14 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2024 

for is a part of a national political 
conversation.” 
The second option was to simply 
cancel the Nov. 3 concert. 
“That was very quickly shut down 
because we all adamantly agree this is 
cultural programming that is valuable 
to our community, and especially 
our Jewish community,” Zitter said. 
“We also believe it would have put 
us in a position where we needed 
to cancel any of our other cultural 
programming that we’re putting on 
because we do not want to be in a 
position where we are only singling 
out one culture.”
The third option, which they 
decided to move forward with, was 
postponing the Nov. 3 event to the 
following programming season and 
then working to schedule another 
program highlighting the Arab 
American community around the 
same timeline so the two events could 
be marketed alongside each other. 

JEWISH COMMUNITY 
RESPONDS
After library management made their 
decision and sent out the email about 
postponement, news traveled fast 
within the Jewish community. It was 
shared widely in various Facebook 
groups, including Jewish Moms of 
Metro Detroit. There was widespread 
outrage, and the library received a 
considerable number of emails and 
phone calls from Jewish community 
members with the explicit feedback 
that this was an antisemitic decision 
and against the Israeli people. 
Amy Mendel registered for the 
event weeks in advance after seeing 
an ad on Facebook. 
A Farmington Hills 
resident for almost 
25 years, Mendel and 
her family are regular 
frequenters of the library. 
Mendel was planning 
to bring her 89-year-old 
mom as well as a few of 
her friends. 
“I was going to treat them to an 
hour of something fun and nostalgic 
at a time we all really need it,” Mendel 

said.
Then, on the Monday before the 
event, she received the postponement 
email. “I was outraged,” Mendel said. 
Mendel couldn’t understand the 
library’s point of not wanting to take 
“political” sides, as it was a concert 
with nothing to do with politics. 
“It’s cultural. There’s a difference 
between cultural and political. 
They’re making it political,” she said. 
“I see very little difference between 
banning books and now banning 
culture,” Mendel added. “They’re 
banning music from a specific culture 
because another culture doesn’t 
like it. People might take offense to 
anything. Where do we draw the line? 
Have something for Arab Americans; 
please schedule it by all means, but 
to cancel this just a few days shy 
of the event for the sole reason of 
complaints — that is antisemitism in 
my and many others’ opinions.” 
Mendel received the postponement 
email around the time she was 
planning to go vote early at her 
polling place. She was originally 
set to vote in favor of the 20-year 
renewal of the library’s summer 
operating millage. 
At that point, Mendel planned to 
no longer support the millage or the 
library in general. The only thing 
the library could do to change her 
mind was to reverse their 
decision. 
Rochelle Burr lives in 
Ypsilanti but is always 
looking for different 
Jewish community events 
in the Metro Detroit area. 
Burr was planning to go 

to the event at the library, but then 
saw the postponement notice. “Their 
reasoning didn’t make sense to me,” 
she said. 
After speaking with library 
management, Burr was taken aback 
by the “eerie” way it was explained to 
her. 
“It was the calm, bureaucratic 
politeness of, ‘your access to our 
space is essentially up for public vote,’ 
and it’s almost as if the evilness of 
the act is completely disguised by the 
polite discourse,” Burr said. “There’s 
going to be no Jewish music at the 
library in Farmington Hills, and I 
don’t know, I’d almost rather have the 
hostility be upfront.”
Rodgers was looking forward to 
performing when he received a call 
from the library that it was being 
postponed because of the “political 
climate.” He was understandably dis-
appointed. 
Rodgers has performed piano 
concert talks with various themes for 
synagogues, churches, weddings, bar 
mitzvahs and more.
For this “The Best of Jewish and 
Israeli Music” theme, it’s usually 
Jewish organizations that request it. 
However, he has played it at the Oak 
Park Library and West Bloomfield 
library before. 
Rodgers says it’s hard to put him-

self in the shoes of library manage-
ment because the people who make 
complaints like this can potentially 
create “situations of chaos.” Rodgers 
does believe the complaints were 
motivated by antisemitism, though. 
“The reason why I think so is 
because Israeli music is Jewish 

music,” he said. “You can’t really sepa-
rate the two.
“I had thought if they resched-
uled the program, maybe they could 
just rename it “The Best of Jewish 
Music,” which is inclusive of Israeli 
music without saying the word, so it 
doesn’t raise flags for people. But that 
doesn’t necessarily seem right to me,” 
Rodgers said.

FEDERATION, OTHERS STEP IN
It was on Friday, Nov. 1, that the 
Jewish Federation of Detroit received 
word something was wrong. They 
quickly looked into it and took 
action. 
“It was a completely 
unacceptable move by 
the library. Everybody 
being upset was jus-
tified,” said David 
Kurzmann, JFD’s senior 
director of community 
affairs.
First, they connected with Rodgers 
to understand what was going on as 
someone directly affected. Then, they 
reached out to people in positions of 
influence. 
Kurzmann and Federation col-
league Daniel Bucksbaum reached 
out to State Rep. Samantha Steckloff 
and Farmington Hills Mayor Theresa 
Rich. Eventually, the president of 
the Farmington Community Library 
Board, Ernie McClellan 
Jr., was alerted as well. 
They were all in favor of 
reinstating the program 
and were instrumental in 
making it happen. 
“We were comforted to 
hear people in those seats 
taking it exceptionally 
seriously,” Kurzmann said. “Steckloff 
was completely dialed into it. She was 
directly involved.
“This is the kind of antisemitism 
that has to be confronted head-on. 
We’re grateful to those community 
leaders and community members 
who raised their voices,” Kurzmann 
added. “We have the capacity to effect 
the change we seek. We encourage 
people to make their voices heard 

David 
Kurzmann

Rochelle 
Burr

Rep. 
Samantha 
Steckloff

Amy 
Mendel 

The library’s advertisement of the event featuring David Rodgers

OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 12

