Opinion The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 4A — Thursday, April 5, 2018 Activism through good food HANNAH HARSHE | COLUMN Emma Chang Joel Danilewitz Samantha Goldstein Elena Hubbell Emily Huhman Tara Jayaram Jeremy Kaplan Sarah Khan Lucas Maiman Magdalena Mihaylova Ellery Rosenzweig Jason Rowland Anu Roy-Chaudhury Alex Satola Ali Safawi Ashley Zhang Sam Weinberger DAYTON HARE Managing Editor 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. ALEXA ST. JOHN Editor in Chief ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND ASHLEY ZHANG Editorial Page Editors Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS We can’t just Passover Palestine ALONA HENIG | OP-ED CARLY BEHRENDT | CONTACT CARLY AT CARBEHR@UMICH.EDU BRETT GRAHAM | COLUMN P assover is a holiday of liberation, retelling the story of Jewish slaves in Egypt and their exodus. We use food to symbolize different parts of the story: maror to remind us of the bitterness of slavery; charoset to represent the mortar used to build the pyramids; karpas to celebrate the welcoming of spring and new life with salt water to reminds us of our ancestors’ tears; and matzah to remind us of the rush of the exodus as the bread didn’t have time to rise — eat that for a week and you’ll be newly grateful for any yeast you can find. Once we were slaves in Egypt. Now, we sit together and remember our ancestors’ hardships and give thanks to the freedom we’ve found. Passover is one of my favorite holidays, because it is always relevant; Jews have been persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism is still alive and well. That said, many others have been and continue to be persecuted, and our suffering is neither more important nor severe than anyone else’s. Yesterday, just hours before the first night of Passover, 14 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 wounded by Israeli fire on the border of Gaza during a Palestinian protest. Just hours before the seders began, soldiers were dropping tear gas over countless civilians fighting for the same cause we fought for — freedom and liberation. There are layers upon layers of complexity in this issue, as historical, religious and emotional stakes are very high. Similarly, leaving Egypt was no small feat and the stakes then were very high — that’s why we celebrate the story and remember it so vividly. Yet on this holiday, we continue to violently oppress an entire people. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007, severely limiting human travel and cutting them off from medical supplies, food, electricity and more. As Jews, we know the importance of resistance and resilience, and if we’ve forgotten, this timely holiday is here to remind us. So why this double standard? Why was our fight for freedom, which was violent and cruel (a commanded killing of a newly born child is never warranted), something to celebrate while a Palestinian protest is something we feel the need to suppress? Why is Jewish liberation more important than that of Palestinians’? It’s not. My grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. He survived a mass genocide of his people, and he moved to Israel. My family is in Israel. My parents are from Israel. I identify with Israel. So why is this country that is supposed to be a safe haven for Jews treating others the way we were treated? When we think back to the tragedies that took so many Jewish lives, we say, “Never again.” But we turn a blind eye to Israel’s oppressive and abusive behavior and continue to celebrate it without question. It’s time to wake up and ask these questions! I am proud of my heritage and culture, but how can this country that is supposed to represent that be so cruel? I know I will hear arguments about the Palestinians starting it and throwing stones and this and that — I’ve heard it all before. But ask yourselves, why do children feel the need to throw stones? Why are they so afraid of an Israeli soldier? Is it because they lost a family member to the blow of one of their guns? It very well could be. As Jews, we understand suffering and displacement. We know the hardships of being driven from our homes and fighting with nothing to lose. So where is our empathy? Palestinians, especially in Gaza, have been oppressed and dehumanized for decades. It’s on us to understand the hardships that have caused the oppression and work to make it better. It’s on us to meet Palestinians where they are, because if our history has taught us anything, it’s empathy in suffering. Israel’s oppression and violence is not acceptable, and as Jews we have a responsibility to say that out loud. Israel’s actions are shameful and not reflective of our culture and history. It doesn’t need to be this way, but it is, and we can’t ignore that. So on Passover, as you eat your charoset and drink your wine, as you remember the 10 plagues and sing Dayenu, sing it for those in Palestine who are no longer able to sing themselves. Sing it for the lives lost to violent military control and do something to change the story. We need to question and criticize Israel if we care about a fair and just Jewish nation. On April 19, some will celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, or Israeli Independence Day. On that day, take pleasure in how good it feels to be liberated and remember that everyone deserves that sense of freedom. It’s time to free Palestine. Alona Henig is an LSA Junior. Pod hold the partisanship Activism through good food B y all accounts, it was a pretty standard October Saturday. Michigan football was playing in a few hours and I stood on a friend’s lawn near the corner of State and Hoover streets, watching with a red Solo cup in hand as hordes of people decked out in maize and blue passed by. Then, I saw a familiar face in the crowd. And then two more just behind it. “Friend of the Pod!” I shouted. “Friend of the Pod here, can I get a picture?” Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer were passing by on their way to the game, having taped an episode of their extremely popular podcast “Pod Save America” in the Michigan Theater the night before. It might be hard to believe for some, but these former President Barack Obama staffers have gained a huge amount of celebrity since their time in the White House. Their podcast reaches about 1.5 million listeners per episode and their live shows sell out theaters across the country. They have interviewed nearly every major candidate for Congress and the presidency in 2018 and 2020, respectively. On specs, for progressives and liberals at least, the success of their company, Crooked Media, and its growing list of podcasts is cause for celebration — finally, an answer to conservative talk radio and Fox News! Young liberal voices are helping the average American contextualize the hot mess of current events in the President Donald Trump era and stay informed. Still, long-time listeners (such as yours truly) have observed a certain shift in tone over the past few months that makes me think I would not have such an enthusiastic reaction if I were to see them walking around Ann Arbor today. Co-hosts Favreau, Vietor, Pfeiffer and Jon Lovett, a former speech-writer and funnyman, have spent hours and hours discussing the state of the Democratic Party. They have rehashed the 2016 primary and the relationship between the so-called Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sander wings. They have parsed apart the party’s position on health care, immigration and gun control to find the most progressive or most sensible stance. They have interviewed countless experts, trying to understand how to best fight the Trump presidency. They used to plainly criticize a number of high-profile Democrats. As the 2018 midterms have approached, though, the Pod is sounding more and more like a partisan rallying cry than the serious autopsy that it once was. I first got this feeling in the wake of the Alabama special election in December. Obviously, Republican candidate Roy Moore’s loss is something to celebrate, and a Democrat winning that seat goes a long way toward liberal politics returning to the South. But Democratic Sen. Doug Jones is and always has been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. He does not support single-payer health care, which is now enjoying almost universal (no pun intended) support from liberals and progressives. He even once celebrated a Confederate colonel. He will face a tough re-election campaign in 2020, and anyone who expects him to be a consistent and reliable liberal vote in the Senate is naïve; he will be looking for every opportunity to work with his Republican colleagues. And yet, listening to “Pod Save America,” you hear very few – if any – of these caveats. None of this context. “Someone with a (D) next to his name on the ballot won, so let’s celebrate!” they seemed to say. Now, as the midterms approach, listeners hear regularly how important it is to elect Democrats nationwide in November. I would agree, with one slight adjustment. It is important to elect the right Democrats in November. Progressive, non-corporate ones with vision. A roster of Doug Joneses is not going to cut it. To a certain extent, no one can really blame them. They are all partisan Democratic operatives, not journalists. They do not pretend to offer any sort of unbiased perspective. What is worrisome to me is that their audience is comprised of thoughtful, progressive people who now rely on “Pod Save America” for information and context. These people are looking to mobilize and can change the fundamentals of the party if given the chance. They could become an informed, motivated, progressive base that not only helps win elections but keeps its politicians honest. This is only if it is an ideological, and skeptical base rather than a partisan and impressionable one. At the end of the day, I’ll continue to listen to “Lovett or Leave It” regularly and “Pod Save America” on occasion. Crooked Media as a whole employs progressive voices from people of color and women (Symone Sanders, DeRay Mckesson, Ira Madison III) and they deserve commendation for that. To my fellow listeners, though, a word of warning — stay vigilant. This podcast is no longer what it was and may be transitioning into something less than appealing. Brett Graham can be reached at btgraham@umich.edu. JOIN OUR EDITORIAL BOARD Our Editorial Board meets Mondays and Wednesdays 7:15-8:45 PM at our newsroom at 420 Maynard Street. All are welcome to come discuss national, state and campus affairs. T he Lunch Room didn’t start with a business plan or a value proposition. Instead, it started with two neighbors cooking food together in their kitchens. After eight years, three brick-and-mortar locations and success beyond what anyone could have predicted, its origin story isn’t hard to believe. Step inside any of The Lunch Room’s three