The Soviets Have Won
The Trump team’s focus on election fraud has overshadowed the crushing blow to freedom of speech and thought that has been orchestrated by social media giants and their “progressive” allies in the mainstream media.
How many tens of thousands of Biden supporters would have voted for Trump if they had, for example, heard of the investigations of Biden’s connections with Russia and China?
During the Cold War, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on the table at the United Nations, declaring, “We will bury you.”
The threat was unnecessary. We have buried ourselves. Walking in the tradition of Soviet totalitarians, the left has complete dominance of the mainstream media, social media, public education, academia, the FBI, and the massive Washington bureaucracy.
David Ferster
Older Boys: Give Girls a Chance
Re “Do Older Girls Really Want to Get Married?” (November 20):
The anonymous author of this article suggests that the answer is no based on his experience of girls not jumping at the chance to grab him. Apparently, if girls are willing to pass him up, they must not be sufficiently desperate and therefore older girls must not really want to get married.
While I feel sympathetic for the author to some degree, his experiences hardly support his conclusion. But I won’t belabor the point. He wants girls to be more open, less picky, happier on dates, and encouraged to compromise. Those are all good ideas – for both girls and boys. But I would like to suggest something additional:
Older boys should give more girls a chance. Rejecting a profile is not hishtadlus, and in most cases, the profile is not the person.
What harm is there in meeting a prospective life-partner for a cup of coffee for half an hour? What has an older boy (man?) gained by looking at a profile and thinking “not for me” without actually pointing to something definite that he didn’t like?
I can understand to some degree him not finding the girl’s picture attractive (enough). But we all know that unattractive girls also manage to get married, perhaps because of their personality and other attributes.
So I am making a plea to older boys: Please don’t hide behind that simple “not for me” excuse. If you are required from heaven to meet a certain number of girls before you get married, why wouldn’t you try to meet as many as you can, as soon as you can, so you finally reach the required number?
You might be surprised. Line them up, reserve a table at your favorite Starbucks, and I will pray for you.
Yechiel Feuerman
Teaneck, NJ
Sorry, There Wasn’t Fraud
I read with great interest and care Elliot Resnick’s interview with Bruce Abramson regarding the credibility of election fraud and am unable to agree with the latter’s assertion that President Trump’s claims should be taken seriously.
The operative word here is “seriously.” It is a well-established maxim that the courts are available to anyone who has a claim. However, notwithstanding that right, for claims to pass muster in our court system, the party raising the claim has to produce evidence supporting it.
Mr. Abramson quotes Sidney Powell alleging that Dominion Voting Systems – which managed electronic voting in many states – is faulty and has back-door programs enabling remote access to the vote tally. It’s technically feasible, he says, but how seriously are we to take this allegation when even Mr. Abramson concedes that he has “no specific experience with the Dominion System.”
Feasibility is not evidence. It’s feasible, for example, that there will be a cure for each and every cancer, but no scientist would claim that such cures will definitively exist one day.
Unproven claims, such as those advanced by the aforementioned and recently-sacked attorney Sidney Powell – part of Trump’s “truly great team” whom Mr. Abramson invoked regarding rigged election claims – must be vigorously rejected.
Mr. Resnick asked Mr. Abramson what he thinks about conservative concerns that Democrats voted in unusually large numbers in cities like Detroit and Milwaukee compared to other major cities and that this statistical anomaly is potentially indicative of something foul afoot. Mr. Abramson admits that statistics alone cannot prove fraud, but asserts that something “interesting” happened there.
Could the “interesting” be the large number of mail-in votes coming from urban, largely Democratic voters who were encouraged, unlike Trump voters, to vote safely by mail?
Charlotte Hart
Loves Aliyah Journal
I just wanted to give a shout-out to Aviva Horowitz-Karoly for her helpful, down-to-earth column about her absorption into Israeli society. As someone who is considering aliyah in the not too distant future, G-d willing, I consider her commentary on her experiences as a roadmap for how to traverse Israeli bureaucracy.
Despite any frustrations in that process, Aviva always puts a positive twist on it all and hers has become the first column I turn to. We can all use her positivity – at this time more than ever. Hatzlacha to her and her family!
Perele Stulman
Trump: Time to Move On
Trump has been a strong advocate for the Jewish people. He should be applauded for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, commuting Rubashkin’s prison sentence, and many other outstanding accomplishments. The Jewish people are indebted to him.
