Rabbi Stands By Words A May 9 editorial compares me to Reverend Jeremiah Wright by accusing me of “inflammatory rhetoric” and of publicly hurling “strong epithets” in 1995 at then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, including calling his government “the Rabin Judenrat” (“Wright and Wrong”). The latter accusation is false. Here is some of my “inflammatory rhetoric,”…
Hold China Accountable Opinion writers Antoine Halff and Shalom Solomon Ward question why China should bear the brunt of the Jewish community’s ire when India, Russia and Japan also import their share of oil from Sudan (“Enough Misguided Maligning of China,” May 2). But facts are facts. China is Sudan’s largest customer. According to records…
‘Peoplehood’ Has Utility As a Descriptive Term The descriptor “peoplehood,” as a term purporting to collect all Jews under one umbrella, always seemed like a hopeful way of asserting that I have something in common with a Satmar Hasid in Kiryas Joel (“Peoplehood: There’s No There There,” April 25). Now Arts & Culture columnist Jay…
Make Seder for Adults I enjoyed the East Village Mamele’s April 11 Fast Forward column, but it raises some issues that she probably did not intend to raise (“A Kid-Friendly Seder”). Being a regular at our local Conservative synagogue and having belonged to several other synagogues over the years, I have become very concerned about…
Both Clinton, Obama Reached Out in Pa. As one of the rabbis who attended separate meetings in Philadelphia earlier this month with Senator Hillary Clinton’s surrogates and those of Senator Barack Obama, I thought an April 11 article on how the campaigns are engaging the Pennsylvania rabbinical community was incomplete (“Obama Takes Campaign Into Pa….
Aliyah for Millionaires The idea of giving financial breaks to millionaires in order to encourage their aliyah is sickening in the extreme (“Israel Targets Millionaires in Bid to Up Aliyah,” April 4). These people need tax breaks? Talk about class warfare. I am constantly bombarded by charities who claim they need money for Israeli kids…
Spitzer Story Was No More Than Tribalism Boy am I relieved; it turns out that Eliot Spitzer wasn’t really Jewish after all (“Fallen Eliot Spitzer Was a Favorite Son of a Tribe He Never Quite Embraced,” March 21). Thank you to the Forward for publicly kicking him out of the community, so that now we…
Spitzer Disregarded the Health of His Family Eliot Spitzer’s actions were reprehensible not just for the immorality of it, nor simply because of the inherent hypocrisy of his public positions, but for an altogether different reason as well — one that opinion writer Alan Dershowitz missed entirely (“Spitzer Has Sinned, But It’s Our Sex Obsession…
Knesset Was Right To Enact Smoking Ban According to Israeli government statistics, smoking is responsible for 1,800 deaths in Israel every year (“Israelis Fume Over Smoking Ban on Army Bases,” February 29/March 7). That number far exceeds the 1,200 deaths claimed by terrorist attacks since the outbreak of first intifada. To stem the epidemic of…
Rabbi Was No Mob Boss Contrary to Arts & Culture writer Allan Nadler’s description in a January 25 article, Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin was an innovative and charismatic Hasidic leader in Russia and Galicia during the first half of the 19th century (“Righteous Indignation: How Are We To Understand the Alleged Spinka Scandal?”). During…
A Generosity of Spirit Rabbi Irwin Kula’s February 22 opinion article on the Tridentine Mass is a welcome voice of reason on this issue (“Enough Tridentine Mass Hysteria”). As a Catholic I have heard and read many disparaging comments, both within and without the Church, about the petition in the Good Friday prayers calling for…
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