Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A weekly show from the folks at East Lansing Info breaking down all the news and happenings in East Lansing, Michigan.
WDBM East Lansing.
Introduction:This is East Lansing Insider brought to you by ELI on Impact eighty nine FM. In this show, we break down all of the news and happenings in the East Lansing community. And now, today's East Lansing Insider.
Anna Liz Nichols:Hello, everyone, and welcome back for this week's episode of East Lansing Insider. I'm Anna Liz Nichols, deputy editor of East Lansing Info, and this week, we're talking about an incident that shocked and devastated many people in Michigan. A little over a week ago, a suspect rammed a vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan and opened fire. Metro Detroit is the heart of Michigan's Jewish population with Temple Israel being considered one of the largest reformed Jewish congregations in The United States. And though no congregants were injured with the only fatality being the suspect, the incident for many in Michigan represents disturbing escalation of antisemitism in our state, an escalation that was compounded by the fact that at the time of the incident, there were young students present in the childhood center.
Anna Liz Nichols:Now this was an incident in Metro Detroit, and the East Lansing Insider podcast is obviously focused on the city of East Lansing and other issues facing the Mid Michigan community. But the scale of what happened at Temple Israel can't be articulated enough. It's a huge epicenter for the Michigan Jewish community. And as East Lansing is home to Michigan State University, our city is home to many who have either attended or have other connections to Temple Israel. To talk more about the impact of this incident and what conversations are being had about antisemitism and community building with Jewish neighbors, I'm joined today by Robyn Hughey and and Jonathon Koenigsberg, who head up MSU Hillel, the Jewish community center on campus, which provides a home away from home for thousands of Jewish students in East Lansing.
Anna Liz Nichols:Thank you both for joining me here today to share more about MSU Hillel and what the last week or so has looked like for your organization in the wake of this.
Robyn Hughey:Thank you for reaching out and for having us. And we always wanna be able to share the work that we're doing and also be in conversation to make our community, you know, more the East Lansing community more inclusive and understanding and welcoming. So we definitely are really happy to chat.
Anna Liz Nichols:Thank you, Robyn. I'm wondering what has been the reaction of folks over at MSU Hillel to the Temple Israel incident, and what did that day look like for you all?
Robyn Hughey:Well, I think I can start because I am a personal connection right here. I grew up at Temple Israel. I'm from West Bloomfield. Jonathan is still living in West Bloomfield. In West Bloomfield.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:Yeah. Wow. I'm I'm, like, a quarter of a mile from Temple Israel right now.
Robyn Hughey:Yeah. And I was actually at Temple Israel the night before the incident for a Jewish Federation women's philanthropy event with around seven fifty other women. So to say that this was personal for our community, I don't even think describes how so many of us are feeling. You see a lot of incidents that happen on the news, and they happen nationally. And, of course, for our Jewish community, they're all incredibly upsetting.
Robyn Hughey:But this is just so local, so personal. I had several friends who had children who were there that day. We have former students who were working there as teachers. We know many of the staff. Temple Israel is just a part of our entire Jewish community, whether or not you're a member there.
Robyn Hughey:I said to Jonathan, I was like, even if you're not a member, you went to your friend's bar and bat mitzvahs.
Robyn Hughey:connection I've got some connection. Jonathan told me he watched them construct Temple Israel when he was a little kid.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:So Yeah. I used to ride my bike over and watch them build it in 1979. So which just makes me sound old, but it really shows how Temple Israel, for me, it's the fabric of our community. It's it's one of the largest congregations in the nation. It's the largest reform congregation, and it's just such a large presence in Jewish Detroit.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:So it it it touches touches all of us in different ways, and I think same same for our students. Robin, you can probably speak to the student.
Robyn Hughey:Yeah. I mean, I I think we're all feeling the same, which is, like, incredibly upset, angry. You know? And I think there's a lot of that psychological fear too, right, that, like, there is no safe place and that no matter how prepared you are, these terrible things can happen and these tragedies can happen. And I think a lot of us are trying to focus on the miracle, which is that everyone is safe and everyone survived.
