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