Saluting Professor Rubin
Hatzlacha to Ron Rubin on his retirement after a long career in academia (“A Yarmulke-Wearing Professor Bids Farewell,” op-ed, Jan. 8).
The Soviet Jewry movement acknowledges that one of the earliest books on Soviet Jewry was Dr. Rubin’s The Unredeemed, published in 1968.
Glenn Richter
(Via E-Mail)
Lewin On The FBI Sting (I)
Re Nathan Lewin’s Jan. 8 front-page essay (“ ‘Getcha’: The Misguided FBI Agunah Sting”) in last week’s issue:
Let me preface my remarks by saying I have the greatest respect for Mr. Lewin as an attorney, as a constitutional and legal authority, and as a Talmudic scholar. He has done much good for Klal Yisrael and would be an ideal appointment to the Supreme Court.
That being said, I feel he was completely off base in referring to those caught up in the FBI’s Get sting as “revered rabbis.” Any Jew employing physical violence against a fellow Jew as a means to achieve a halachic solution to a problem, and charging exorbitant amounts of money to do so, is anything but a “revered” person. The fact that he carries the title of “rabbi” makes it that much worse. Violence is the middah of Eisav and must never become a tool for proud descendants of Yaakov Avinu.
I can understand Mr. Lewin’s zeal to defend his clients as an advocate in a court of law. However, once the case is over, with verdicts rendered and sentences meted out, there is no need to write a an article defending this behavior as meritorious. It sends the wrong message to the rest of us that what these “rabbis” did was acceptable. In fact, the entire incident created a widely publicized Chillul Hashem.
The government of the United States has been the most friendly in the history of our galus to Orthodox Jews. There is absolutely no heter to violate criminal law as there was with the repressive regimes of prewar Europe.
Sol Zeller
Boca Raton, FL
Lewin On The FBI Sting (II)
I read Nathan Lewin’s front-page essay with great interest. He sounds a theme that has troubled me for some time. Most people are unaware that the administration of criminal justice in our system does not proceed computer-like but is driven by decisions by imperfect human beings along the way.
In the particular case Mr. Lewin wrote about, the idea that government officials would actually sit around a table and plan to deceive a religious court is very disturbing and colors my thinking about whether the three rabbis actually got a fair shake.
Yerachmiel Alter
(Via E-Mail)
Investigating The Flatbush Mugging
I hope the NYPD and Brooklyn DA treat with the seriousness it deserves the possibility that the recent Flatbush attack on the 55-year-old Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was in fact a hate crime (“The Flatbush Attack,” editorial, Jan. 8).
Those who live in the Flatbush area and dress as identifiably Orthodox Jews make for easy targets. In today’s climate, it is important for everyone to know that law enforcement will make every effort to root out anyone who attacks people because of their religion.
Shoshana Goldstein
(Via E-Mail)
Nothing Is Hidden
Thank you for sharing reader David Feinman’s letter last week. His main point sent chills up and down my spine. How indeed can we humans think that because some of our misdeeds may not become matters of public record, we have nothing to fear.
As Mr. Feinman wrote, we are taught that at some point we will all inevitably be called upon to give a din v’cheshbon to the Ribbono Shel Olam from Whom nothing is hidden.