Rabbi Leo Jung
Dr. Yitzchok Levine’s Nov. 3 Glimpses Into American Jewish History column on Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung was extremely informative.
I had heard the name but knew relatively little about this giant of Orthodox Judaism in 20th century America.
I am a regular reader of Dr. Levine’s monthly column, and I think he does a big service for readers in writing about our Jewish roots in the United States. I intend to show this article to younger members of my family.
Molly Berger
(Via E-Mail)
Reclarifying Mueller
Re “A Little Clarification, Mr. Rosenstein” (editorial, Nov. 3):
Only the politically naive can fail to realize that the original rationale for appointing a special counsel – “in order for the American people to have full confidence in the outcome” – has been effectively neutralized by the first indictments, which were based on events years before the 2016 campaign.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave Special Counsel Robert Mueller wide authority to investigate behavior and prosecute individuals in the Trump campaign only. With the continuing revelations about the sordid actions by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign – far more serious infractions than anyone in the Trump orbit has thus far been charged with – it has become crucial for Mr. Rosenstein to effectuate a legitimate and necessary reclarification of Mueller’s authority.
Fay Dicker
Lakewood, NJ
Evangelicals And Israel
How foolish Jews are to spurn the support of the unbelievably pro-Israel born-again Christians. Prior to my move to New York, I lived in a part of the country where Bible-believing Christians are numerous and vocal, and I can say with confidence that such Christians are more enthusiastically and reliably pro-Israel than are most Jews.
I know they feel closer to Israel than too many, perhaps most, Conservative and Reform Jews. In fact, I’ll shock those Jews who rarely venture beyond the five boroughs or Miami Beach by stating that Bible-believing Christians have considerably more love for the state of Israel than many frum Jews – the type who take pains never to say the word “Israel,” preferring instead the more neutral “Eretz Yisrael,” which conveniently sidesteps the reality of the medinah.
Yaakov Hirshman
(Via E-Mail)
The Left And Israel
Re the recent exchange of letters between readers Myron Hecker and Reuven Solomon on which end of the political spectrum poses more danger to Jews and Israel:
There is a strong and dangerous strain running through liberal thought these days – a strain that pooh-poohs the need to wage war on terrorists and holds that American foreign policy is responsible for the enmity of Islamic extremists and their Eurotrash enablers.
It also treats President Trump – and just about any other Republican, for that matter – with a level of contempt and outright hatred that most liberals never lavished on Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden.
This strain of thinking may have originated on the far fringes of the Left, but it began infecting more mainstream liberal circles once the immediate shock of 9/11 began to wear off and it continued to grow throughout the Bush and Obama years. It reached full force with Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton – a shock from which it will take liberals years to recover.
This strain of thinking is particularly foolish coming from any Jew who purports to care about Israel.
Isaac Richman
Via E-mail
Following The Kahane Example
Kudos to The Jewish Press for publishing Meir Jolovitz’s moving encomium to Rabbi Meir Kahane (“Rabbi Meir Kahane: Noble and Iconoclastic Firebrand,” op-ed, Nov. 3).
I remember the first time I picked up Rabbi Kahane’s Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews as a 17-year-old kid. I was absolutely mesmerized and spellbound. Few books in my life have had that type of impact on me.
Sadly, Rabbi Kahane is no longer with us. If he were, he almost certainly would have become prime minister of Israel by now. To those who mock this notion, just recall that most “experts” used to confidently proclaim that Ariel Sharon would never become prime minister and Donald Trump would never become president. Utterly impossible, people said. And yet, they did – with Sharon winning in the largest landslide in Israeli history.
Whatever one thinks of Trump or Sharon, these individuals won because their electorates were hungry for strength, hungry for a leader, hungry for a straight talker, hungry for someone who could finally fix their problems. The fact is that the stark truth, even when spoken by a fraud (as I believe Sharon was), carries a certain appeal no matter how many pundits tell you it isn’t politically correct and cannot be uttered.
Rabbi Kahane’s solution to Israel’s hostile Arab population remains the best: separation, divorce, each people going its separate way. It is madness to keep the two populations together. How many Jews – and Arabs – have lost their lives because we continue to insist that the Arabs will ultimately accept living under Jewish rule, all evidence to the contrary be damned?
We must follow Rabbi Kahane’s example and speak the truth. Politics is a funny beast. What is unacceptable to say today can become acceptable tomorrow if enough people start saying it. Population transfers have been successfully performed in the past, and such prominent individuals as former Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt at one time or anther supported moving the Arabs from what was then Palestine to make room for a Jewish state.
Even today, it is widely accepted that Jews will be expelled from the West Bank if a Palestinian state is to arise there. Why? Is there a moral difference between expelling Jews and expelling Arabs? No. It’s just that people feel comfortable speaking about one and not the other, making one politically correct and one not. We can change that – each of us – by walking in the footsteps of Rabbi Kahane and proclaiming the truth, no matter how unpopular it may be.
Joshua Bernstein
(Via E-Mail)