Hands Off the Yeshivas
I’m not writing to disparage or compare the DOE schools to the yeshivas. I’m writing to extol the virtues of education in Chassidic schools. I’m a proud congregant of Chabad of Howard Beach in Queens led by Rabbi Avrohom Richter and Zeldie Richter. The rabbi’s son, a fourth-grader, can speak three languages (English, Hebrew and Yiddish). Three languages at the age of 10! He gives a dvar Torah every Shabbos in English and sometimes Yiddish. Critical thinking skills (which are important for every student) are essential in understanding and speaking about the parsha. In addition, the rabbi has ten children – all respectful, kind and generous, an important part of the education going on in the yeshivas.
Governor Hochul’s position on Chassidic schools is that “she’s committed to ensuring that every student receives a world-class education.” Aren’t we all?
Keep your hands off the yeshivas.
Scott Schwartz
Howard Beach, Queens
Review Rectifications
Thank you for Professor Michael Berenbaum’s review of the Ken Burns …. PBS (Sept. 16) documentary, but there are two inaccuracies.
First, the statement that in 1940 no one could know what would happen to the Jews in 1941 or 1942 ignores the vast numbers of Polish Jews already murdered by then and the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto, which was walled in by the end of the year with resultant fatalities. After the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, mass murder was already a fact and its later acceleration was no surprise.
Second, there were over three million Jews in Poland in 1939, not two million as stated.
Overall, an excellent article.
Harvey (Chaim) Herbert
Via email
Tip of the Iceberg
I read with interest the Marc Gronich article about the New York State Education Department’s attempt to regulate private schools and yeshivas and The Jewish Press editorial about the New York Times’ perspectives on yeshiva education (both Sept. 16). While I am a staunch proponent of quality education for every child, encroaching on institutional religious freedoms is just the tip of the iceberg of government intrusion and control. Just look at the state of America’s public schools and what parents are battling.
If you haven’t been paying attention over the last 20 months, I submit to you that we are no longer living in a democracy. The definition of a dictator is a political figure that has control over every sphere of your life. Need some examples of how your rights, choices, representative government and free speech have been eroded? I will cite some actions taken by our divisive, dictator-in-chief that should strike fear in the heart of every American.
- Re-entering the Iran nuclear deal – with Russia negotiating on my behalf – despite opposition from every responsible political leader.
- Depleting our emergency petroleum reserves – paid for by the American taxpayer at $30 per barrel – but willing to buy oil from Iran and Venezuela at $100 per barrel – to be paid for by the American taxpayer.
- Willing to destroy America’s economy by declaring war on fossil fuels, without regard that inflation is at a 40-year high, while buying groceries or paying for gas or paying for utilities is crippling the working class.
- Forgiving student loans even though the calculated cost is an additional $2000 per year per taxpayer. Tough luck for those who responsibly repaid their student loans or did not attend college.
- Withdrawing from Afghanistan without informing our European allies, and abandoning American citizens and our Afghan partners. Abandoning Bagram Air Force base and leaving billions of dollars of the newest/best military equipment (paid for by the American taxpayer) for the Taliban, against the advice of the military.
Were you, an American citizen and voter, asked your view on any of these issues? Were they on the ballot somewhere?
The November mid-terms are on the horizon. If we don’t put Republicans in the House and Senate to curb some of these egregious policies, America is lost.
Theresa Rosenfeld
New York, N.Y.
Right Problem, Wrong Source
Reader Alan Weintraub asserts that The Jewish Press had “forgotten that Trump and his allies attempted to undo the will of the American people for their own political desire…” My understanding is that we the people should not forget that only 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin separated Biden and Trump from a tie in the Electoral College. The news revealing the Hunter Biden laptop and its incriminating connections to candidate Biden was canceled from the mainstream media and social media right before the election. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa asserted in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland that whistleblowers accused the FBI and Justice Department of burying dirt on President Biden’s son by incorrectly dismissing the intelligence as ‘disinformation.’
The New York Times admitted the Hunter Biden laptop story was real – 17 months after the New York Post was banned for printing the story. As the New York Post lampooned concerning the Times: “All the news that’s fit to print – once Biden is elected.”
Post-election polls indicated that 10 percent of Biden voters would have switched their vote to Trump if they had had knowledge of the Hunter laptop affair. Mathematically speaking, only a four percent switch in voting would have swung the election to the MAGA majority.
According to the factual evidence of these polls and the fake news non-coverage of the Hunter laptop, there is no other conclusion to be made other than that democracy was banned in the presidential election of 2020. Additionally, the 2020 election reeks with the specter of voter fraud. Since 1975, mail-in voting has been banned in France because of fears of voter fraud. Political journalist Mollie Hemmingway writes in her book Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, that a 2005 bipartisan commission co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter “found that absentee balloting was the largest source of potential fraud in American elections.”
Furthermore, Hemmingway concludes, “Those in control of America’s most powerful institutions – business, media, academia, bureaucracies, and even the FBI – are engaged in a permanent struggle against half the country to bring about radical social and political changes.”
I agree with Mr. Weintraub with the notion that democracy is being challenged. However, the political left often projects its maladies onto the opposition. It is actually the MAGA movement that is attempting to restore democratic, free elections to a nation whose one-party control of the executive and legislative branches along with its selective politicization of justice, in cahoots with oligarchs, the news media, and academia increasingly resembles the dictatorships of banana republics, Cuba, North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union.
David Ferster
Great Neck, N.Y.
Security Camera Alert
I am writing this letter as a warning to caregivers with home healthcare aides.
This horrific incident happened on a Shabbos afternoon. After the lunch seudah I asked the aide to transfer my husband from his wheelchair to his bed for a nap. I remained in the dining room, which is adjacent to his room. When I entered his room some time later to check on him, I found him stretched out on the floor! “He slid off the chair,” the aide said.
It wasn’t until after Havdalah that I was able to review the camera monitor. I almost fainted when I saw what actually happened. The aide was incompetent and could not transfer him successfully. Instead of calling for help, she wrapped a sheet around him and for thirty minutes tried to lift him to the bed or back to the chair. My husband was non-verbal and could not call out. The aide then climbed on top of the bed, stood up and tried to hoist him that way. He was pushed, pulled, shoved against the rails of the hospital bed, and finally went rolling on the floor, injuring himself.
If I didn’t have the camera I would never have known about this sickening assault. A security camera is not a luxury. It is an absolute necessity.
I would also advise caregivers to do extensive research before signing with an agency. Try to get first-hand reports from people who have used that agency. Abuse is not only physical. When an aide lacks the skills and cannot even accomplish the basic activities of daily living, the patient is abused. Neglect is abuse. Don’t keep silent. Don’t let the agency frighten you about the scarcity of aides. Complain, and if your complaints are unanswered go further; file a complaint to the New York State Department of Health. Call your elected officials and prominent askanim. Agencies must be held accountable for the quality and training of their aides. You and your loved ones deserve better.
Annette Lax
Via email
