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He’s drawn to stories of regular people who are in difficult situations who are struggling for dignity and their quality of life,” Amy Kurzweil said in a July interview with PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for global literary free expression. My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor, and there’s this tradition of struggle in our family that I think Danny has picked up on as a journalist. Artists from across the globe responded to the call. When Kurzweil heard the news about Danny’s imprisonment, she put out a call among her fellow cartoonists as part of the #BringDannyHome campaign to draw portraits of Fenster to keep his name and face in the public eye. Amy Kurzweil, his cousin, is a cartoonist who has been published in the New Yorker and is currently on a fellowship in Berlin. Members of Danny’s extended family have played crucial roles in advocating for his release, as well. “I am proud of the whole Jewish community on this,” he said. Zerwekh included prayers for Danny in regular Shabbat services until his release, and also heard from local Orthodox congregations that were praying for Fenster.
“There are a lot of folks who feel close to Rose and Buddy and who have kids the same age as Bryan and Danny,” Rabbi Matthew Zerwekh said about the temple’s advocacy efforts. Member bulletins contained calls to action on his behalf, and temple board members spoke from the dais wearing “Free Fenster” shirts. Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park, Michigan, the Reform congregation the Fenster parents attend and where Bryan Fenster sent his children to day camps, mobilized for Fenster’s release as well. Nevertheless, in his view, he had a clear mandate to get involved: Every time he visited his district, including when he marched in Huntington Woods’ annual Fourth of July parade, Fenster was the top issue on his constituents’ minds. Levin had had some experience working with government critics in hiding in Haiti as part of his pre-congressional work with Human Rights Watch, but he’d never before worked on any cases of US citizens being taken hostage. “The concern and involvement of the Jewish community was literally the beginning of my involvement.” “The first I heard of it was from members of the Jewish community, the day it happened,” Levin told JTA. He became the foremost legislative figure advocating for Fenster’s release in Washington. One of the attendees at that rally was Levin. Photographs and news reports from the event, showing determined, largely Jewish neighbors presenting Danny’s name and face, ran in media outlets around the world. In early June, less than two weeks into Danny’s imprisonment, the family held a rally for him at the Huntington Woods Recreation Center, a town square flanked by an elementary school, a public pool, the local library and a large field where children’s summer day camps congregate. The Fensters spearheaded the “Free Fenster” campaign, which started with lawn signs and shirts and became a global movement. Welcome Home signs for Danny Fenster at Detroit Fleat, a food-truck restaurant and bar in Ferndale, Michigan.
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