People like Avi Goldstein (Letters, May 9) should be applauded for trying to keep the Celebrate Parade off limits to those who would try to turn it into a political platform in order to incite divisiveness and factionalism among Jews.
Moreover, if representative groups of Judaism prone to the toleration of gays, such as the Reform and Conservative movements, choose themselves not to wave the gay banner at a parade devoted to celebrating Israel, it almost goes without saying that the motive of those who do so is simply to provoke religious and political mayhem.
Lawrence Kulak
(Via E-Mail)
Unity Should Encompass All Jews
Although I found Rav Dovid Hofstedter’s article “Achieving Unity” (front-page essay, April 18) well written with many salient points, I disagree with the premise of achieving unity through Daf Yomi.
I am sure it’s a great program; the only unity it will achieve, however, is among the approximately ten percent of Jews in America who are Orthodox.
Unity among the Jewish people should include all Jews. The leaders of Jews from all movements should find a way to unify Klal Yisrael while still agreeing to disagree with regard to observance levels and political differences.
As a Conservative Jew brought up in an Orthodox family and community, I have seen the negative and derogatory attitude of the Orthodox toward any Jew who is not. This negative attitude does not seem to be reciprocated by the non-Orthodox toward the Orthodox.
At least that’s the way it appears to me in America, though it may be different in Israel.
Bern Padawer
Higganum, CT
Unattended Babies
I was greatly disturbed when the following incident happened shortly before Pesach:
I had gone to drop off something for my daughter at her school in Flatbush. As I was walking toward the school’s entrance I passed a car with its motor running and noticed there was no one in the driver’s seat or standing near the car. I thought to myself that it was strange for someone to leave a car running and unattended – but then I glanced into the back seat and was shocked to see a baby who had been left alone.
I looked around to make sure I hadn’t missed an adult hanging around in the general vicinity who could possibly be this child’s parent, but there was no one. I walked into the school lobby and told the guard about the situation. We both went outside and stood near the car trying to identify anyone who might be the car’s owner and parent of the baby.
As we were standing there, I saw a police car drive through an adjacent intersection and considered flagging it down, but didn’t. Eventually I decided to call Shomrim, and as the dispatcher was about to send someone I saw a young woman walking quickly from the corner to the car. This turned out to be the mother of the child. I began to tell her how dangerous her actions were, but she barely said two words to me, jumped into the driver’s seat (the car door wasn’t even locked!) and drove away.
I know this was a young mother who could have been sleep-deprived and might have thought she would just be a moment, but it must have been about ten minutes from the time I spotted the baby to the time the mother returned to the car. Maybe the baby had fallen asleep and the young woman forgot the child was in the back seat. Baruch Hashem, it wasn’t a hot day, but we’ve all heard awful stories of parents accidentally leaving their sleeping children in cars with tragic consequences, lo aleinu. And why leave the car engine running?