Letters
In support of Trump at AIPAC
It was not Donald Trump who undid the plans to come together, whatever that may mean, but the new president of AIPAC, Lillian Pinkus, and her fellow “leaders” who saw fit to apologize for remarks made by Trump that were met by cheers from those thousands present that did not fit into their definition of permitted speech (“Trump undoes AIPAC’s plans to ‘come together,’” March 25).
“There are people in our AIPAC family who were deeply hurt last night, and for that we are deeply sorry.” “We are deeply disappointed that so many people applauded a sentiment we neither agree with or condone.” Just because she is president does not give her the right to apologize on behalf of her organization. I find her remarks deeply offensive.
Somehow I don’t understand how Trump and those who don’t see Obama as the savior of the U.S., Israel, and the world affect the bipartisanship of AIPAC. It appears that there may be a divide between the leadership of AIPAC, who will seemingly do anything to keep the doors to the Obama administration open, and those — perhaps more principled — who are willing to point out that the emperor’s clothes do not exist. Bipartisan means at least two views. It means that there may be more than one truth. To lockstep with the views of one segment without giving a venue to the thoughts of another is not unity.
The vilification, distortions, and harping on the changes of thoughts of largely one candidate does not bode well for our political system. The press and media should attempt to exhibit more journalism and less editorial contents in the news sections of their respective media.
The Bergen Record carried an opinion piece on Friday, March 25, from Rabbi Samuel Herzfeld. I will quote his words. “So when Donald Trump addressed the group’s annual policy conference at the Verizon Center on Monday, I was sitting six rows away from the stage. And as Trump began his speech, I rose from my seat. I spread my tallit over my shoulders, raised my hands up high, and declared: ‘This man is wicked. He inspires racists and bigots. He encourages violence. Do not listen to him.’ With every cell in my body I felt the obligation to declare his wickedness to the world.” What a light onto the world this rabbi exhibits.
It seems that there are those in power who are willing to fight for our right to express any views we want, as long as they parallel theirs. Hopefully as the campaign for president progresses journalism will return and the editorials will remain on the editorial and opinion pages.
Howard J. Cohn
New Milford
More Trump love
It amazes me how, just like almost all the other U.S. media, the Jewish Standard only prints letters bashing Trump. I would think that a Jewish newspaper would not stand up for “the Establishment” which has never treated Jews well. Everything that Trump says is to change the status quo….do we Jews really want to go forward as we are now?
Doesn’t any Jew out there care that Jewish students in colleges in many, many states our being treated to blatant anti-Semitism, just like in the Nazi days? Trump would crack down on that, he would never allow it. (I know this because a family member works for him and he is definitely pro-Israel and pro-Jewish.) Our present government, though, stands down and allows this to happen. Where do you think that is going to lead, if allowed to continue? Our present government is strangely quiet about “freedom of speech” when it comes to Jews in American universities.
Furthermore, Trump has not said to keep all Muslims out forever, he is just saying until they can be vetted as to their intentions. Do you know that right now, airplanes are bringing refugees at night into American airports. Why? To sneak them in and not check their qualifications? Why? Is that better than having them vetted first? We have a wonderful country, the best in the world. Almost all of our ancestors were immigrants who came here legally. Why are illegal immigrants allowed in now?
And as far as a wall, give me a break. We are the only country in the world which does not have protected borders. We would not be the first country to build a wall. How about the Great Wall of China? The Berlin Wall? The wall in Israel? If there were no walls in those countries, there would be no country.
Israel is at risk with the current administration which has allowed Iran to basically do whatever it wants. What kind of an administration allowed that to happen? An administration who does not stand up for Israel and has betrayed it at every turn.
I, frankly, don’t care what Trump says as long as he is not part of the present establishment and will protect and defend the Shangri-la we live in, which is these United States, and not be afraid to stand up to anyone and do the right thing, which is recognize Israel as country with a right to exist.
Ruta Lutzer
Saddle River
Loves Trump, hates Clinton
It was only when I was about three-quarters through Rabbi Kirshner’s opinion piece (“The rhetoric before the storm,” March 25) comparing Donald Trump to Hitler did I start laughing, when I realized that this was a typical Purim-spiel article where one satirically says or writes things that are opposite of all rational logic for humorous effect. What finally tipped me off was the rabbi’s list of Hitler-like qualities that Donald Trump has. It included Mr. Trump’s reprehensible desire “to build a wall to keep Mexicans out.” Seriously, how un-American to want to have secure borders to keep out illegal immigrants, prevent drug smuggling, and prevent the infiltration of murderous radical Islamic terrorists.
