December 09-January - Washtenaw Jewish News

I FeatureFalse witnesses' “vigil” continues into seventh year, continued from page 126not the last people they see before entering themain sanctuary to worship their God.Back across the street, also observing the protestersare a couple bicycling along the side streetswith their teenage daughter trailing close behind.They slow up at particular intersectionacross from one demonstrator when the fathersays “It’s a holiday, but those people are Jewishtoo,” in response to an inaudible question fromthe girl, no older than 15.“So, wait, the Jewish people are against Israel?”she asks, her eyebrows furrowed underneathher protective helmet.“Yes. Well those ones are,” he responds, pickingup speed as they whiz by, “But you’ve got toconsider the source.”Indeed.Though they’ve become visible fixturesalong that stretch of roadway on the Sabbath,not much is known of the individuals whoare loathed by some and strangely revered byothers in the community as examples of theConstitution in action.And most of them like it that way, happyto lend the soles of their shoes to a cause theybelieve in, but eager to operate in silence andvirtual anonymity. One hijab-wearing protestoron the synagogue sidewalk covered her facewith a placard when confronted by a photographer.Her sign alerted cars on Washtenaw Avenue:“Zionist Lobby Inside.” Peeking out to findthe photographer still there, she ducked backbehind the sign and screamed, “I know you’regoing to assassinate me!”Once at least a dozen strong—with otherswilling to come in the carload from neighboringYpsilanti and even Dearborn—the weeklyvigils are down to about four regulars.Resilient, and seeking as much attention aspossible along Ann Arbor’s main entrance-waythoroughfare, the group makes up for their lackof numbers, and over-abundance of signs byplacing them on car windshields, leaning themagainst fire hydrants, and making use of speedlimit signs and hulking tree trunks.Now well into their sixth year of standing,they have yet to gain any meaningful dialoguewith the synagogue’s leadership or base congregation.They have also fallen short on repeatedattempts with local elected bodies to boycottIsraeli goods or repudiate its sovereignty as aJewish state.The driving forceThat said, the core of the group remainscommitted to a belief that not just Israelis, butall Jews who support a Jewish national home,are responsible for inflicting tragedy upon tragedyon Palestinians.Despite their dwindling numbers and lossesbefore the University of Michigan Student Assembly,the U-M Board of Regents, the Ann ArborCity Council, the Ann Arbor People’s FoodCo-op, and the Interfaith Council for Peace andJustice, don’t let them hear you say they’ve lostAimee Smith of the Huron Valley Greens Party amplifies her objections to Celebrate IsraelDay outside the JCC on May 17, 2009. Though not Muslim, Smith who wears a hijab, scoldedthe crowd, “Stop pretending you’re from Arabia. Be proud of your European roots.” At aprevious JCC event she chanted, “Defecating on children’s drawings will not bring peace.”Smith, who brought her daughter to help shout down the Jewish community event, was herparty’s candidate for Congress.any momentum for their cause or activism on alarger, more meaningful scale.“We don’t measure it, but there is a preponderanceof support among passersby who honk,and increasingly so,” said Witnesses founder andvigil creator Henry Herskovitz.“Certainly, we get three or four middle fingerseach day, but no one’s running their car offthe road at us.”While most of the demonstrators prefer obscurity—manyrefused to be interviewed undertheir real names for this story—the same can’t besaid for Herskovitz, their unequivocal leader.Herskovitz, 63, is a long-time Ann Arborresident and recent retiree from an engineeringfirm in Tecumseh. He said he works part-timedriving a vehicle for a local car dealership he refusedto name for publicity purposes.Although he claims to have attended servicesat the synagogue he now pickets, an initial searchrevealed no member by that name. Perhaps it isbecause for much of his time in Ann Arbor thePittsburg native was known by his given name,Henry Henry. (“Can you imagineparents saddling a kid withthat?!” he once complained to amember of Beth Israel.) Thoughcoy about his previous career,Herskovitz is very comfortablesaying his advocacy on behalf ofPalestinians has become his life’swork and true calling.He first started demonstratingin 2003, he says, out of frustrationfrom being denied a forumamongst other Jews to discuss hisparticular view of the conflict,which he says was shaped greatlyby a visit to Palestinian refugeecamps in 2002.He said he hoped to appeal to the Jewishconsciousness after the suffering he saw, alterthe congregation members’ course of actionand have them question their support of Israel.If those motives were true, the extreme tacticsbackfired, delegitimized their mission and insteadgalvanized a Jewish community againstthem, Jewish and non-Jewish observers of thesituation said.