Fan Mail

Barring any of the nightmare scenarios posited by those who worried about the results being literally too close to call, the presidential election will have been decided by the time this column appears in print. But the Monitor was still busy early this week sorting through the daunting number of letters and e-mails that began coming in almost immediately after The Jewish Press endorsed George W. Bush two weeks ago.

A sampling of those responses, both pro and con, appeared in last week’s Letters to the Editor section. That issue also featured a follow-up editorial (in which we reiterated the reasons for our endorsement) that, understandably, elicited a significantly smaller out-pouring from readers. And while it seemed pointless to rehash the arguments yet again in Letters, there are a few notes from readers that merited mention by the Monitor, particularly those that touched on the role of a newspaper in shaping public opinion.

Michelle Lieberman of Manhattan, while agreeing with the endorsement of Mr. Bush, worried about the consequences in the event of a Kerry victory: “I fear that if Kerry ends up in the White House, The Jewish Press will hold back on criticizing his administration out of concern that people will say, ‘What do you expect? They were never for him in the first place, and now they’re just looking to take issue with anything he does.’ Maybe it would have been better if The Jewish Press hadn’t endorsed anyone, so that no one would be able to accuse you of having an ax to grind.”

Reader Shimon Greif, a Bush supporter, e-mailed his concern that by endorsing Bush, we would drive some readers to vote for Kerry: “I know several non-Orthodox Jews, liberals all, who keep an eye on The Jewish Press but who disagree with everything the paper stands for. One of them once told me he buys the paper to ‘know what the enemy is thinking.’ The fact that you so enthusiastically came out for President Bush will only make such people more certain that they are correct in supporting Mr. Kerry, since their attitude is that anything Orthodox Jews stand for is something they should oppose.”

Filed under “We’ll Take It As A Compliment” is a letter from Sherri Reinman, a Kerry stalwart from Brooklyn who says she’s an Orthodox Jew but a “liberal through and through.” Ms. Reinman is unhappy that The Jewish Press is read by so many of her easily duped inferiors: “It’s a shame that a paper with such pull can sway all these gullible Jews who will run out to vote for an idiot like Bush simply because you tell them that John Kerry is the devil incarnate.”

Bruce Bekritsky, an attorney in Mineola who, like Ms. Reinman, disagrees with our endorsement, engages in a bit of Bush-bashing and attributes to us powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. He writes: “I have to congratulate The Jewish Press on possibly being one of those forces which have galvanized the Orthodox Jewish community behind President Bush. I think it is absolutely amazing that this fool has the support he does, and I believe that your paper is largely responsible for it.”

While Mr. Bekritsky appreciated the pro-Kerry op-ed by Avraham Sinensky which ran in last week’s issue, he feels we “are biased against the Democrats and the Democratic party…. I think you and your paper [should] rename yourself The Jewish Republican.”

The Monitor’s personal favorite so far is an overheated missive from an attorney in Manhattan (he’ll go nameless here) who compared Bush to Hitler (by now an all too familiar refrain among liberals and leftists who in one swoop slander an American president and belittle the enormity of the Holocaust) and suggested that we “rename the paper ‘The Kapo Press,’ because if you’d been around in Germany in the 1930’s you’d have urged your readers to vote for the Nazis.”