Appreciating Our Freedom
I found it fascinating to read about the machzor of Allen Fagin’s grandfather (The OU and You column, June 2).
It was really unbelievable to see how Jews devoted so many prayers to the tsars who generally were cruel to them.
And then came the best part of Mr. Fagin’s column – Vice President Pence’s address at the Yom Ha’Atzmaut event at the White House. It was a breath of fresh air to read such a wonderful speech given by a vice president of the United States.
I so agree with Mr. Fagin – we are blessed to live in this country and must never take this freedom for granted.
Arlene Cohen
(Via E-Mail)
Hats And Orthodoxy
Increasingly over the years, it seems that a conceit has developed in certain Orthodox circles that wearing a black hat somehow makes one a more authentically “frum” person.
I grew up in a Modern Orthodox home. My father learned in Radin with the Chofetz Chaim. I have nothing against people who wear black hats. But there are many Orthodox Jews who don’t wear black hats. Are they less “frum” than those who do?
In my growing-up years (I am 78), people were judged by how they acted toward others, not by what was on their heads. The word “frum” was not used to define what a religious person was. You were either religious or not.
Leonard Farbowitz
Boca Raton, FL
Selective Indignation
Supporters of President Trump complain about how Democrats have been trying to sabotage his efforts from the moment he took office. But what they either don’t remember or refuse to admit is that Republicans did the same thing to President Obama.
In fact, in December 2008 and early January 2009, even before Obama took office, Republican congressional leaders held what at the time were secret meetings led by former GOP House whip Eric Cantor and then-Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to plan an all-out resistance to whatever Obama would try to do as president.
“If Obama was for it, we had to be against it,” said former Ohio senator George Voinovich.
McConnell told the National Journal: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for Obama to be a one-term president.”
Former representative John Boehner, who in 2013 would become speaker of the house, said this about Obama’s agenda back in 2009: “We’re going to do everything – and I mean everything we can do – to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.”
Former representative Michele Bachmann admitted, “We’re hoping President Obama’s policies don’t succeed.”
Talk show host Rush Limbaugh summed up the prevailing Republican attitude before Obama even took the oath of office: “I hope he fails.”
And so it’s hypocritical, to say the least, for Trump supporters to claim to be shocked – shocked! – by the efforts of Democrats to combat what they feel are harmful policies promulgated by President Trump.
Eli Fried
(Via E-Mail)
Trump And The Embassy
The AFSI Chizuk mission to Israel was there for the celebration of the victories of 1967 – the restoration of the Golan Heights, the return of Judea and Samaria, and the reunification of Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem. We visited sites within these areas, celebrating the historic restoration of a whole Israel that occurred with the miraculous victories of the Six-Day War.
When we learned that President Trump would be in Yerushalayim at the same time we were there, we prayed that another miracle would happen. Would he have the courage and wisdom to simply announce that the American consulate in Jerusalem would now be the embassy and Ambassador David Friedman would be in residence there? What rejoicing and euphoria would have accompanied that announcement!
However, it was not to be. Trump was there. Ambassador Friedman was there. But the American embassy was not opened in Jerusalem. And on June 1, Trump signed the despicable waiver that has enabled every American president since 1995 to put aside the Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress.
Moving the American embassy would be a welcome and important gesture on Trump’s part that would send a clear message to the world that America stands with Israel. Other nations would follow suit, taking courage from America’s action. Succumbing to the same old threats with which the Arab world has poisoned the West simply shows weakness.
It’s time to seize the opportunity. President Trump – make history. Move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
Helen Freedman
Co-Executive Director
Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI
Trump And The Saudis
One hundred and ten billion dollars! The largest arms sale in history! President Trump, for whom so many Orthodox Jews voted, made a deal with Saudi Arabia for one hundred and ten billion dollars’ worth of U.S. arms.
What if these arms are one day used against Israel, God forbid?
(Meanwhile, Trump has left unfulfilled his campaign pledges regarding Jerusalem; he has taken the long-moribund Mahmoud Abbas and given him a shiny new status as a statesman and has hardly provided the rubber stamp for settlements that Netanyahu and others expected.)
Readers of The Jewish Press should contact their congressmen and senators and let them know that we oppose this sale.
Reuven Solomon
Forest Hills, NY