Giving Bigotry No Sanction
I applaud the sentiments voiced by reader Chaim Weinberg (Letters, Jan, 23). He writes that he is “troubled by the casual prejudice found all too frequently among segments of the Orthodox community (a phenomenon that has caused several people I know to have become seriously disillusioned with frumkeit and in one case to have gone completely off the derech).”
I think what he said is very important. It struck a chord with me. Those who slander blacks or any other group are not diminishing the group they are slandering; they only diminish themselves.
When a tragedy befell a large number of blacks several years ago, a man in my shul marked the occasion by telling a very derogatory and insensitive joke. That same man’s voice was the loudest in shul saying “Kadosh Kadosh.”The person who was so despicable just moments before was now suddenly acting so holy.
That’s hardly the only incident I can summon up as an example of bigotry in our community. On more than one occasion I have left shul early during Shacharis on Martin Luther King Day due to bigoted statements I couldn’t help overhearing from other congregants.
When I complain to people who make such remarks, the inevitable response is something along the lines of, “Oh, you’re too sensitive.” This from people who immediately yell “anti-Semitism” if they even think a non-Jew might be looking at them cross-eyed.
Not only is it cruel to blacks to say such things, it is cruel to our own people as well, because, as Mr. Weinberg notes, when some of them hear this garbage coming from other frum Jews, they are tempted to leave the fold.
Alan Howard
(Via E-Mail)
The Real Conflict
While Jonathan Tobin put the criticism of the late Joan Peters into perspective (“Joan Peters and the Perils of Challenging the Palestinian Narrative,” op-ed, Jan. 23), he missed a crucial point.
Arab anti-Zionism is based not so much on the myth that the Arabs were always there but on the fact that their religion, Islam, explicitly prohibits Jewish sovereignty anywhere, and especially over Muslims.
The conflict over Israel is not a territorial one, it is a religious one; and this is made explicitly clear in the Hamas Charter. The entire Muslim world – 56 countries, of which only 22 are Arab – refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. The Islamic Republic of Iran is Israel’s deadliest enemy, and the Iranians are not Arabs. Why is this so? Because Islam commands Muslims to make war on the Jews and either subjugate them to Islamic rule or kill them.
This is the real reason for the conflict over Israel, not the supposed displacement of the “native” Arab population.
Carl Goldberg
(Via JewishPress.com)
Ignoring Our History
Sarah N. Stern correctly points out the world’s double standard with regard to Israel – how the world does not seem as disturbed when Israelis are killed by terrorists as it is when others are killed by terrorists, and how much of this is rooted in anti-Semitism (“Israel and the World’s Double Standard,” op-ed, Jan. 23).
She says she’ll leave up to rabbis and theologians the issue of why enemies of the West usually harbor “a particular animus toward the Jewish people” and she calls for the world to “wake up” to the fact that Israel is a democracy and a strategic asset to the U.S.
It’s ironic how the world is trying to tell us that Israel and the Jews are one issue, yet there are some Jews who keep trying to tell us they’re separate issues.
It’s only difficult to underhand today’s predicament of the Jews when you completely ignore our history. Our history tells us the problem and the solution.
The story of Kamtza and bar Kamtza, which involved someone who was humiliated by being thrown out of a celebration, was the beginning of a great tragic epoch in Jewish history. We’re seeing the same thing happening today. But instead of the humiliation of a human being, it’s now God that’s being humiliated.
To sin is bad enough. But celebrating a sin is like spitting in God’s face. The notion that the Holy Land harbors public celebrations, or parades, to celebrate a sin, whether it’s the gay lifestyle or any other activity explicitly prohibited by the Torah, is a particularly galling offense.
It is asked why Moses was so shocked that he broke the tablets when he saw the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf; after all, God had already told him the Jews were sinning. The answer given is that he was shocked at the celebration and the exuberance.
Why Israel is going through such hardships is not at all difficult to understand if you take our history into consideration. Why there is such a worldwide fallout of anti-Semitism is not difficult to understand either: as in the story of Kamtza and bar Kamtza, we’re all sitting around and allowing such an offense (to God, in this case) to take place.
No, it’s not the U.S., the UN, The Hague, and the rest of the world that need
to wake up. They’re all fully awake. It’s the Jews who are sleeping.
David Balsam
Brooklyn, NY
Congress And Iran
The Congressional invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a March 3 joint session has evoked much criticism. The context, though, is quite explanatory.
The administration has consistently fought Congress over Iran policy. It had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into imposing those sanctions for which it has claimed great success. The current interim agreement markedly eased sanctions, in return for Iranian cosmetic concessions, while extending interminable talks on the most contentious issues.
More intent on pursuing détente with Iran than in preventing that country from developing nuclear weapons, the administration continues its Groucho Marx-style diplomacy: “We’ve got demands, but if you don’t like them, we have other, less demanding, ones.” Though the weaker party, Iran has been setting the talk’s dynamics, successfully running out the clock.
The flashpoint now is the bipartisan Kirk-Menendez bill, which would only provisionally impose enhanced sanctions should the negotiations break down. More concerned about offending the Iranians than Congress, President Obama has accused proponents of pandering to “donors” for “short term political gain,” and has even implied that they are “warmongering.” Lest his negotiating stance be immeasurably strengthened, he’s sending a perverse message: “Don’t stop me from surrendering.”
There have even been indications that he intends to bypass Congress entirely on any agreement. Rather than submit meekly to this latest bullying, Congress has now belatedly begun to assert its clear Constitutional prerogatives.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, NY