Readers’ Generosity
Once again we would like to thank The Jewish Press and its readers for helping to make our Erev Pesach Falafel Campaign for so many fine, frum poor Israeli families such a success.
Thanks to the generosity of Jewish Press readers, we were able to send 51 families – 566 people – to our local falafel store for a falafel, French fries, and a drink.
The Jewish Press is truly unique in terms of the amazing range of places where its readers are found: we received checks from a number of states including California, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, as well as from Canada and Israel.
Tzvia Ehrlich-Klein
Jerusalem
Stand Up To Bureaucrats
New York City Councilman Chaim Deutsch noted changes by Mayor de Blasio to the Universal Pre-Kindergarten program to make it more accessible to non-public schools, including yeshivas and Jewish day schools (“Universal Pre-K for All,” column, April 10).
The problem is that the changes do not go far enough. Thirty-one hours and 40 minutes of instruction a week is still not feasible for most yeshiva pre-K classes. That comes to more than five hours a day – if you count Sundays and Fridays. But very few yeshivas have school for pre-K students on Sunday, and Friday instruction almost always ends before 1 p.m. If you take away davening time (because religious instruction time is not included), it becomes even harder to reach the goal.
If the mayor is serious about educating all students, he should lower the bar even further. And he should support Introduction 65, which would guarantee non-public schools an NYPD school safety agent at the school’s request (“Council and School Leaders Hold School Safety Rally,” news story, April 17).
It’s time for parents with students in yeshivas and Jewish day schools to stand up to city and state bureaucracies and declare that our children are citizens too.
Barbara T. Klein
(Via E-Mail)
Truth About Vaccines
Reader Harold Marks (Letters, April17) raises many interesting questions concerning vaccinations. But readers should know that the science on the matter of the benefits and risks of vaccines has been settled.
For a great discussion, readers should listen to Dr. Jerome Groopman and Eula Biss discuss the latter’s new book, On Immunity: An Inoculation, on the Brian Lehrer radio show (www.wnyc.org/story/stories-we-tell-about-immunization).
Especially substantial was when a caller asked both guests – who were candid, sincere, and decidedly on the side of inoculating children with vaccines – about their affiliation with drug companies, and both answered that they had none.
Michoel Weissbarth
Los Angeles, CA
Human Sacrifices?
In commenting on the horrific tragedy that befell the Sassoon family, a number of people, including rabbis, have described the deaths of the seven children as a “sacrifice” and have even linked it to korbanot, animal sacrifices.
I find this repugnant. Wasn’t the point of Akeidat Yitzchak that the Av Harachamim, our Merciful God, does not require a human sacrifice? Isn’t this type of sacrifice inherent in Christianity, whose founder was crucified, supposedly as a sin offering?
Moreover, why are Jews, of all nations, being asked to offer so many human sacrifices? One very prominent and well-respected rav once stated that Hitler was a “kindness from Heaven.” A chassidic rebbe with a wide following taught that the Holocaust was divine punishment for the “sin” of Zionism. When secular, educated Jews hear this they are turned off from Orthodox Judaism.
Why God allows evil, especially horrendous evil, to occur is such a difficult topic. The less said about it the better.
Jacob Mendlovic
Toronto, Canada
Worse Than Kapos
Last week I attended two very moving Holocaust Memorials in Manhattan – one at Touro College and the other at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue. My thoughts were riveted on the question of how could this have happened. Fresh on my mind were recent incidents that shed some light as to how and why it could happen again – despite the popularity of the slogan “Never Again.”
1) J Street met with Mr. Obama and encouraged him to withhold his veto at the United Nations concerning Israel.
2) The New Israel Fund encouraged the Israeli Supreme Court to allow boycotts against Israeli firms (which the court finally ruled were illegal)
3) Jews support Obama’s dangerous agreement with Iran that guarantees that nation will eventually have nuclear weapons.
To my mind, these Jews are simply modern-day kapos, ready to facilitate the destruction of Israel and the death of countless Jews. In fact, these Jews are far worse than kapos. Many kapos were forced to cooperate with the Nazis under threat of having their families butchered or sent to the camps. But the current crop of traitors do not have such threats hanging over them. They act freely, without coercion.
No sense in believing the cries of “Never Again.” History is repeating itself before our very eyes.
Charlie Bernhaut
New York, NY
No Fear, No Peace
Reader Josh Greenberger (Letters, April 17) criticizes The New York Times for shamelessly slanting the news against Israel. He thinks the Times should praise Israel for the humane way it treats its enemies.
To be consistent in its bitter hostility to Israel, the Times should indeed praise Israel for its humane policies toward its enemies – because those policies actually kill Jewish soldiers and civilians. The only way Israel will ever see peace is if it stops being kind to the Palestinian Arabs and other terrorists and militarily defeats them. Israel’s enemies will not respond with peace to non-lethal rubber bullets, tear gas, pre-attack warnings and the best medical care in the Middle East for wounded terrorists. This only results in contempt for Israel and encourages more terrorism.
Israel’s leaders should scrap the troop-killing restrictions forced on the soldiers of the IDF. One of Rome’s greatest generals said, “Let them hate as long as they fear.” Only when the Palestinian Arabs fear Israel, and see that Israelis are serious about war, will they respect the Jewish state and start thinking about peace.
George Rubin
Bronx, NY