Not Critics
We were surprised and disappointed by the headline and thrust of your article (“Israelis Stunned By Lack of Help for Sandy Victims,” November 23). We came here, as a group of Israeli army veterans, to build bridges between ourselves as Israelis and the people who were so severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy in Far Rockaway, Seagate and Brighton Beach. We did not leave our jobs and our studies to come to New York to criticize, as your article implies. Your headline puts us in the position of being “critics and know-it-alls” — a stereotype that we do not represent and that we believe is not accurate.
We note that, in fact, at the very end of your article you state “The Ein Prat members did not place direct blame on FEMA or the Red Cross, but were taken aback at the scale of the devastation.” We were indeed shocked, and we did everything we could to relieve suffering. We met wonderful people along the way who were working tirelessly to do the same. Your article would have been more informative to your readers had it focused on the facts of what we did for the devastated residents of those communities rather than on preconceived stereotypes.
Lynne Galler and the Alumni of Ein Prat Israel
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