(No caption)
Lena Epstein (Campaign photo)
Lena Epstein, Trump supporter and Republican candidate for the open 11th District Congressional seat, had a fundraiser cancelled by Franklin HIlls Country Club, the Free Press reports. She thinks it's because of her views and support for you-know-who.
The club isn't talking, but there's this:
The Michigan Information & Research Service, MIRS, a subscription news service in Lansing, reported that Epstein had been set to hold a $250- to $1,000-per-plate event until the son of a former president of the country club, which has a long history among the area's prominent Jewish community, posted his concerns about Epstein's connections with Trump on social media.
MIRS and the Epstein campaign identified that person as Michael Simon, who confirmed to the Free Press that he's a former member of the club. Simon acknowledged he wrote a post on Facebook, since taken down, which compared Trump administration actions to those taken during the Holocaust and called Epstein "a neo-fascist. He said he wrote the post because of an ad of Epstein's he said is in "lockstep support for Trump’s cruel immigration policies that separate children from their parents" that he found "incongruous with the moral center of the Jewish community."
He said Franklin Hills cancelled the event — and decided on a new policy of not hosting political fundraisers of any kind — "within hours" of learning of Epstein's views. Epstein is also Jewish.
American Judaism has a small but high-profile strain of political conservatism -- Sheldon Adelson, Jack Abramoff, Bill Kristol, et al -- but a wider and perhaps more high-profile progressive tradition. Sounds like Epstein ran headlong into it.