Robyn Hughey:And gratitude for all the first responders and for all of the really brave teachers and children. I mean, it was that combination of the miracle and the luck with complete completely being prepared. Right? Everyone doing the right thing at the right time. Like, the teachers knowing what to do in an active shooter situation.
Robyn Hughey:Right? The security showing so much bravery, all of those things that you really prepare for but hope never happen, that fell into place. And then there was an essence of luck that no one was hurt, that the car didn't implode, all of those things. And I think at least I can say, like, those are things that I'm feeling like, and I I believe our students are feeling too. And it's just, you know, a lot of, I think, like, complex emotions and, like, just processing also what happened to our community.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:And it's I was talking last night with the township clerk for West Bloomfield. Mhmm. And we we were talking about some security questions around Temple Israel, you know, just sort of reflecting about about what's happened in the past week. And her comment to me was, you don't see West Bloomfield in national news, let alone international news. And it goes along with the the the trade expression not in my backyard.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:You know? People don't want garbage dumps built in their backyard, but we don't wanna hear news like this in our backyard, in our community. And now here I have friends from from Europe who reached out to me last Thursday just wondering if if we're okay. And so I think that speaks to the to both the uniqueness of what is Jewish Detroit and and by extension, MSU Hillel fits into that rubric, but it's the the community is is united as one community. So it's it's sad.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:It's scary. But like Robin said, we're focused on building for the future and and trying to move forward with with some pride from this. And and I know that's what Temple Israel is trying to do. As we just said a couple minutes ago, I I live right right in West Bloomfield. I drove by Temple Israel just a short time ago, and they've got trucks all over trying to rebuild, trying to to work on the the start of insurance, you know, restoration with which is a huge process.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:But it's also the flip side of that is you see the entryway and the exit driveway blocked off by Oakland County sheriff barriers and by police cars and cameras sitting there watching, and that shouldn't be what what the world is. You should be able to feel safe to send your children to nursery school or to go to evening services. So I I don't work for Temple Israel, but I can say this with every confidence about them. They will be back and built stronger because of this. You know?
Jonathon Koenigsberg:As as they said at their Friday night services last night last Friday, the rabbi said we are Temple Israel, not not the space because they were meeting in the country club across the street, the Chaldean country club across the street who opened their arms to to Temple Israel, but it's we as in the community are Temple Israel. So I think that that says a lot about them, but it also speaks to our larger Jewish community too.
Robyn Hughey:Yeah. I was gonna say the same thing, you know, that we keep showing up. We keep being together. We are stronger together. I think over the last few years, our community has faced so many challenges.
Robyn Hughey:And through it all, we have been stronger together. And every time you think the answer is to maybe, like, self isolate or to keep your head down, it's not. The answer is to be together and to continue showing up and being proud of your Jewish identity. And I know that's one thing that we are heavily focused on at Hillel is giving students the space and the strength to do that.
Anna Liz Nichols:You know, hearing so much about how the local community has rallied around Temple Israel hearkened, at least to me, a conversation I had late last year with the rabbi over at Chabad Jewish Center at Michigan State University. It was after the Bondi Beach massacre over in Australia. I as you know, a a deadly attack during Hanukkah where just after the attack, someone vandalized MSU Chabad with Nazi symbols. And in talking with a rabbi who was out of town when the vandalism happened, he said he returned to East Lansing to a barrage of letters of support and love from Jewish community members and non Jewish community members too. I'm wondering how you all at MSU Hillel feel about community support here in East Lansing and maybe some of the work that happens at Hillel to foster some of those connections.
Robyn Hughey:Yeah. Well, it's something we focus on constantly, like both of those things, right, connecting Jews with other Jews and giving them spaces to build Jewish community, to celebrate Jewish holidays together, right, to find that kind of home away from home, but also, like you mentioned, to build bridges with other communities, other diverse communities. And so we do a lot of work in that area. We have student leaders specifically who are focused on building relationships with their non Jewish peers and creating programs together, whether it's, like, going on coffee dates together and getting to know each other because we do believe that it's really hard to hate your neighbor. Right?
