammai disagreed over a
matter of Jewish law. Neither
side would yield to the other.
It was then that a heavenly
voice called out, declaring
that the sages of both schools
had merit. However, the
voice ruled in favor of the
school of Hillel because its
sages practiced civility and
deference, and because they
honored the truth of the
other side’s arguments even
if they disagreed with the
implications.
From this, we learn
that no human being is in
possession of absolute truth,
and certainly no political
party is in possession of the
entirety of wisdom. Rather,
Judaism demands, “Make
for yourself a heart of many
rooms and enter into it the
words of (both) the school of
Shammai and the words of
the school of Hillel” (Tosefta
PURELY COMMENTARY
Rabbi
Aaron Starr