Letters
Lawn signs and ‘bad Jews’
Eytan Apter’s op-ed on the topic of lawn signs was a timely topic in our house this past week.
Our home proudly flies an American flag as well as an Israeli flag, and our lawn has signs in support of various candidates. We are proud Israeli citizens — one of us served for five years in a combat antiterror unit of the Israel Border Guard (Mishmar haGvul). When we first put the Israeli flag out, we had some trepidation due to the highly charged climate of antisemitism in which we currently find ourselves, but we were not deterred. What we did not have the foresight to see, though, was that the threats would not come from external forces but rather from members of our local Jewish community, within our own neighborhood.
In recent weeks, we have been subjected to invective hurled at us when we were out on our lawn, passersby indicating that we needed to “pick a side,” that we could not be both pro Israel AND voting for various candidates whose lawn signs were on our property. The son of the rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in our area (a total stranger to us) created a meme with a picture of our home, the flags, the lawn signs, an arrow pointing to the Israeli flag, and a lawn sign with the note, “Pick a Team,” and posted it on Instagram for his thousands of followers to see. As if HE can school US on what it means to be pro-Israel.
But the most egregious episode occurred on the first day of Sukkot. A well-known member of the local Jewish community (again, a total stranger to us) walked by our home, began to scream that we must TAKE DOWN THE ISRAELI flag as we were “disloyal Jews.” And if that was not bad enough, he followed that up with “There is a reason that God did not give you children!” He proceeded in this vein, to the horror of numerous witnesses, for several minutes, spewing further insults but returning more than a few times to the phrase about our childlessness.
Our community has reached an inflection point. The trope of “bad Jews” vs “good Jews” is a familiar one, but not one we expected to hear in our own Jewish community from fellow Jews!
As the Apter article indicates, now is the time for leadership to speak out forcefully and decisively about the moral crisis that has infected segments of our community. No one speaks for God, and no one gets to tell us to take down our Israeli flag. If your politics impels you to scream invective and hurl charges of “disloyalty” at any Jew or an Israel supporter, it is time for a very deep and sustained Cheshbon haNefesh — soul searching). It is long past due.
Ruthie Levi
Rabbi Bob Carroll
Teaneck
Foxman and Trump Derangement Syndrome
Sadly, Abraham Foxman, like many Americans, appears to have a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. He bypasses mentioning all the things Trump did for Jews while president, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, authorizing Israel sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, the Abraham Accords (if that been anyone other than Trump, he or she would have been awarded the Nobel Peace prize), and Executive Order 13899 giving more protections to Jewish college students. The list goes on. Mr. Foxman also falsely claims Project 2025 as Trump’s when Trump has very clearly stated he has nothing do with it and does not agree with it. But I guess that truth doesn’t fit Mr. Foxman’s narrative. His attitude seems to be that it’s better to stick with the same party you have always voted for rather than recognizing that you are going against your own interests. The Democratic Party has been infested with some of the most vile anti-Semites in recent years (AOC, Omar, etc.) and the current administration is no better. Aside from giving money to Iran to help finance the October 7 attacks, the Biden-Harris administration has done nothing but try to hamper Israel’s efforts in defending itself and rooting out Hamas. Biden-Harris warned Israel not to go into Rafah, accused Israel of not providing enough humanitarian aid, threatened an arms embargo and just the other day, Harris agreed with a pro-Palestinian heckler that Israel is committing genocide. That is nothing short of a blood libel. The administration has also leaked Israel’s plans against Iran. Is that being a friend of Israel? And let’s not forget the horrific scenes on college campuses across the U.S. where Jewish students are being violently attacked and harassed on a daily basis. What have Biden and Harris done to protect Jewish college students? Not a thing, other than to say those pro-Palestinian protesters “have a point.” As the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, I am appalled that Mr. Foxman would tell other Jews to vote for the party that statistically is much less pro-Israel than the Republican Party is. Maybe someday those statistics will change, but until then, it is suicidal to encourage Jews to vote for Kamala just because you don’t like the other candidate’s personality.
Beatrice Baum
Bergenfield
Foxman promotes the far left
I read with dismay the Op Ed from Abraham Foxman published on October 18, 2024. Once again Mr. Foxman has proven himself to be less interested in promoting American Jews and Israel than he is in promoting himself as a strident propagandist for the far left. He knows or should know that former President Trump has expressly disclaimed any involvement with or support for the Project 21 proposal put forth by Heritage Foundation, and that it is not and has never been included in the Republican Party Platform. Yet he regurgitates this absolutely false claim in his Op Ed. If you don’t like President Trump it is perfectly clear that you don’t think it was good to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem and finally recognize that it is the Capital of Israel, you hate the Abraham Accords that he fashioned as the first big advance in the effort to mark peace between Israel and the Arab states in decades, you object to the fact the Trump failed to start any new wars for American kids to die in, you really love the non-treaty that allows Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon before the end of this decade and opened up a flow of billions of dollars for Iran’s terror proxies and which funded 10/7, you object to keeping inflation under 2% for his presidential term, you object to his recognition that the Golan Heights must remain a part of Israel, you want wide open borders with criminals and terrorist given open invitation to come into our neighborhoods without the bother of being vetted or expelled, and of course you hate the idea of a President with observant Jews in his immediate family. Foxman obviously approves of Harris/Biden stabbing Israel in the back in the UN on a number of key votes, their interference in Israel’s elections, their payment of $6-Billion as ransom to Iran, their refusal to enforce sanctions that had left Iran without funds for their terror proxies, their deliberate slights to Israel’s democratically elected leader, including, by actually boycotting his appearance before a joint session of Congress, and you are apparently enjoying the resurgence of Antisemitism throughout American colleges and Blue State cities (which never occurred under Trump’s watch and which never would have been tolerated). In short, it is very hard to watch Jewish voices misstating facts and attacking the most pro-Israel and pro-America President since Harry Truman. Mr. Foxman is a great voice for the far left, and not so much for America, American Jews or Israel.
Richard Berger
Wyckoff
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