Rabbi Kirshner thinks that Mr. Trump’s advocating for the murder of “innocent family members” of terrorists is a war crime. What Mr. Trump has quite morally said is that if, for example, pre-9/11 Osama Bin-Laden had been in his compound with his “innocent family members” and the U.S. could have blown up his compound and prevented the deaths of thousands of American men, women, and children, he would give the order without a second thought. If the rabbi thinks that is a war crime, then what he is suggesting is a crime against humanity, and I hope he can with a good conscience live with of all those dead or mourning truly innocent American family members who were victims of radical Islamic terror.
The candidate that is the most “demagogic, elitist, and separatist” and is antithetical to the Judeo-Christian (note: not Muslim) morals this country was founded upon is Hillary Clinton. Hillary and Bill Clinton constantly feel that they are above the law and are the most remarkable pathological liars. Does anyone seriously believe that the reason Mrs. Clinton did not use her official State Department email system, even when she was at a desktop computer in her office, was because it was inconvenient to carry two mobile devices? How many more emails with clearly classified information have to come out before her statements that she never received or sent classified information are patently lies? The forty years of never-ending Clinton scandals: Emailgate, Bengahzi, their crooked foundation, filegate, travelgate, Chinagate, Whitewater, pardongate, billingsgate, cattle futuresgate, bimbogates one to ten, and even Watergate.
The reason Mr. Trump doesn’t like illegal immigrants is because he deeply believes in the rule of law as a fundamental tenant for our American society to flourish otherwise there needs to be consequences. Further he empathizes with the hard working, low wage earning, honest Americans who’s jobs the illegal immigrants are taking away. Clearly Mrs. Clinton does not.
As for the rabbi’s commitment at Birkenau of “Never Again,” surely he knows that the most existential threat to the slightly more than six million Jews in Israel is Iran, and its proxies of Hezbollah, Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organizations. While Mrs. Clinton was one of the original architects of, and incredulously defended at AIPAC, the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran which threatens the lives of every one of the six million Jews living in Israel, Mr. Trump at AIPAC said his “number one priority was to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran” and “secondly, we will totally dismantle Iran’s global terror network.”
While Mr. Trump certainly has said things that are repugnant, which he should clearly repudiate, and he should be a lot more thoughtful before he speaks or acts, he is certainly not a racist, bigot, xenophobe, a supporter of the KKK, or the spawn of Satan. Mr. Trump is certainly not at all like Hitler, but the rabbi and I can both agree he is not at all like Hillary Clinton either.
David Wolf
Bergenfield
Some love for Cruz
In “Eyes, ears, Jewish law and Election 2016” (March 25) Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer infers that Senator Ted Cruz wants the United States to be run as a Christian country since it was founded as a Christian country. We all know that Ted Cruz is a strong supporter of the Constitution. The First Amendment to the Constitution declares, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Therefore Ted Cruz would never run America as a Christian country.
When Cruz says that, “If our leaders are elected by unbelievers, is it any wonder that they do not reflect our values?” he is not saying that “only believing Christians should have the right to vote,” as the article claims. All Ted Cruz is saying is that people who believe in Torah /biblical/Christian principles such as truth, integrity, treating others as you would want to be treated, etc. will vote for candidates who reflect those values and vice versa. Your inference that Cruz advocates that unbelievers don’t have the right to vote is a complete fabrication; all he is saying is that they vote for people with similar values.
In reference to your quote of Cruz saying, “If the body of Christ arises, if Christians simply show up and vote biblical values, we can restore our nation.” Cruz’s main point here is to “vote biblical values” (goodness and righteousness, which are not radical) no matter what your faith is. Ted Cruz is not disparaging other religions and therefore there is no lashon hara.
I feel that Senator Ted Cruz is an honorable man of great integrity who protects our freedoms by upholding the Constitution. He also is the best supporter of Israel among all the candidates.
Rosalie Greenberg
Teaneck
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