Yet, Trump alienated millions (Jews included) by mishandling the coronavirus pandemic and is tarnishing his legacy by refusing to concede the election. He is also sabotaging the new administration’s ability to lead the country on January 20.
Trump should defer to the will of the American people instead of subverting the democratic process and delegitimizing millions of voters.
David J. Mond, MD
Miami, FL
Trump Deserves Our Gratitude (I)
Pres. Trump has been a highly polarizing figure. Yet, whether one hates him or loves him, approves or disapproves of his policies and behavior, voted for him or against him, there’s no denying that he and key administration officials – notably Jared Kushner, David Friedman, and Jason Greenblatt – have been very good for Israel and the Jews.
The American embassy in Israel was moved to Jerusalem, the Palestinian consulate in that city and the PLO office in Washington were shuttered, Palestinian Authority and UNRWA funding stopped, Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights was recognized.
The Abraham Accords – unprecedented normalization agreements – between Israel and, so far, the U.A.E., Bahrain, and Sudan were signed. The U.S. left the fatally-flawed Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) and imposed strict sanctions on Iran’s rogue regime. It also left the disreputable UN Human Rights Commission.
American diplomats – most prominently Nikki Haley – stood steadfastly with Israel in international forums. Vice President Pence affectionately addressed the Knesset, and President Trump went to the Kotel.
Further breaking taboos, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the Golan and the Psagot Winery in Sha’ar Binyamin. Area C products will now be labeled “Made in Israel,” he announced, and the BDS movement, and organizations supporting it, “anti-Semitic.”
Also significant, was the executive order expanding Title VI Civil Rights protections to Jewish university students and special envoy Elan Carr’s efforts to fight anti-Semitism.
Considered separately, all the above acts are praiseworthy. Collectively, they require an enormous hakaros hatov.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, NY
Trump Deserves Our Gratitude (II)
The recent release of Jonathan Pollard from his travel restrictions only confirms that President Trump and his administration have been the most favorable of any president toward Israel.
Certainly, if his record stands, Israel will be eternally grateful to Trump as he has supported it politically, economically and militarily. The irony is that while over 80 percent of polled Israelis favored the election of Donald Trump, only 31 percent of American Jews voted for him.
Nelson Marans
New York, NY
Criticized for Speaking?
I was taken aback by the article, “Prominent Rabbi Criticized For Speaking With Reform Leaders,” in last week’ issue.
I am in no way criticizing the gedolei Yisrael who differ with Rav Eliezer Melamed, but I think Rav Melamed displayed greatness when he took it upon himself to have a dialogue with members of the Reform movement.
As Am Yisrael, we are a unified whole. This whole contains divisions: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist. Rav Melamed sees us as one unified people and reminds us that we are commanded to love our fellow Jews and that the unity of Am Yisrael is a foundation of our nation’s security.
Would the Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed memory or the recently-departed Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ever turn up his nose to another Jew due to his group affiliation? I think not! These men embraced all Jews equally. They did not cast judgment.
Rav Melamed is a beacon of light in a sometimes dark world. And as my family progresses along in the aliyah process through Nefesh B’Nefesh, I will most certainly seek out Rav Melamed as a mentor and teacher for our family upon our arrival in Israel.
Reuben M. Hoch, M.D.
Parkland, FL
Will the Republic Last?
November 19 was the 157th anniversary of the delivery of the Gettysburg Address. I am going to quote from that epic speech and add my own words as a commentary on the current situation:
Twelve score and four years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great election and its aftermath, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
We have a president that cannot accept that the election was clearly won by his opponent. If the president continues on his path citing fraud, I am concerned that “government of the people, by the people, for the people” may “perish from this earth.”
Alan Howard
Thank You, Mr. President
Over 74 million Americans voted for President Trump in the election, which tells me that half the country never bought the media hysteria on the Covid-19 pandemic. The health experts projected 2.2 million Americans dying from Covid-19.
A total of 675,000 Americans died from the 1918 flu pandemic, yet the media never blamed President Wilson for those deaths. After all, he was a Democrat.
Around 239,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, but Trump is being blamed because he’s not implementing a foolish national mask mandate. The majority of Americans who died from Covid-19 were in Democrat-run states. Why isn’t the biased media blaming those states’ governors? Or China, for that matter?
In the final presidential debate, Mr. Trump said a vaccine would be coming out shortly. The media said he was lying – that a vaccine wouldn’t be ready until mid-2021. Here we are in November, with a vaccine that is 90 percent effective.
