The Problem With #MeToo
As I reflect on the #MeToo movement, I can’t help but speak up in defense of some of the people who have been caught in its snares.
Let me just say that it seems like many of the women who have accused men of sexual assault have made careers out of exposing themselves in public. They come into our homes via television and magazines in scantily-clad provocative dress, begging to be the center of attention.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t exposing yourself in public also a form of sexual harassment and assault?
I am not trying to “victim blame.” I am a woman. I was sexually assaulted and much worse in public school. I know how it feels. But there is another piece to this whole #MeToo movement that has been ignored for far too long, which is that women carry tremendous power and responsibility with their beauty.
Modesty is the most basic and fundamental way a woman can protect herself, both spiritually and physically, in this world. And I will not apologize for saying so.
Mayim Bialik wrote an article on modesty some time ago and was quickly attacked for even suggesting that dressing modestly might be a solution to sexual harassment. She apologized for an article that could have brought Moshiach.
Sorry, ladies, but we can’t have our cake and eat it too. If we are going to applaud the #MeToo movement, we must also call out women who dress immodestly and provocatively. #DressModestly. #DressResponsibly.
Amy Jacobs
I Was Horrified by Kapparot
The other week, I went to a chicken kapparot for the first time and was horrified by what I saw. The chickens, which came in small crates, were being held tightly by their wings and tossed around while squealing in such a loud voice that it was pitiful to hear.
Many of their wings were broken, as were some of their legs – as some people preferred to grab them by this part of their body, causing enormous pain. Still others put the chickens in a plastic bag while tossing them around their head, causing the poor chickens to suffocate.
And yet, parents were taking pictures of their children laughing while performing this horrifying, painful ritual.
The Torah teaches us to never cause animals to suffer. It teaches us that if one wants to take eggs from a mother’s nest, one must send away the mother bird first so she isn’t pained by seeing her children taken away.
It also teaches us not to plow a field with two animals of different strengths because the weaker one will suffer. A shochet’s knife must be extra sharp so that the shechita causes no pain to the animal. On Yom Kippur we wear non-leather shoes because we know we can’t ask Hashem to forgive us while standing in comfortable shoes that necessitated killing an animal.
One can perform kapparot with money. Kapparot with chickens is an abomination. It must be stopped. It isn’t Judaism. It’s paganism.
Hazzan David Hiesiger
What Can Drugs Possibly Do to the Arabs?
The claim made by Imad Hamato, dean of Islamic schools and PA TV host, that Israel –in cooperation with the CIA – is spreading “hallucinatory substances” among Palestinians to “destroy what remains of our children’s values” is almost comical.
I do not for one moment believe there’s any truth to his claim, but even if there were: Palestinians teach their children a grossly distorted view of reality that induces them to hate, kill, and commit suicide. What can hallucinogenic drugs possibly do? Alter their already totally distorted view of reality?
And what “values” is he afraid will get destroyed? Is he afraid their children might abandon learning how to become terrorist killing-machines and start learning things like accounting and web design?
If Palestinian children are taking drugs, it’s because their leaders have taken away from them all hopes of a better future. The Palestinians get billions in support from around the globe, yet their leaders seldom speak, if ever, about creating jobs or building the
economy. They speak instead of hatred, murder, and mayhem.
Instead of taking responsibility for the predicament their people are in, they have apparently developed a delusion about the CIA and Israel introducing their children to drugs. It sounds like they’re the ones who are on drugs.
Josh Greenberger
Nothing to Be Proud of, Governor Cuomo
Governor Andrew Cuomo shouldn’t be proud of his primary victory. Out of 5,621,822 registered Democrats, only 975,552 voted him; 511,585 voted for Cynthia Nixon, and 4,134,685 stayed home.
In other words, fewer than 18 percent of registered Democrats supported Cuomo. That despite eight years of free media coverage, not to mention periodic mailings from state agencies and authorities at taxpayers’ expense promoting his so-called accomplishments and endorsements from virtually every state Democratic Party city, state, and federal elected official and every district and county leader and local club house.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
A Fan of Sarcasm, Apparently
Thank you, Dennis Prager, for the pragmatic approach to voting for president you presented in your September 14th column.
You are right; we need a firefighter in the White House who is talented at fighting fires. And since my polling booth is located in the nearby fire station, for the next presidential election I’ll just go over to the fire captain, ask him for the name of the best firefighter in the station, and submit my ballot with that name on it.
Larry Frischerman
Excusing Rape?
I was shocked by Dennis Prager’s most recent column in which he excuses attempted rape by a then 17-year-old and likens it to teenage hijinks (“Even if Kavanaugh Is Guilty…”).
He then compounds his disgraceful remarks by suggesting that “nearly every woman over puberty has experienced a man trying to act inappropriately with her.” How can The Jewish Press publish this?
Betty Atlas-Rumelt
The Jewish Press responds: Dennis Prager did not excuse attempted rape. He argued that inappropriate behavior as a teenager should not define the character of a person whose moral record over an adult life spanning 30 years is widely acknowledged to be impeccable. The Jewish Press would never publish an article excusing attempted rape.
PFLP Terrorists Are Still Walking Free
Thank you for publishing Dr. Roni Raab’s op-ed about his experience on a plane hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Too often, after a terrorist incident has faded from the headlines, the public forgets about the ongoing trauma and suffering the victims endure.
But Dr. Raab’s experience also poses a challenge to Jewish and Zionist organizations. The PFLP is still a member-organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is chaired by Mahmoud Abbas. PFLP terrorists are still sheltered in territory controlled by Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. Some of the terrorists who planned or carried out the hijacking are still walking free.
Jewish organizations should be pressuring the Trump administration, demanding that hijackers and other PFLP terrorists involved in harming Americans be handed over to the United States for prosecution.
Too many Jewish leaders have lost interest in American victims of Palestinian terrorism and moved on to other issues they think will help them to raise money or get their names in the news. That’s a shame. Justice for terror victims should be high on the Jewish agenda.
Stephen Flatow
Brainwashing Children
For a decade or more, I have been writing and speaking about anti-Israeli brainwashing in Arab schools and media. I was therefore pleased to see two letters in The Jewish Press last week addressing this topic.
Children are not born hating others; they have to be taught to do so. The power of the press is beyond imagination as it influences people’s thinking and often their actions, reducing their ability to think critically or independently and introducing selected ideas into their minds.
I first learned of the routine brainwashing in the Arab world by a poker buddy, a well-educated Jordanian Muslim who had worked in his country’s diplomatic service. He told me he was “taught” over and over again that all of Israel, “from the river to the sea, is Arab land.”
George Epstein
Los Angeles, CA