Robyn Hughey:It's hard to hate someone who you know. And we try to kind of break down walls, right, through programming and conversations. We take non Jewish students to Israel, right, to help them see what's happening for themselves and form their own opinions, not just what they see in a headline. Right? And we think that's really crucial to our bridge building work.
Robyn Hughey:And all of that relationship building with the university is important to us because we also want Jewish students to know that they should feel comfortable expressing their Jewish identity on campus. They have no reason to be afraid to express that identity on campus, and we try to give them the strength to do that.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:To be part of a a broader community, we have to be part of the community. We can't just close our doors, close our blinds, and hide inside. It it has to be a welcoming welcoming space where non Jewish students are are equally welcomed. One of one of the ways, most informal ways we do that is bring your non Jewish roommate to Friday night dinner. You know?
Jonathon Koenigsberg:Because if you're if you're having dinner with someone, it's as Robin said, it's hard to hard to hate someone that you've just had matzah ball soup with.
Robyn Hughey:I think in most cases, we find that our students have more in common than not. Right? Almost all students can find some type of commonality or common ground when they actually get to talk and get to know one another. And I feel like, in general, everything has become so divisive, and we just really try to provide opportunities for students to meet each other, to be able to express themselves in safe spaces, to have difficult difficult conversations if necessary. And that's just been a focus of our work, even before recent years, even before October 7.
Robyn Hughey:That relationship and bridge building has always been a part of what we've done. And speaking, I I think maybe you asked this, we feel very supported in general by our East Lansing community, which we're so grateful for. We feel very supported by the city, by our police. We feel very supported by Michigan State Police, by Michigan State Administration. You know, when something like this happens, it's like that mister Rogers line, like, look for the helpers, and there are a lot of helpers in Michigan.
Robyn Hughey:There's a lot of helpers here in East Lansing, and we're really grateful for all of our neighbors who look out for us and who care about us. And after last week's incident, I know we heard from several people checking in on us, seeing how we were doing. And even after the Chabad incident, which was incredibly terrible, and it didn't happen to our physical facility here, but we still heard from people reaching out to us to check-in and see how we were doing because they understood the impact that that antisemitic vandalism had on our entire channel.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:Feel it. We're we're one community.
Robyn Hughey:Yeah. We're one community. Yeah. So very grateful for the helpers and our community.
Anna Liz Nichols:Yeah. MSU Hillel in different iterations has been in the community since, I wanna say, 1939. 1939. So you guys have been well, not you guys specifically.
Robyn Hughey:But I'm sorry. We haven't been working here since 1939.
Anna Liz Nichols:You look great. No. But this work has been done for decades here. I was wondering what some of the focuses have been in your during your tenure at MSU Hillel. How has community building and what you guys do evolved in especially in recent recent years since the the October 7.
Anna Liz Nichols:But, you know, what does building community look like these days?
