That determination was seen Thursday night as Jews and others gathered at Campus Martius for the 13th annual lighting of a giant menorah standing 26-feet tall that organizers say is the biggest public Hanukkah display in Michigan. Now more than ever, it’s important for Jewish people to be able to be open about their identity even though some may feel more anxious about it, said Jewish leaders. Tensions could be heard at the menorah lighting ceremony, where some protesters chanted “cease-fire now” as a rabbi and a daughter of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas spoke. Other speakers included Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who noted she was the highest-ranking statewide Jewish official in state history; and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, who shouted her support for Israel and Jewish people.
Last year, [Oak Park resident Eliza] Klein helped light the first candle of the big menorah in a program called Menorah in the D and this year, two family members of two hostages still held by Hamas helped light the candle. Yair Moses and Ella Ben-Ami, two Israelis who are visiting metro Detroit this week to tell their stories, spoke Wednesday at a news conference at Honigman law firm organized by Chabad and others the day before the menorah lighting. They said that Hamas kidnapped on Oct. 7 both of their parents, later releasing their mothers, but their fathers remain hostages. They plan to speak Friday at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, the largest Jewish house of worship in Michigan.
At the Chabad event at Campus Martius, Jewish Voices for Peace - Detroit, a leftwing group that often criticizes Israel, held a separate Hanukkah event, with a different message, calling for a cease-fire. Chants of “cease-fire now” could be heard during the Chabad event, which Jewish Voices for Peace alleged has “militaristic messaging.”
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With all due respect, that is an incredibly naïve statement.
I would go as far as to say that any that have a sufficiently negative impact on individual human autonomy have an obligation to cease existing.
Of course whatever methods are used, they must acknowledge the reality of the situation first and foremost.
I finally see what you are intimating with your “power structure” bullshit. You are not only an anti-Semite but you are also a coward hiding behind this hestitantly worded rebuttal and a hypocrite, as you are clearly saying one “power structure” (Israel) has no right to exist while another (Palestine) does. “Reality of the situation,” my ass. The Nazis had something to say about “an obligation to cease existing,” too.
Neither of them have the right to exist, I don’t see the hypocrisy.
Life, autonomy, individual agency… nobody has any obligation to sacrifice these things for any reason. These are the things you sacrifice everything else for. There is simply nothing that exists with so much as the potential be more important than them. No virtue, no God, no nation, absolutely nothing.
Yes, the nazis did think that any individual that had certain ‘undesirable’ traits had an “obligation to cease existing”. I don’t see how that’s related to my comment beyond the Nazi state being a textbook example of a power structure with that very obligation due to how depraved they were.
I may be younger than most people on this service but I am not a child, and I’m not too young to have educated myself about the Nayirah testimony, the health of the 4th amendment, manufactured consent… ahh fuck it, you know all this, you know that none of what you said about me is true, at the end of the day I’m still the sucker for engaging in the first place.