‘A Big Heart and a Kind Soul’

OUR COMMUNITY

Sen. Carl Levin

‘A Big Heart and a Kind Soul’

Sen. Carl Levin led a life dedicated to public service.

RON KAMPEAS JTA

Editor’s Note: Look for an extensive tribute to the life of Sen. Carl Levin in next week’s Jewish News.

Carl Levin, the Jewish Detroiter who spent 36 years as a fierce advocate for Michigan and the American people in the U.S. Senate, died July 29 at age 87.

The Levin Center at Wayne State University Law School announced his passing. Sen. Levin was diagnosed with lung cancer four years ago. The center, named for Levin, focuses on the passion of his career: government oversight.

Sen. Levin, first elected to the Senate in 1978, became his state’s longest-serving senator. From 2001 until his retirement in 2015, Sen. Levin served as the chairman or the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He always appeared a little disheveled and spoke softly, and his staffers described him as a rarity — a kind and accommodating boss in the world’s most intense pressure chamber.

“Carl Levin was a giant of a senator and a giant of a human being with a big heart and a kind soul,” former California Sen. Barbara Boxer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “He made his mark and will go down in history as one of the best.”

Sen. Levin could be fierce in eliciting testimony in the Senate as chairman of the subcommittee on investigations. Hauling Goldman Sachs executives before his committee in 2010, amidst the carnage of the 2008 financial collapse. Under his intense questioning, his subjects squirmed on camera.

Sen. Levin’s liberal economic outlook was shaped as he watched the diminishment of his beloved city, Detroit. He fought hard for car manufacturers in Congress, knowing the lifeblood that they were for his state’s working class. He worked as a taxi driver while in college — he said he knew Detroit’s every block. He also worked on an assembly line at Chrysler.

Sen. Levin was a dove who spoke out early against the George W. Bush administration’s plans to invade Iraq. But as chairman of the committee that shaped military policy, he was also a defender of protections for the armed forces, sometimes to what fellow Democrats said was a fault. He successfully prevented bids to take investigations of sexual misconduct out of the hands of the line of command.

FAMILY ROOTS

Sen. Levin grew up in a middle-class household in Detroit. His parents, Saul and Bess Levin, were Zionists. Bess was active in Hadassah. Future U.S. Rep. Sander “Sandy” Levin was his older brother. “Sandy and I and our sister Hannah used to call ourselves Hadassah Orphans because when we got home in the afternoon, my mother was never there,” Sen. Levin said in an oral history for the Detroit Jewish Federation. “She was volunteering for Hadassah.”

Sen. Levin was a go-to senator for lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and was attentive

to their requests for defense assistance to Israel. However, he parted ways with AIPAC when the lobby, heeding the Israeli government, opposed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. Even after his retirement in 2015, as the deal neared completion, Sen. Levin remained influential, urging his former colleagues to back the deal. He was devoted to Michigan, traveling to its farthest corners to meet constituents. A staffer recalled to the JTA that he convened the staff after a woman in an airport complained to him that she had not heard back from his office after writing. The talk, the staffer said, was “serious,” but not a rebuke and not unkind. Sen. Levin’s brother Sander Levin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, and from 2010-2012 — when Sander was the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and Carl chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee — they were the most powerful brothers in Washington. They were throughout their lives the closest of friends. Sander, who retired in 2019, was replaced by his son and Carl’s nephew, Andy Levin. Their cousin, Avern Cohn, the retired U.S. District Court judge for Eastern Michigan, spoke with former Sander Levin JN Editor Robert Sklar when Sen. Levin announced his retirement plans in 2013. “Carl Levin’s role in the public life of Michigan and of the nation has set a standard that few have ever in the past, or indeed in the future, will come close to,” Cohn said. “The Jewish people should be particularly proud of having contributed Carl to the public wellbeing.”

Avern Cohn

Reform Jews, ADL Launch Partnership

Amid an alarming rise in antisemitic rhetoric and violence, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) and ADL (Anti-Defamation League), the anti-hate organization, will join together in a multifaceted partnership to provide Reform congregations with the tools needed to address antisemitism in their communities.

The newly launched partnership will link the expertise of ADL and the resources of the URJ to better equip the Jewish community to respond to and prevent antisemitic attacks, beginning with a new online incident reporting form tailored specifically to Reform congregations and their members. The new partnership also includes collaboration around advocacy and educating youth about antisemitism.

“The scourge of antisemitism is not isolated to any one source or in any one community,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the URJ. “The Reform Movement and ADL have long been partners in addressing and working against antisemitism, racism and other acts of injustice. This critical collaboration will further integrate that work.

“It could not come at a more pressing moment with rising vandalism and violent threats on congregations, assaults on Jewish individuals, and an increase in antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories from all sides. Our community knows all too well that when hatred against one group is allowed to fester, bigotry imperils us all.”

“Antisemitic incidents are on the rise in the U.S., but we know that without complete and accurate data we do not have a full picture of the problem,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO and national director.

“Through this partnership, we hope to encourage more reporting to help raise awareness of the threats facing the Jewish community, and to leverage our combined resources to convince policymakers of the need to devote more resources to combating extremism while ensuring the safety and security of our communities.”

Security Grant Budget Increased

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America welcomed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ recent announcement that the $180 million in federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) awards for fiscal year 2021 have been allocated to synagogues and other houses of worship, parochial day schools, summer camps and a variety of other nonprofit organizations across the United States.

The allocation for FY 2021 represents a 100% increase over the previous year, which was $90 million. Since 2005, when Orthodox Union Advocacy helped spearhead the creation of the NSGP, Congress has apportioned a total of $599 million for the program. The Orthodox Union is urging Congress to increase NSGP funding for FY 2022 to $360 million.

The latest allocations follow a dramatic surge in antisemitic incidents and attacks nationwide. In recent weeks alone, a Chabad rabbi was stabbed in front of a Jewish school in Boston; a Jewish man was attacked on his way to a Brooklyn synagogue; and graves at a Baltimore Jewish cemetery were defaced with swastikas.

Honigman celebrates the life and legacy of

Senator Carl Levin, 1934-2021

Since joining Honigman as Distinguished Counsel in 2015, Carl has been a friend, mentor and partner to the entire Honigman family. He was the longest serving senator in Michigan history, a passionate supporter of equal rights for all and devoted himself to serving the people of Michigan for more than half a century. He honored us with his presence, and we will miss him greatly.