Robyn Hughey:Well, Jonathan maybe could speak a little bit to what Hillel was like
Jonathon Koenigsberg:I'd I'd be happy to
Robyn Hughey:pre MSU Hillel renaissance, and then we can sort of talk a little bit about, you know, where we are today.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:In, yeah, in one form or another, I've been around since '19 no. In one form or another, I've been around since 1993. I I first became involved in Hillel when I was a student. And Hillel was a at Michigan State was a less than desirable place. It was an old sorority house, sort of dilapidated, and you could maybe get 20 people if you were lucky to come to a program or or a dinner.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:And it was it was not the place that the, quote, unquote, cool kids went to. And the community, the larger Jewish community, recognized that Jewish students were in larger numbers going to Michigan State as opposed to U of M. And they realized that there needed to be a larger investment in Jewish life at Michigan State. And in 2000, there was a building campaign launched. And in 2002, our new now now older, but new building was dedicated.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:And I remember the building chair of the committee who was a University of Michigan graduate, but also the president of Hillel International's board of directors, he said, you know, it doesn't matter if I'm if I'm a Michigan guy or a Michigan state guy. We need a place for Jewish students, and if we build this, they will come. And the irony was he was in the building business. He was in the lumber supply business, and he he was right. We built a new building.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:We had an incredibly dynamic executive director in Cindy Hui who who retired just a few years ago. And I went from asking, I remember in the first days of the new building, and at the time, they were calling it the Jewish Renaissance nationally. That was the the Hillel mantra that we're having a renaissance of Jewish life. And in East Lansing, we had a renaissance of Jewish life where you built this new, incredible, warm building, and people would come. And I remember saying to Cindy at that at that from being a student leader to being on the board of directors at the time.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:And I remember saying, how many people came to this event? And she would tell me, you know, 20 or 30, and then the numbers would start to go up. And I would stop asking because I knew that we weren't counting numbers, that students were coming without question. And they were looking for a place that they could find their peers, that they could find that they could find a place to study, that they could find a program. You know?
Jonathon Koenigsberg:Shabbat dinner was really a magnet at that time to bring people in, and and that hasn't changed. That's still a program. But now fast forward twenty something years later, and Robin can speak to what it what it looks like today. Some of some of the good, we can definitely highlight, and we know some of the bad, which is some some of the external forces.
Robyn Hughey:Yeah. So, yeah, we're an incredibly dynamic student center. We have a lot going on. Every single year, we run between two hundred and two fifty programs, and the majority of those programs are led by student leaders. So we have a Jewish student union, which is made up of around 30 different chairs who help to plan those programs and also another 30 to 40 student interns depending on the year.
Robyn Hughey:And those interns and JSU chairs help to put on programs in lots of different areas of interest. And we always say, if we are not offering something that you wanna see, just come to us, and we will help you make that happen. So a lot of flexibility for the students, a lot of creativity for the students. We have different programming areas that the students will typically focus on. So it could be Jewish community building, which is essentially, like, social fun events where students can just get to know one another.
Robyn Hughey:It could be educational, whether that's Jewish education or Israel education. An informal education. Right? It's not like we're asking students to come and write papers, but rather to come and learn with one another and have discussions without the pressures that come along, right, with an academic class. We have programs that are focused on community service and giving back.
Robyn Hughey:So we do a program called Destination Lansing where we volunteer in different locations around Lansing and then also visit different spots so the students can understand the greater Lansing community, not just here in East Lansing. We do immersive travel experiences. Right? So we take students to Israel, Jewish students to Israel on birthright Israel. We do that in both December and in May.
Robyn Hughey:And then we also do an alternative not alternative. An immersive. Sorry. That's the name. An immersive spring break to Poland.
Robyn Hughey:We did it for the second time this year, and that was just an incredible experience for our students. We took 15 students both years to Poland to visit the camps, to learn about Jewish resilience, to meet with Holocaust survivors. They meet their peers who are involved with Hillels at Krakow, Hillel, and Warsaw. Hillel, I mean, it's just really an incredible experience for those students. So a lot of different ways to get involved.
Robyn Hughey:You don't have to pay a dime to come to any of our programs. Everything we offer, like or at least, you know, 97% of what we offer is free of charge for our students. We have holiday celebrations. So if you can't get home to be with your family for the high holidays, for Passover, you can come here. We offer services, seders, meals, again, for students free of charge.
Robyn Hughey:And we also do fun holiday celebrations. Right? So we'll have, like, Sparty's Hanukkah party or this isn't a holiday, but we do Sparty's bar mitzvah party, which might as well be a holiday at Michigan State University. We've been doing that program for almost twenty years.
Anna Liz Nichols:Wait. How does that work?
