By Ryan Stanton | ryanstanton@mlive.com
Ann Arbor, MI – Members of the Jewish community in Ann Arbor appeared before City Council to say they’re tired of weekly anti-Israel protests happening outside the Beth Israel Congregation for over 18 years.
Council responded by unanimously approving a resolution condemning the demonstrations and antisemitism Tuesday night, Jan. 18, drawing applause.
The decision came after over 45 minutes of deliberation, including disagreement over the resolution wording and split votes on attempts to revise it.
Citing legal advice from the city attorney’s office, some council members wanted to back off some of the strong wording, including phrases like “aggressive bigotry” and “fear of violence,” to reduce the city’s legal risk. But a majority of council decided the language accurately reflected the lived experiences of congregants.
Members of the Washtenaw Avenue synagogue addressed council, describing the Saturday morning demonstrations they’ve endured since 2003 as hateful and intimidating. Rabbi Nadav Caine lamented his congregation has had to hire security officers.
“I know that violence against Jews is not theoretical and it’s real,” he said. “There’s a tendency to try to reduce the widespread attacks on Jews to political issues. They are not. They come from the kind of hateful propaganda that Jews cannot be victims because we are secretly controlling things or somehow causing our own derision.”
An entire generation of Beth Israel children has grown up learning it’s normal to walk past hateful signs to enter synagogue, and an entire generation of non-Jewish children in Ann Arbor has witnessed hate against Jews is tolerated, said Deborah Ball, congregation president.
“History makes plain that we must be continuously vigilant in the fight against oppression of any groups,” she said.
Weekly protesters outside the synagogue carry signs with messages such as “Resist Jewish Power,” “Jewish Power Corrupts,” “No More Holocaust Movies,” “Boycott Israel,” “Stop U.S. Aid to Israel” and “End the Palestinian holocaust.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled last September the demonstrations amount to free speech.
Anti-Israel activist Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, who is running for City Council, sat in the council chambers Tuesday night with a sign stating: “We are against military aid to Israel.” Between Jewish speakers, she repeatedly yelled out about Israeli military violence against Palestinians.
“Stop murdering Palestinian children! You are murdering them!” she said as Mayor Christopher Taylor banged his gavel to maintain order.
The resolution council approved states Jews have been increasingly targeted for violence across the United States and the growing problem of antisemitism was highlighted by a number of antisemitic slogans exhibited by insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“A small group has picketed the Beth Israel Congregation, an Ann Arbor synagogue, every Saturday for 18 years, erecting antisemitic signs along the Washtenaw Avenue right-of-way, including those that allege conspiracy and tarnish the Star of David, creating an atmosphere of hate,” it states.
It goes on to say council “condemns all forms of antisemitism, and in particular the weekly antisemitic rally on Washtenaw Avenue; calls upon the persons who rally to express antisemitism on Washtenaw Avenue to renounce extremism, disband, and cease their weekly show of aggressive bigotry; and declares its support for the Beth Israel Congregation, their guests, and all members of the Jewish community in Ann Arbor, each of whom has the right to worship, gather, and celebrate free from intimidation, harassment, and fear of violence.”
The resolution was sponsored by the mayor and Council Members Erica Briggs, Jen Eyer, Julie Grand, Kathy Griswold, Travis Radina and Linh Song. Taylor said he and colleagues worked on it with Jewish community leaders.
“Antisemitism is unacceptable at any time,” Taylor said, mentioning deadly shootings at U.S. synagogues in recent years and a hostage situation at a Texas synagogue last weekend, as well as other attacks against Jews in the U.S.
“This is the America in which Ann Arbor’s Jews live. This environment we condemn,” he said.
Anti-Israel protesters in Ann Arbor describe their demonstrations as peaceful vigils in solidarity with Palestinian victims of violence by an Israeli military funded by U.S. taxpayers, but their critics argue the demonstrations unnecessarily and relentlessly target one synagogue, causing anguish.
