JDC Shell Corporation The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s shell corporation in Cyprus has drawn more than Russian scrutiny, as a July 25 article reports; it has also drawn indignation and anger in the Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union (“Charity’s Shell Corporation Draws Russian Scrutiny”). Asher Ostrin, the head of the JDC’s Russian…
Belke, Rivke and Gitl Philologos writes of children who took their mothers’ names (“How Did Jews Choose Their Last Names?”, July 18. I know of no other culture where there are surnames based on women’s first names. A remarkable number of names are based on Yiddish women’s names or diminutives of these names, which often…
Lithuania’s Obligations I find it both sickening and frustrating that the Lithuanian government still tolerates antisemitism (“Europe’s Shameful Honoring of Vilnius,” July 4). I was in Vilna the day the neo-Nazis mentioned by opinion writer Rabbi Andrew Baker made their march down Gedimino Prospekt. I did not know about the march until the next day,…
Lithuania Has Earned Its Place in Europe Regarding Rabbi Andrew Baker’s July 4 opinion article “Europe’s Shameful Honoring of Vilnius,” I am amazed by the persistence of efforts to deny Lithuania its European identity. Through the centuries, my countrymen have struggled to stay in Europe and remain Lithuanians. History was brutal to us. Wars, occupations…
Not All Prisoners Are ‘Underbelly of Society’ Rabbi Lon Moskowitz is quoted in a June 13 article as saying, “We work with the underbelly of society, the spiritually void, the morally empty” (“Demand for Kosher Cuisine Swells Ranks of Jewish Prison Chaplains”). I am a 64-year-old inmate in the federal penal system, and I don’t…
Sobibor Wasn’t Polish A June 13 Shmooze article on Holocaust-themed graphic novels refers to Sobibor as a “Polish extermination camp” (“Comic Explores Shoah”). After a relatively long absence of such mindlessly insulting and history-falsifying nonsense, we were shocked to again find it again in print — and all the more so in a Jewish newspaper…
Chaplaincy Takes All A June 13 article accurately notes the growing need for Jewish chaplains in California and the fact that, as Rabbi Lon Moskowitz quite rightly states, there “simply aren’t enough chaplains to fill all the vacancies” (“Demand for Kosher Cuisine Swells Ranks of Jewish Prison Chaplains”). Indeed the need is even greater than…
The Archdiocese Didn’t Take This Window I used to live at 3060 Hull Avenue in the Bronx, right next door to the Mosholu Jewish Center (“A Bronx Tale: What Did the Archdiocese Do With Those Stained-Glass Windows?” May 30). My family and I were members from the early 1940s up until it closed. Rabbi Hershel…
What Zechariah Foresaw Yehezkel Dror’s May 23 opinion article was spot on target (“When Survival of the Jewish People Is at Stake, There’s No Place for Morals”). He correctly maintains that “if the threat is sufficiently grave, the use of weapons of mass destruction by Israel would be justified if likely to be necessary for…
Problems With Postville Go Beyond Meat Prices Federal agents raid the AgriProcessors plant and all the Forward chooses to focus on a possible shortage of kosher meat (“Raid on Kosher Slaughterhouse Sparks Fears of Meat Shortage,” May 23)? Where is your sense of indignation? Where is your sense of rage? Isn’t the Forward offended by…
The Survivor Who Made Schindler Film Happen An April 25 article neglected to mention the person who was the catalyst for getting author Thomas Keneally interested in the story of Oskar Schindler: the late Leopold Pfefferberg, later known as Leopold Page (“Schindler’s 100th Birthday Is Private Affair for Survivors”). A Schindler Jew, Leo urged my…
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