Robyn Hughey:Not it's not a bar mitzvah. It's just the party. But Sparty has his bar mitzvah every single year. I don't know. So he's turned 13 about 20 times.
Robyn Hughey:But it's just like a great community celebration for the students to come together, to bring their friends. It's sort of like an end of the year bash. So again, lots of different ways to get involved, to be present. I know Jonathan mentioned Shabbat dinners. That's still a huge draw.
Robyn Hughey:Every Friday night during the academic year, students can join us for services, for meals. We just We
Jonathon Koenigsberg:also put put yeah. I was gonna say Sunday brunches. We also put a lot of lot of emphasis on leadership development, and you can see that from the Jewish Student Union, from from the student interns. And we we host a leadership fellowship, a leadership class to help students develop leadership skills and then put them to work in in experiential sorts of ways. You know, you can test your leadership skills by being a relationship building intern, by by being an engagement intern, you know, getting people involved, talking about the Jewish community with with students from other faith based or other campus communities.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:So there are lots of lots of ways at Hillel that you can really focus on being a leader. And then our hope is that you take some of those leadership skills with you when you graduate into the community, into whatever your profession is is going to start out being or or just in in lay leadership roles in in Jewish organizations after you graduate. And that might be if we talk about what Hillel was like, be Cindy, and now, like like, thirty years ago versus now, now there's a huge focus on leadership development, and that came about through through Cindy's building efforts. So there's really we want students to be able to come here to be felt to feel comfortable here. Some just come and participate.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:Others wanna come and be a leader and test their skills and grow their skills.
Anna Liz Nichols:Like you said, we are living in pretty divisive times. I think you're a 100 just personally, I think you're a 100% right that Michigan is full of helpers, and we're full of people who actually really love their neighbors. And that that's why I think so many of these incidences are are genuinely jarring because we're
Jonathon Koenigsberg:we've much so.
Anna Liz Nichols:Mid Midwestern kindness is is real. Given the divisive times we live in, how have you guys been supporting students both to feel safe but also to have important conversations with, you know, people who might not agree with them?
Robyn Hughey:I think my answer to this may have been a little different pre October 7 than it is now. And I'll say that to have those difficult conversations, you have to be able to engage with someone who also wants to engage in that conversation in a fair way. So I think we are maybe a little more protective of our students than we may have been before of making sure that they're not entering spaces or involved in spaces that are not safe for them, even not even talking, like, physical safety. Right? That psychological safety.
Robyn Hughey:Right? Like, I would never encourage our students to do something that I thought was going to have a really negative impact on their mental well-being. And so I think it's kind of picking and choosing where we show up, who we engage with, and that that engagement is met with good faith. And I think if the engagement is met with good faith, we're very open to having difficult conversations because the reality is is we represent students who have a variety of opinions. Right?
Robyn Hughey:They may have different political beliefs. They may have different beliefs about Judaism. Right? Like, we all have different opinions and beliefs. They may struggle with different things that are going on as it relates to the conflict.
Robyn Hughey:Right? I mean, for us, we try to meet most students where they are. And I say most because there will likely be students who don't agree with our vision or our mission or our, you know, our stance, you know, as being a pro Israel organization. And, like, that's okay. You know?
Robyn Hughey:We try to be a space for as many students as we can, but we can't be that space for every single person. Like, no one can be, you know, something for everyone. But we try to really be a big umbrella, right, a big tent where lots of different voices can come and can share those opinions. I know that in our fellowship spaces, there are lots of safe opportunities to express your opinions and to have them, like I said, be met in good faith and to have a conversation and to see where people are. And even if you don't agree with them, respect their opinions.
Robyn Hughey:But there are certain things where we do draw the line. So I know, for example, there's been a lot of interesting media coverage about the attack on Temple Israel. And nothing, nothing, including the conflict in The Middle East, justifies a terrorist attack against the synagogue. Okay? So there are certain things where I think we as a community draw a line, and that is one of them.
