We’ve Always Been Here, and You’ve Never Liked Us: Exploring Michigan’s First Jewish Burial Ground

It’s my town’s bicentennial year, and the local library graciously granted me the opportunity to write about The Old Jewish Burial Ground here—which was, in fact, the first Jewish cemetery in the state, despite being a fair distance from the Detroit Metro Area (which is where most Michigan Jews have lived).

SPOILER ALERT: the old Jewish burial ground is mostly underneath a big university building that was built in the 1930s, long after that first Jewish community had mysteriously left entirely of their own free will and not for any unpleasant or embarrassing reasons.

An advertisement with the headline "OPPOSITION TO JEWS," which ran in every issue of the Michigan Argus newspaper (Ann Arbor, MI) from fall 1851 through spring 1852.
An advertisement that ran in the local Ann Arbor newspaper (spring 1852)

Kudos to the library, who agreed to go forward on this endeavor, even though the working title I pitched it under was “We’ve Always Been Here, and You’ve Never Liked Us.”

A sign displayed by anti-Jewish protestors outside a synagogue in Ann Arbor, MI (spring 2024)
A sign displayed by anti-Jewish protestors outside a synagogue in Ann Arbor, MI (summer 2024)

This pirate story is *amazing*, but, man, is my brain stuck on that dog

The nut of the story:

An amateur historian has unearthed compelling evidence that the first Australian maritime foray into Japanese waters was by convict pirates on an audacious escape from Tasmania almost two centuries ago.

Fresh translations of samurai accounts of a “barbarian” ship in 1830 give startling corroboration to a story modern scholars had long dismissed as convict fantasy: that a ragtag crew of criminals encountered a forbidden Japan at the height of its feudal isolation.

The “samurai accounts” listed above included watercolor sketches made by Makita Hamaguchi, who was sent to investigate the interlopers and their “unbearable stench.” 

What really gets me, though, is the detail of the dog in this sketch, which Hamaguchi noted “did not look like food. It looked like a pet.”

australia-pirate-dog-1928
“The dog did not look like food”?

australia-pirate-dog-1928-detail
“food”?

dog is not amused
“Food”?! Fuck you, bro. Fuck. You.