Letters
Don’t compare immigrant separations to the Holocaust
I am writing in response to recent comparisons made in many media outlets between the immigration crisis and the Holocaust. I sympathize with the separation of the children from their mothers and agree that measures should be taken by both parties to ensure a resolution as quickly as possible.
However what these media outlets are doing is ethically and morally wrong. They are comparing the current immigration crisis to the Holocaust . As the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust victims and survivors from Buchenwald and Auschwitz I am outraged. The illegal immigrants and their families were not forcibly thrown out of their homes by the United States, placed in cramped cattle cars without food and water, and sent to fake showers, real gas chambers, and ovens to be cremated. Many during the Holocaust were separated from their parents to be exterminated. While the conditions in the detention centers are not idea , I am sure they are far better than those offered to the children in the concentration camps in Europe during WWII, when six million Jews were murdered, exterminated for no reason other than being Jewish.
The Jews did not voluntarily run to these concentration camps. There were no classes, movies, or doctors, not enough food or water for those who were kept alive in the camps. What about all the photos the liberating armies took of the survivors and how they looked in the concentration camps? What about the piles of corpses stacked on top of each other? How could anyone compare the atrocities committed to the Jews then with the current events?
By doing so not only are these media outlets minimizing and belittling Nazi atrocities, they are sending a message to the world that our country is guilty of annihilating innocent men, women, and children for no reason, as the Nazis did. If only the men, women, and children of the Holocaust would have received the same treatment as current illegal immigrants and children.
My parents are alive and fully aware of the immigration issues . My father just turned 90 and my mother is 84. Both are very independent and active members in their community in Queens. They are also outraged. They have to live with the horrible memories of the atrocities from 1939 through 1945, when they were liberated. Their parents were murdered in front of their eyes. Their brothers, sisters, cousins were sent to gas chambers. The majority of our family in Poland was wiped off the face of the earth by the Nazi atrocities. They were not buried. They were cremated. How do you think they feel?
The journalists and those guilty of making these comparisons owe an apology to every Holocaust survivor as well as to every mother, father, and child brutally murdered by the Nazis. Shame on them for comparing the atrocities committed by the Nazis with the current political situation of the illegal immigrants and children.
If you don’t agree with the policies find some other way to protest and stop making this irrational analogy.
Dr. Renee Reifer Fishweicher
Fair Lawn
Prouser’s right about Sessions
Rabbi Joseph Prouser, a serious student of American history, has hit one out of the park in his piece about Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (“Biblical reference by Sessions is malign in every respect,” June 29).
Rabbi Prouser points out the basis of our Founding Fathers’ view of the Bible — one that is counter to Sessions’ interpretation. America, at its beginning, was right in sync with the distrust of absolute monarchy reflected in the Israelite experience. From Samuel on down, the king was always to be regarded with suspicion.
Selective citing of biblical references is nothing new. In fact, it is endemic not only in America, but also among Islamic jihadists who cite sections of the Koran to justify their violence and terrorism. So AG Sessions finds himself in some odd company.
I too wish to contribute a biblical citation. In last week’s Haftarah portion, the words of Micah were read. He was one of the 12 minor prophets. The reading concludes with a famous statement on morality and God (Micah 6:8): “It has been told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you/Only to do justice, And to love goodness, And to walk humbly with your God.”
If Jeff Sessions and his boss would like some different bedtime reading, I suggest that the Prophet Micah would be a good place to start.
Eric Weis
Wayne
Remember why the refugees flee
The horrors occurring on our borders and beyond have the attention of the nation. However, one aspect has not had enough attention. That is the relationship between our decades-long failure to solve the drug problem and our delegation to the criminals of the role of supplier.
Our country casts a dark shadow on the Central American nations fro which these refugees are fleeing. It is our demand for illegal drugs that creates the criminal syndicates that control the supply of drugs and therefore become so rich, powerful, and violent that no local governments can control them. The helpless people at our doorstep are our responsibility because their plight is caused by us.
Until we have a same drug policy under which American addicts can obtain their needed drugs through legal channels, and not from criminals, we will be complicit in the violence and crimes that propel these desperate men and women and children to our border.
It is high time that we legalized drugs and created a sane, legal way for addicts to obtain them. By doing so, not only would we reduce the flow of refugees, but we would greatly benefit both the people of Central American and our own people.
Norman H. Rosen
Englewood
Be careful walking home from shul in the dark
A quick errand immediately after Shabbat had me driving on local streets, passing people still walking home from synagogue. As I drove I was shaken to see how much darkness, poor street lighting, dark clothing and headlights from oncoming cars created low visibility and subsequently a dangerous environment for tragedy.
This isn’t a new issue in suburban communities, but I do not see many people actually wearing the reflector straps offered by many synagogues. I didn’t notice one person from the exiting crowd making use of these important items.
One suggestion: Perhaps near the exit doors synagogues could provide a ready, permanent supply of a reflective patch that could easily clip onto clothing. There may be a greater likelihood for people to take one and use it.
Some reminder for safer nighttime walking is especially crucial during the warmer months.
Susan Berger
Teaneck
comments