6 | JULY 27 • 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 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical 

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additional mailing offices. 

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Detroit Jewish News, 

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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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Senior Account Executive: 
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| Business Office
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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 

