Albert Klass
I was very saddened to read about the recent passing of Albert Klass, a”h (news story, editorial, June 24).
In a very real sense his passing had the same effect on me as my father’s recent petirah. Both men were advanced in years and both contributed so much to our community.
The loss of such people creates a terrible void and we can only hope that there are men and women of our generation who we have the strength and the ability to carry on their work.
Gisele Strauch
Brooklyn, NY
Saul Jay Singer’s Amazing Columns
I enjoy everything that Saul Jay Singer writes for The Jewish Press in his Collecting Jewish History column.
It’s really quite amazing – the research, the unique angles on historical figures, the Jewish connections, the documents he uses to illuminate his writing, etc.
You can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw the announcement that his column will now appear weekly rather every other week.
Thank you for making him such an integral part of the paper.
Miriam Fishman
Los Angeles, CA
Shimon Mercer-Wood (I)
Elliot Resnick’s interview of Shimon Mercer-Wood, the media affairs spokesperson for the Consulate General of Israel in New York (“At the End of the Day, We Only Have Each Other,” June 24), was both refreshing and intelligent
I had to copy the following statement made by Mr. Mercer-Wood when Mr. Resnick asked him why the work of educating American Jews about Israel is so important; I think we should all read it again and again:
“Because we’re one nation, we’re one people. At the end of the day, on the face of the planet, we only have each other. And just like you keep in touch with your brother who lives in another city and you want him to know what’s happening in your life and you don’t want his perception of your life to be stuck like when you were in college, it’s important for the different components of the Jewish nation to know what the others are going through. It’s not because you want their ‘support.’ It’s because that’s what it means to be one people.”
Zsolti Hermann
(Via JewishPress.com)
Shimon Mercer-Wood (II)
I just read the interview with Shimon Mercer-Wood. What a fascinating story and family. Israel is fortunate indeed to have such a representative. I hope to be hearing more from and about Mr. Mercer-Wood in the future.
Eli Kravitz
(Via E-Mail)
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Readers React To Nadler Endorsement
Shameful
For you to endorse Jerrold Nadler (editorial, June 24) after he voted for the Iran deal means there are no negative consequences for someone who goes against our interests. Have you no shame?
Gershon Michaels
New York, NY
Unbelievable
I could not believe that The Jewish Press, after publishing so many editorials, articles, and columns taking apart the Iran nuclear deal and castigating its supporters in Congress, would endorse a man like Nadler. In addition to supporting the Iran deal, he has been one of the Democratic Party’s most left-wing members of Congress throughout his years in Washington.
I know this endorsement was only for the Democratic primary; hopefully you’ll come to your senses and endorse whoever his opponent will be in the general election.
Henry Berkowitz
(Via E-Mail)
Disgraceful
This was a disgraceful endorsement. Nadler should be shunned by the Jewish community – indeed by all Americans who care about the safety of America and Israel –for his betrayal of our best interests by voting for the Iran deal.
Helen Freedman
Americans For a Safe Israel
New York, NY
Insane
How could any self-respecting Jew have supported something as dangerous as the Iran deal? What an insane endorsement. Nadler should be ostracized, not endorsed.
David Abromsky
(Via E-Mail)
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Trump and Judge Curiel
In his op-ed article last week (“Presidential Conundrum”), Dr. Michael Salamon wrote that Donald Trump’s “comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel…being a ‘Mexican,’ and therefore not fit to adjudicate a case in which Trump is a central figure, sound to me a little too much like the Hitlerian claim that Jews in prewar Germany could not be trusted because of their background.”
Wow.
Dr. Salamon, like so many others, has completely distorted Trump’s words. Trump’s argument isn’t that Curiel can’t be fair because of his heritage. It’s that he isn’t being fair because of his heritage. The fact is that 98 percent of students at Trump University gave it high marks in the surveys they were asked to fill out after taking its seminars. (You can view 10,000 of them online at 98percentapproval.com.) Judge Curiel knows this. He also knows that the lead plaintiff in the case asked to back out since her own testimony several years ago belies her current claims of fraud. Judge Curiel let her back out. But he let the case continue.
Sound a bit unfair? Trump thought so, and wondered why Curiel might be biased against him. And he suggested that the answer might perhaps lie with Curiel’s Mexican heritage. Trump’s policies, after all, are not exactly Mexico-friendly, while Curiel is the son of Mexican parents – and someone with known liberal associations.
It is this eminently reasonable suggestion that the liberal media decided to make a weeklong national story out of. If a Jew were standing trial and the judge seemed to be treating him unfairly, and it turned out the judge was the child of Palestinian refugees, many of us would understandably wonder if anti-Semitism was a factor. But to suggest that Judge Curiel’s Mexican heritage might play a role in his decision-making is evidently beyond the pale.
Judge Curiel may or may not an honest and fair man. But to argue that his Mexican heritage is categorically irrelevant is classic political correctness – a denial of reality so that one can feel self-righteous about oneself.
Joshua Bernstein
(Via E-Mail)