We should give Mr. Trump and his administration credit for producing the most quickly-developed vaccine ever.
Brian J. Goldenfeld
Oak Park, CA
How Do You Know?
Letter writer Avi Goldstein found The Jewish Press suppositions that voter fraud may have occurred “disquieting.” I have no idea what illegalities may have been perpetrated in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia – and neither does Mr. Goldstein. That, however, didn’t prevent him from writing that “the chance that massive mistakes, or fraud, took place is close to zero!”
I wish I were blessed with such extraordinary insight and irrefutable knowledge, but, alas, as a mere mortal, I’m not.
Myron Hecker
Time to Think Strategically
Letter writers Avi Goldstein and Josh Greenberger are both outstanding authors and extraordinarily bright fellows. So it’s interesting that they came to diametrically different conclusions with regard to our recent presidential election.
Mr. Goldstein believes that Joe Biden’s victory is a fait accompli while Mr. Greenberger asserts that the results are flawed. Mr. Goldstein is pragmatic. President Trump has to overturn the results in numerous states – and that’s simply not going to happen.
This leads us to ask how a brilliant individual like Josh Greenberger can still hold out hope that his hero will ultimately prevail. To answer this question, let me quote American poet laureate Bob Dylan: “We all see the same thing, we just start out from a different point of view.”
Mr. Greenberger, in his heart of hearts, must be aware that the race is lost, but he won’t concede because he’s a disciple of Rabbi Avigdor Miller who proclaimed that the Democratic Party is essentially evil.
But, as Paul McCartney wrote, there’s “good and bad in everyone.” So since Mr. Biden will take the reins in January (barring the current president’s continued obstinance), the Jewish community must develop a relationship with him and his running mate rather than demonize them as has become the trend in charedi circles.
Yaakov Stern
We Need a Redo
The chaotic election on November 3 mirrored elections in Venezuela and elsewhere where socialists attempted to win by hook or by crook.
How dare the Democrats claim there is no widespread fraud when the evidence is so compelling? What does one call dead people voting? What does one call ballot-harvesting of nursing homes with ill and demented people in their 90s? What does one call changing the dates on ballots?
What does one call using voting machines that were known to have serious flaws and could be manipulated to change votes?
These things are supposed to occur in banana republics, not the USA. If there is no election integrity, there is no democracy. The Democrats have rendered null the American people’s votes and usurped our government without firing a shot. No one should accept this kind of travesty of an election.
We must demand a redo – an in-person election in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. This election must be monitored carefully by neutral people. Remember, where there’s no honesty, there is no liberty.
Freda Goldman
Baltimore, MD
Fishy Business
It’s very interesting how the day after election night, piles of pro-Biden ballots in key states mysteriously came out of nowhere.
And why has no one seriously addressed why U.S. voters often had the option of voting multiple times? I myself, a New York voter, received two duplicate ballots at home, while still having the option of voting in person. This could not have been just a” simple” error.
Nor can it be ignored that the Democrats were the loudest voices pushing for voting by mail and that they requested over 25 million mail-in ballots.
There were clearly efforts to sabotage this election by ensuring an overwhelming abundance of mail-in ballots in order to steal the electoral vote (if only by a small margin) from President Trump.
Raphael T.
Brooklyn, NY
What Next?
Bruce Abramson (“Are Claims of Election Fraud Credible”) makes a plausible case that fraud in this past election could have been perpetrated. Unfortunately, without concrete and admissible proof, it’s unlikely that Trump will prevail. That leaves us with the likelihood of a Harris-Biden administration (I placed Biden’s name second intentionally).
At the end of the interview, Dr. Abramson notes that leftists will likely riot no matter who the next president is if they don’t get their way and their policies aren’t implemented. Unfortunately, as we have seen, neither de Blasio nor Cuomo will do anything about it.
There is a way to fight back, though. I’m not suggesting counter demonstrations or violence, but a concerted letter-writing campaign, which was used with a fair amount of success in the past by Rav Avigdor Miller, zt”l.
Aside from being an outstanding Torah leader, Rav Miller was a political askan and organized letter-writing campaigns that elicited responses from both politicians and the media and resulted in the mitigation of several possibly devastating decrees.
We must keep ourselves constantly aware of potential executive orders, pending legislation, and the like, and write polite, but firm letters to politicians who may have a say in the matter. The pen is indeed, “mightier than the sword.” With Hashem’s help, our efforts to keep in check potential threats will succeed.
Mordechai Schlanger
Brooklyn, NY