While the city doesn’t have legal authority to stop the protests, city officials can speak out, Taylor said, calling the demonstrations abhorrent.
“They express vile, antisemitic tropes, peddle conspiracy, and are designed to disrupt an innocent congregation as they gather, infants through elders, to celebrate, mourn, learn and worship,” he said.
Radina, D-3rd Ward, said protesters are espousing a dangerous, antisemitic worldview that claims “our Jewish neighbors, somehow simply by existing, are responsible for or loyal to the actions of a foreign government.”
Grand, D-3rd Ward, talked about her experience being Jewish in Ann Arbor.
“Being Jewish in Ann Arbor means that, if you send your children to preschool at the Jewish Community Center, they learn to high-five the security guard. I don’t know of any other preschools in Ann Arbor that have a security guard,” she said.
During her daughter’s bat mitzvah a few years ago, the building was put on lockdown because of a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, she said.
“And then every day afterwards, as I took my son to religious school, I had to worry about his safety,” she said.
Grand said some are concerned the protests at Beth Israel have gotten worse, coinciding with a rise in antisemitism.
Eyer, D-4th Ward, called it scourge on the community and said council’s resolution was long overdue. Targeting the synagogue is wrong, she said, suggesting the federal building downtown or the University of Michigan Diag are better places for demonstrations about federal and international issues.
“These protests instead are intentionally targeted at the religion, not the government policy,” she said.
Council Member Ali Ramlawi, D-5th Ward, proposed revising the part of the resolution that stated congregants have the right to worship, gather and celebrate free from intimidation, harassment and fear of violence. He proposed striking the word “violence” and changing it to “free from intimidating and harassing expressions of antisemitism and without fear.”
Council rejected the proposed amendment in an 8-3 vote, with only Griswold, D-2nd Ward, and Jeff Hayner, D-1st Ward, siding with Ramlawi. In a 9-2 vote, Ramlawi and Hayner were again outnumbered on wanting to remove the word “aggressive” from the description of the protests.
Ramlawi, who is of Palestinian descent, brought up his ethnicity during the discussion while stating he believes an attack on any religion is an attack on all religions. He wasn’t trying to give safe harbor to people with antisemitic views by proposing the amendments, he said, adding he was just trying to make the resolution stronger based on a city attorney’s advice.
Ramlawi was heavily criticized four years ago for accepting a $25 campaign donation from Henry Herskovitz, who has led the protests outside Beth Israel. Without mentioning Ramlawi by name, Eyer brought that up Tuesday night, saying council members shouldn’t accept campaign donations from “purveyors of antisemitism and hate.”
Ramlawi previously defended his decision to accept money from Herskovitz, saying he’s a 5th Ward resident and has a right to participate in the democratic process.
Purveyors of Holocaust denialism shouldn’t be given platforms in local discussions, Eyer said.
Herskovitz spoke at the end of the meeting, appearing before council in a T-shirt that read: “America First, Not Israel.” He couldn’t resist chuckling at the resolution, he said, accusing council of bowing to “Jewish power.”
“This is the essence of Jewish power — it is the power to silence all exposure and criticism of Jewish power,” he said.
Beth Israel’s rabbi said the resolution was important because it takes a stand against hate.
“The Jews of Ann Arbor are in deep pain,” he said, adding the resolution brought tears to his eyes.
Eileen Freed, Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor executive director, said she’s been a Beth Israel congregant almost 25 years. She thanked council for raising a voice against what she called dangerous antisemitic rhetoric that threatens Jews.
It’s sad her children and others over the past two decades have had to walk past hateful signs to enter synagogue, Freed said, sharing words from a congregant who mentioned an active-shooter pamphlet in her prayer book and worrying about potential violence for practicing her religion.
Roger Cone, who lives by the synagogue, spoke on behalf of his neighborhood, describing negative interactions with protesters. One neighbor heard a mother walking her child past the protesters and asking, “Mommy, is that man going to hurt me?” he said.
“We want you to tamp down the hate that’s been going on constantly in this neighborhood,” Cone told council.