continued on page 16
go “DEFCON 3” on Jewish
people, a military term hav-
ing to do with preparing for
nuclear war. While many
denounced that, still, “Kanye
doubled his followers after
that tweet. He has twice as
many (31.7 million) as there
are Jews in the entire world,”
she said, with a wry shake of
her head.
Yes, she gets swastikas
in the mail and phone calls
threatening to kill her. (“They
are going after me?, I thought?
A lowly state legislator?”)
What especially bothered
her was when a Detroit News
column called West “a victim
of cancel culture.” She pro-
tested and the reference was
removed, and Steckloff devel-
oped what she feels is a pos-
itive relationship with Gary
Miles, the newspaper’s editor.
She came to believe that
education is the antidote to a
lot of this. Most Americans,
she learned to her surprise,
don’t know anything about
Jews. “I can’t tell you how
many times I’m in the legis-
lature and people tell me I’m
the first Jewish person they
ever met,” she said, laughing.
Laughter comes easily to
Samantha Steckloff, who, peo-
ple on both sides of the aisle
will tell you, is one of their
most likable colleagues, if not
one of the easiest people to
like they’ve ever met.
State Rep. Angela Witwer,
(D-Lansing) said, “Sam can
have fun while doing the hard
work. She reaches across the
aisle and develops relation-
ships and then includes them
[Republicans] in committee
meetings.
“Her best quality is that she
is real.”
State Rep. Graham Filler, a
Republican from a rural dis-
trict north of Lansing, agreed.
“I want to say that I can go
to her and say, ‘I love you, I
disagree about the issue’ and
yet that’s OK; we are able to
be colleagues and get along,
and that’s what I think people
want to see.”
CANCER SURVIVOR
Though fighting antisemitism
has become what she’s known
for, Steckloff says that was
never her intention.
“I didn’t run on being
Jewish,” she said. She ran
partly because she found as a
young city council member
that she loved making govern-
ment work, but also because
she wanted to make a differ-
ence for another group for
whom the system has failed:
Those fighting cancer.
Steckloff had proven her
courage long before she ever
faced virulent antisemitism or
dreamed of running for pub-
lic office.
On May 11, two months
after she spoke to a national
audience on CNN, she spoke
to a very different one, the
Health Policy Committee of
the State House, recounting
her ordeal fighting cancer.
This time she was crying.
Many of the other
members, including some
Republicans, were deeply
“I DID NOT SURVIVE BREAST CANCER IN ORDER
TO BE KILLED FOR BEING JEWISH.”
— STATE REP. SAMANTHA STECKLOFF
Mental Health
Advocate
Samantha Steckloff is
mostly known for having
courageously battled to
survive cancer and for
standing up to life-threatening
antisemitic threats. But there
was a time when she, too,
battled depression and suicidal
urges.
“Yes, I did,” she said when
asked if she ever thought
seriously about killing herself.
But that wasn’t when she was
fighting cancer, but before.
“I didn’t know what was
wrong with me. I didn’t apprec-
iate my life; I couldn’t figure it
out, and the best I thought I
could do was help others with
their lives,” she said.
But once she was diagnosed
with cancer, “it completely
changed my outlook on life. I
wanted to be here!” she said.
Her struggles, as well as
those of others fighting suicidal
depression, were the subject
of a 2016 Emmy-nominated
documentary by Keith Famie,
Death Is Not the Answer.
“Cancer is the best thing
that ever happened to me,”
she said. “My goal is that
nobody should ever have to
go through what I did.”
— Jack Lessenberry
PHOTOS BY JEREMY HERLICZEK
Rep. Samantha Steckloff is well-liked by
colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
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