“I’ve heard a pretty wide range of opinionsabout the Middle East [in the congregation] includingno lack of people very critical of theIsraeli government,” said Dan Cutler, an AnnArbor resident and Beth Israel member. Butthe picketers don’t care about actual opinionsamong real people in the congregation, he contends.They use the Jewish families simply as abackdrop to denouncing opinions they imaginecongregants hold. Cutler cites a disturbing encounterwhen the picketers first showed up. Onetold him, “Jewish prayers should be disrupted.You pray for genocide.” A white-haired womanholding a sign denouncing Israel rushed overto add, “It’s true! It’s true!” and when he turnedto enter the synagogue she yelled, “Come backhere. I’m not through with you yet!”Cutler’s disdain is shared by many, includingthose who have no connection to the synagogue,but who respect the congregation’s rightto worship free of outside disturbances. “Thething that twinges me is that it’s the improprietyof doing it in front of a place of worship,”said Stephen Pastner, a retired anthropologyprofessor at the University of Michigan, withan Islamic world focus that causes him to beparticularly irked by distortions of historical/cultural fact. Pastner has created his own commemorativet-shirts with caricature depictionsof the protesters, whom he likes to call “Herskovites.”They tend to label Herskovitz and othermembers of the group as “self-hating” Jews andhonestly question some members’ sanity.Herskovitz acknowledges regularly attendingsessions with a therapist over the years, butinsists he isn’t crazy.“I think that critics always want to find areal personality flaw and try to exploit thatand say, ‘that’s the reason,’” he said. “What thatdoes is create a cheap diversion of the public’sattention. Pay no attention to the Israeli atrocities,but focus on Henry so nobody wants totake up the issue.”The wingmanIf Herskovitz is the captain, then Sol Metz iseasily his first mate in the protest effort.No longer right by his side, Metz, cofounderof the group, typically stands two to three feetfrom Herskovitz each and every week, carryingMozhgan Savabiesfahinihis own signs and blown-up photo he took ofa Palestinian woman weeping over the rubbleof her demolished home. His long white hairand frothy, prolonged beard make Metz hard tomiss, and he isn’t hiding from anybody.Somewhat of a throwback from Ann Arbor’scounter-culture and anti-war movements, Metzoften spoke his mind on the Israeli-Palestinianconflict through frequent letters to the editorsubmissions to the Ann Arbor News, and has attemptedrational dialogue with opponents.But don’t expect much objectivity on thetopic. The retired computer programmer saidhe grew up in a Jewish home with blind love forIsrael instilled by his parents. But his disillusionwith the Vietnam War spread to the Arab-Israeliconflicts of that time and provided a new line ofthinking about the Jewish state.Decades later, his own journeys to disputedterritories after the second Intifada solidified hisdesire to take his ex-hippie wares to a new cause.But Metz’s story is replete with contradictions.He married his first wife, Rosemary, inDetroit in 1967, but only after she converted toJudaism, he said.“I had already pretty much rejected (Judaism)at that point and I didn’t really want herto, but she did, for me,” he said recently whenconfronted with facts from court records.Their marriage lasted nearly 20 years andtook almost another two years to dissolve, accordingto divorce records. Though not specificallydetailed in legal briefs, diverging views onJudaism had become a factor in the marriage,he said. They settled on joint custody, but Metzhad physical custody of the couple’s four children,ages 4 to 17, at the time of filing.Though he is now a Quaker, Metz—after along pause—acknowledges that two of his fourchildren are practicing Jews today and don’thave much respect for his efforts.It was right before and during that period oftransition through the divorce that finances becamea stiff challenge, he said. He insists that atRosemary’s urging, he turned to the local JewishFederation for help with clothing and otherneeds for his family.Along with the Shabbat protests, Metz is afixture with his signs outside the Federation’slarger gatherings and planned to picket thisyear’s Main Event, featuring nationally syndicatedradio talk show host Peter Sagal.He said groups like the Federation are whatneed to be stopped because of the money theyraise for Israel. He is convinced the majoritygoes to military projects and settlements ratherthan humanitarian causes, despite his own experiencewith them.continued on nextpageWashtenaw Jewish News A December 2009/January 2010Photo by Gregory Fox