Trump Stands Alone
Supporting Israel
There has been a recent cascade of nations large and small recognizing a Palestinian state. This, coupled with the direction the American Democratic Party is heading, as The Jewish Press laid out in a recent editorial, “Storm Signs in Democratic Party Over Israel” (September 3), spells bad news for Israel and the Jews.
Among all these ominous signs, President Trump is the only major world leader standing firmly as Israel’s defender. Yet in spite of this one ray of sunshine among the threatening black storm clouds, the vast majority of Jews still hate, vilify, and work hard to bring him down.
I’m sure political scientists and psychologists may be able to shed some light on this lemming-like, self-destructive tendency, but the simple fact remains that Jews themselves are at the forefront of trying to aid in the demise of their own and their children’s future.
A more ominous question is how long even President Trump, who is very politically savvy, will continue to protect Israel in the face of all the opposition that he faces for his stance, including from Jews themselves. If he stops his support (or when he leaves office), American and Israeli Jews are going to be in very dire straits.
“Never Again” has lasted for only 80 years. How much longer it remains true can be influenced by us.
Max Wisotsky
Highland Park, N.J.
Life Lessons from
Softball and Baseball
Rabbi Yosef Weinstock in his “Is It Proper?” answer to the question “Is it proper to attend a major league or minor league baseball game?” (September 5) highlights the connections between Judaism and baseball. I used to play in a slow-pitch softball shul intramural league, and as a rabbi, I once spoke about this in a sermon. There are indeed many connections between the two.
Judaism prohibits stealing, and in slow-pitch baseball, so does the rulebook. You are not allowed to steal a base. Softballs are made with a softer material than standard baseballs. This can serve as a reminder that in our interpersonal relationships, we should always be soft like a reed rather than stiff and unyielding like a cedar (Ta’anis 20).
Moreover, softballs are larger than standard baseballs, symbolic of the large body of mitzvot, as Rabbi Chananya ben Akashyah said: “The Holy One, blessed is He, wished to make the Jewish people meritorious; therefore, He gave them a superabundance of Torah and mitzvot.” (Makkot 23).
In slow-pitch baseball, you aren’t allowed to bunt the ball – you have to come out swinging. This too offers a lesson. In life, we can’t be satisfied with half-measures. We must commit fully to our goals and values. In every swing of the bat, the follow-through is just as crucial as the swing. So, too, in life, we must follow through on our resolutions, especially as we begin a New Year.
Interestingly, while hardball has nine players on a team, softball teams consist of ten players, with an extra outfielder. It’s the perfect sport if you can’t get a minyan in shul. Just “Take me out to the ball game!”
Finally, baseball reminds us of the Torah that starts with the letter beis (as does every Gemara, which starts on daf beis) – the true “bas–is” of Divine wisdom.
And if anyone still thinks there’s no Torah in baseball… well, they’re just way off base!
Rabbi Mordechai Bulua
Montreal
To Combat Mamdani & Co.,
Educate the Masses About Israel
Earlier today, I submitted a letter to The Jewish Press in appreciation of Teresa Rosenfeld’s letter to the editor in the September 26 edition, in which she expressed the need for a “constructive suggestion on how to get one million Jews in New York City to coalesce around one candidate.” I suggested the WhatsApp group created by Samantha Epstein-Rubinstein called Jews of NYC – Get Out The Vote as an effective means to that end. I still think that that group, or a similar WhatsApp group, is needed for other elections where anti-Israel candidates have a chance of winning.
However, in view of Mayor Adams’ exit from the N.Y.C. mayoral race, it seems evident to me that the only choice for Jewish voters who support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is now Andrew Cuomo.
Curtis Sliwa has proven himself to be a friend to the Jewish community and an opponent of antisemitism over many years, at times sending in the Guardian Angels to protect Jewish communities from antisemitic violent threats. Unfortunately, he has no chance of winning, even with the Jewish vote. We wish him the best in all his future endeavors, and we should also wish Mayor Eric Adams the best in all his future endeavors, political and otherwise; he, too, has been a longtime friend to the Jewish community and opponent of antisemitism.
Another problem is that 43% of N.Y.C. Jews are expected to vote for Mamdani (including 67% of young Jews). Therefore, we should also develop outreach programs directed at these anti-Israel Jews, similar to Rabbi Buchwald’s NJOP or Rabbi Mark Wildes MJE; however, the goal would be to persuade them to vote against anti-Israel candidates who seek to delegitimize Israel’s existence.
Arguments to win them over to voting against anti-Israel candidates could include the following: A vote for an anti-Israel candidate is a vote to deny Israel the means to defend the lives of the many Jewish (and some non-Jewish) refugee groups now living in Israel with nowhere else to go. Israel is home and refuge to brown-skinned Mizrachi Jews indigenous to the Middle East, originally driven out of Arab countries, including Iraq, Egypt, and Morocco by methods including massacres, theft of property, and imprisonment. This took place after 1948; these Jews had absolutely no part in the 1948 event that Arabs call the Nakba, and were forced out of their Arab countries involuntarily. They had no place else to flee to except Israel.
Israel is also home and refuge to Bene Israel (Indian Jews), Ethiopian Falasha Jews, and brown-skinned Yemeni Jews, all of whom have nowhere else to go and who risk persecution and discrimination elsewhere. In addition, Israel is refuge to some Vietnamese boat people and their descendants whom nobody else would help; to Palestinian LGBTQ people at risk of honor killings by their families or legal penalties from the Palestinian Authority; to Druze Arabs at risk of persecution and massacres in Muslim-majority states; to Baha’i at risk of persecution and massacres in Muslim-majority states; to refugees from Soviet antisemitic oppression; and to over half of the world’s remaining Jewish population. Israel is also home to about two million Arab citizens of Muslim and Christian faiths.
We must teach anti-Israel Jews that in Arabic, the pro-Palestinian jingle goes: “From the river to the sea, Palestine is Islamiye (Islamic).” That is real apartheid: The alternative to Israel, a country where all citizens whether non-Jewish or Jewish have equal rights under the law, would be an Islamic republic wherein Christians and Samaritans and any Jews not immediately killed would be treated as dhimmis, subject to special taxes and other discriminatory measures – in effect, second-class citizens. As for the Druze and Baha’i and Yezidis, unlike Christians and Jews, they are not considered “people with a sacred book” and would not even have dhimmi second–class citizen status; they have historically been subjected to discrimination and sometimes massacres in various Middle Eastern countries, including Syria, as have non-Sunni Muslim sects, including Alawites.
Lawrence A. Silverman
Via E-mail