Robyn Hughey:And I think we've had to do that since October 7 is decide where our lines are in terms of how we feel. Because at the end of the day too, like, we're gonna stand up for ourselves and for our community and our people.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:We we haven't we haven't turned inward. We haven't become isolated and separated ourselves from the larger community. But at the same time, it takes two willing parties to communicate. You know? If you're being shouted down in a public forum, that doesn't work, and that doesn't help to build broader community.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:That, if anything, helps to destroy the bridge, and it makes me not wanna come and have a conversation with whoever the you is because it's not gonna get us anywhere. So I don't wanna say that we've looked inward over the past years, but maybe we've narrowed a little about where it's good to speak out and where it's not. I mean, our interest in our interest at Hillel is being a community center for Jewish students and building and promoting opportunities for Jewish students to learn, to thrive, to grow. And it's been a difficult difficult few years for sure and difficult last week without question, Yeah. And that's putting it mildly.
Anna Liz Nichols:Is there anything else that you would like East Lansing community members, maybe individuals who haven't had interactions with MSU Hillel? Is there anything you all would like community members to know about MSU Hillel?
Robyn Hughey:I would just want people to know that we are a safe, welcoming, engaging, dynamic space for Jewish students and for Michigan students in general who wanna come and learn more, that our doors are open to students who are, you know, interested in learning more, that I'm Jonathan, fill in for me.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:Well, that if you're curious if if you wanna learn more about what Jewish life is, ask us. You know? Send send us a message. We're we're here. We're willing to talk.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:It's we're we're not isolated here. We're and and that's one of the beauties of East Lansing. You know? People are generally friendly. So if you wanna know something, ask.
Robyn Hughey:I also think there's been a lot of conversation around how to support your friends who are going through these issues or, you know, if you have a friend who's Jewish, how could you support them? And I would say that the biggest thing that I think most people in our community feel from outside community is that it's just a lot of silence. Right? And so I think if you have a Jewish friend, it doesn't take much. You could just send them a text message and say, how are you doing?
Robyn Hughey:Are you okay? I saw the news. I'm thinking of you. I I think you would be surprised how stuff like this happens to our community, and we just don't hear anything. Like, it can often feel like we as Jews, at least online, are, like, in an echo chamber where we're all sharing the same things and making the same complaints, but that it's not getting outside of our community.
Robyn Hughey:And so I think if you're curious about how you could support your Jewish friend and just let them know that you care about them, it's literally just by saying, I heard the news. I'm sorry. I hope you're Okay. And I think sometimes that's a feeling that our Jewish students feel. Because a lot of our Jewish students have, I would say, the majority of their friends may not be Jewish on campus.
Robyn Hughey:And I think that those feelings of isolation are very real for not only our students, but people in our community as well. And we don't want to have to turn inward, like Jonathan said. We want to be out there. We want to be in the community. We want to be engaged while also, of course, having our Jewish spaces to be in.
Robyn Hughey:I think the silence is one of the biggest issues, and it doesn't take much to fix that if you have a friend who's Jewish that you care about. Yeah. And I also like you know, the fact is is that, like, when we a lot of our students who are experiencing this also experienced the campus shooting, right, on February 13. And so for so many of them, this is like it brings up those feelings. Right?
Robyn Hughey:Especially, like, here when the Temple Israel incident happened, we immediately went on lockdown. Mhmm. And so I think, you know, to have to go through that once as a student is horrific in and of itself. And then to feel like you're going through that again a second time with this incident, especially for our students who were working at Temple Israel at the time, or whose kids were there, it's just awful. But like I said earlier, trying to see the miracle that everyone is safe and okay.
Robyn Hughey:Yeah. There were many, many helpers.
Anna Liz Nichols:And I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
Jonathon Koenigsberg:For sure. Welcome. Anna.
Robyn Hughey:Thank you. Bye.
Sign off:East Lansing Insider is brought to you by ELI on Impact eighty nine FM. We are on the web at eastlancinginfo.news and impact89fm.org. Thanks for listening.