locations and you’ll instantly feel like you’re at home having a meal with your family. The Lunch Room emanates a casual, almost hippie-like vibe, with meals that taste home-cooked and posters on the wall promoting The Lunch Room’s social activism with the Youth Justice Fund. In a city like Ann Arbor, perhaps those qualities alone could account for its incredible success as a restaurant. But Joel Panozzo, co-founder and co-owner of The Lunch Room, hopes his restaurant’s success is due to more than just its location in a notoriously community-focused, activism-centric city. “I’ve been wanting to think that it’s possible for businesses to do the things that we’re doing, even not in Ann Arbor,” Panozzo said in an interview at The Lunch Room’s Kerrytown location. “That’s what my personal longer-term goal is — to be an example that a restaurant can do these things. A restaurant can pay its employees a livable wage, it can provide health and dental benefits, it can provide gym membership reimbursements, it can farm its own vegetables, it can work with formerly incarcerated adults, it can work with people recovering in the community, regardless of what town you live in. It helps that a community like Ann Arbor identifies with those things, but I’m hoping that it grows further from there.” Panozzo’s sentiment may be more controversial than it initially sounds; how many diners do you know that pay their employees a livable wage? However, it seems to be working for The Lunch Room. This past summer, The Lunch Room opened its third location, Detroit Street Filling Station, which is right across the street from its original location in Kerrytown. “You’ve probably seen what it’s like when (The Lunch Room) gets super busy and there’s a line down the hallway,” Panozzo said. (For the record, I have seen The Lunch Room that busy, just about every time I’ve been there). “It turned into be an issue. I would run into our regulars on the street and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in so long, what’s been going on?’ And they’d be like, ‘Yeah, I don’t come anymore cause it’s so busy, it’s crazy.’” Not many restaurants have this problem, and Panozzo acknowledged “it’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem.” When space opened up across the street, Panozzo and his co-owner, Phillis Engelbert, immediately jumped on it. What put The Lunch Room in a position to be so successful that it was forced to open another location? It appears that Panozzo and Engelbert don’t view most of their decisions as business decisions, but rather as opportunities to provide the highest quality of service. First and foremost, this means good food. The Lunch Room is an all-vegan restaurant, meaning it doesn’t use meat, eggs or dairy (like cheese) in any of its menu items. According to Panozzo, this isn’t to hit the niche market of vegans in Ann Arbor. Rather, it allows them to create the highest quality of dishes that other restaurants may not be capable of creating. “When you are using really heavy creams and cheeses and animal fats, it can kind of mask a lot of the other things that you have going on in your food,” Panozzo explained. “When you’re using entirely plant-based ingredients, it’s like an opportunity to find other spices, herbs, crazy vegetables. It’s an opportunity to actually make something that hits a flavor palette that somebody has maybe never tasted before. Or a flavor palette that could be there, but then it’s got melted cheese is all over the top.” The Lunch Room doesn’t hesitate to give back to its community. Recently, The Lunch Room began a partnership with the Youth Justice Fund, a nonprofit that works with formerly incarcerated youth in the Ann Arbor area. “That kind of grew out of a separate program that we were running,” Panozzo said. The Lunch Room used to have a 10 percent giving program, where each month it promoted a particular nonprofit. On Saturday nights, the nonprofit would advertise The Lunch Room to its donors and employees, and 10 percent of the restaurant’s sales would go to that nonprofit. Over time, The Lunch Room used this program to partner with local prisoner-rights attorneys and create the Youth Justice Fund. This form of charity appears to be a no-brainer for Panozzo. When I ask him to explain it further, he emphasizes the need for such a nonprofit in the community, rather than explaining why it helps The Lunch Room as a business. This attitude is characteristic of Panozzo; he views The Lunch Room as an opportunity to make the right life decisions, not necessarily the right business decisions. The business success follows, almost as an afterthought. As for long-term goals, Panozzo doesn’t plan on expanding any further. “I imagine us starting to work more on an advocacy level, where my business partner and I would start stepping out and maybe teaching other businesses how to do what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s great that we’ve been able to do the three places that we have been able to do, but like I don’t think more locations is like necessarily … we’re feeling very content with the amount of craziness that three locations entails.” As for Panozzo, The Lunch Room is still the place that he began cooking in his neighbor’s kitchen back in 2008. “Yesterday, I was cooking on the line for like eight hours,” he said with a laugh. “It would be nice to just step back a little bit.” Hannah Harshe can be reached at hharshe@umich.edu.