Charles Jacobs and Ben Poser – October 20, 2020
In an outrage to the Jewish community, it has apparently become acceptable for people to picket synagogue services, and accuse the Jews inside of murder, imperialism, and the very acts of genocide visited upon them by the Nazis.
The members of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, endure the vile taunts of protesters holding signs reading “Resist Jewish Power,” “Jewish Power Corrupts,” “No More Holocaust Movies,” “Boycott Israel,” “Stop U.S. Aid to Israel,” and “End the Palestinian Holocaust” every Shabbat. What’s more, this unconscionable behavior has not just been the weekly norm recently, but every single Shabbat (Saturday) since 2003.
“They portray themselves as kindly types who bring their detractors tea and wish them a nice day, while they espouse Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic global conspiracy theories… And their hate fails to alarm some progressive leaders who would be rightfully shouting from the rooftops if this were a mosque,” Beth Israel’s rabbi, Nadav Caine, told Ryan Stanton of Michigan Live.
The local protest group in question, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, is led by Henry Hirskovitz: “We’re not there because they’re Jews. We’re there because they’re Jewish Zionists,” he told the same reporter. Hirskovitz, apparently a former congregant who fell out with the temple due to political differences, leads an organization whose website proudly features a picture of a woman holding a sign saying, “Zionists Picnic While Palestinians Starve. The World is Watching.” This is Jewish anti-Semitism at its purest.
After 16 years of suffering such venomous harassment, in 2019, long-time Beth Israel congregant Marvin Gerber had had enough and filed a lawsuit against Hirskovitz and his deluded, hate-filled protestors. The suit cited how their actions were insulting to the congregation, impeded their ability to walk to the temple and pray in peace, and exposed young children to vicious anti-Jewish propaganda. Miriam Brysk, a Holocaust survivor and member of a smaller synagogue located on Beth Israel’s grounds, joined as a second plaintiff.
On August 19, 2020, in her official opinion, District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan Victoria Roberts stated that Hirskovitz and his group’s actions constituted lawful speech and peaceable assembly protected under the First Amendment.
Gerber plans to appeal the decision. But in the meantime, the rabbi and his congregation can and should take the initiative against these brainwashed defamers of Israel.