Letter to the Editor: Thank you Hendrik Wüst, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany for your continued support for the Jewish community
Just recently, Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst of North Rhine-Westphalia announced the following statement: “We have a very special responsibility to protect and promote Jewish lives. Jewish culture, Jewish schools, Jewish sport – all of these are part of our diversity, our openness and our identity. The protection and strengthening of Jewish life in the North Rhine-Westphalia are state trust. This is a great responsibility for us Germans”.
In addition, he added more funds for the security of Jewish institutions and wants to make sure that Jewish Life in Germany, not only has a long and meaningful history, but also will have a bright future.
While Germany increases support for the Jewish Community and to combat anti-semitism, the United States Government is going in the wrong direction with the increase of anti-semitsm according to ADL.
As a grandson of a German Jew, who fled Europe because of the Holocaust, I just want to say thank you. “Danke”, thank you, Prime Minister Hendrick Wüst for your continued support for the German Jewish Community. I am looking forward to visiting one day and saying thank you in person.
Russell Taub
Policy Advisor and Political Strategist
Remembering HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, zt’l
Dear Editor:
The other week, the drummer of a band called The Foo Fighters died. I knew of the band because I’m very into music of all kinds. Didn’t know who the drummer was though. I doubt that too many people did. But that news went around the world quickly. Within a day of his passing, hundreds of millions of people heard the news. To some, his passing was upsetting. To be honest, it meant nothing to me. I’m not happy when a good person dies. I assume that he was but I really have no idea, nor do I plan to invest any time on finding out.
A few days later a scandal broke out on the Academy Awards. I’d be shocked if you didn’t already hear about actor Will Smith smacking actor/comic Chris Rock on stage in front of the whole world. Chris made a joke in bad taste (something they all do sooner or later) about Will’s bald-headed wife who suffers from alopecia (a disease where women lose their hair). It was vile to watch. The video was replayed millions of times all over the internet and on TV. It wouldn’t surprise me if the number of people who watched it or know about the incident, is in the billions.
I don’t know what kind of serious impact the drummer of Foo Fighters, Will Smith, Chris Rock or the Academy Awards has on humanity but I suspect that’s it’s close to zero.
On the other hand, a couple of weeks ago someone passed away who had a huge impact on humanity, especially the Jewish World. His name: Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Did you hear about that? Unless you are part of the orthodox Jewish community, I’d be surprised if you did.
I thought as a blogger and a Jewish activist who seeks to inform the world on important issues, I’d make a point to talk about him. For all of us who care about keeping the Jewish religion alive, this was devastating news! Since I don’t know a lot about him, my sister who used to live in the religious city called Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, where the rabbi once humbly lived and who she and her family had sought advice and blessings from over the years, wrote the following about him:
Amidst the clamor of the world, the passing of one of the most revered Rabbis of our generation went by almost unnoticed by most of us. Harav Chaim Kanievsky, passed away on Purim 2022. The funeral was attended by approximately 600,000 people.
Rav Chaim was incredibly knowledgeable in Jewish learning. From a young age he invested his energies in Torah study. Each year, he studied and reviewed the entire Jewish Bible, the Babalonian and Jerusalem Talmud, Midrashim, the entire code of Jewish law as written by Maimonides, and the Shulchan Aruch. All of this he learned together with numerous commentaries on all of the above writings.
Sincerely,
Leon Kushner
Toronto, Canada
What’s Good For One is Good For All
Dear Editor:
I am pro vaccination, but I am also pro freedom and fairness. I think that Mayor Adam’s decision to lift the vaccine mandate for athletes and performers while keeping it in place for City Workers is unfair. This seems to indicate that he is more interested in the money from sports and concert venues than people’s rights. The Police and Fire fighters, Sanitation workers and EMTs were on duty every day during the worst of the pandemic.
They showed up and did their jobs and many got very sick, some died. This is not the way to repay them for their sacrifices. Many got COVID and have natural antibodies and do not want to be vaccinated. They have lost their jobs and benefits which is very unfair. Other essential workers who showed up in the supermarkets to stock the shelves and check us out at the registers are also being unfairly fired. If they weren’t there every day, how would we all have purchased our groceries?
Mayor Adams, please change your mind and lift these mandates for City workers as well as private sector workers. It is time. It is time to show people of New York, you care for all people equally and not just value the bottom line, the green dollar.
Sincerely
Elissa Joy
Gerritsen Beach
Brooklyn, NY
Ukraine’s Questionable Record on Israel
Dear Editor:
We were told by our Jewish leaders that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was Jewish. Now we find out that’s no longer the case. His wife is not Jewish and his two daughters were baptized. Nothing against Christians but that means this guy should not be embraced merely because he’s “one of us.” Many donors would look favorably on giving to a Jewish President of a foreign nation, especially Ukraine, which was a horrid Jew hating country during WWII.
Not only that but Ukraine has not been totally in favor of Israel in the U.N., voting for issues supporting Palestinian “rights” against Israel. The Jewish state has also been called out by Zelensky for not giving more to his cause. Has Ukraine ever reached out to aid Israel when it was besieged by Hamas? Israel has well supplied them recently with medical and technical assistance. Has Jordan, Qatar or even Argentina, to name a few other nations, reached Israel’s level of aid to Ukraine? Why has Israel been singled out for this low level criticism? Israel has its own problems with the world’s attention now riveted on Eastern Europe. Is own Arab citizens are rising up to terrorize the Jewish State, the nation in which they live. Who will come to Israel’s aid if they’re attacked by Iran? Don’t count on the USA with Sleepy Joe in charge.
Sincerely
Gladys Golden
Queens
Crime in NYC Spiraling Out of Control
Dear Editor:
Your editorial of March 18th in which you commend Mayor Adams for his crime reduction measures, falls short of reality. A group of Jewish teens were approached by a gang of other youths on the Upper West side and threatened with a knife, a machete and a club and were called out because they were Jewish. Other crimes abound around the city, many not reported for fear of shaming the mayor. Just walking the streets during the day is a dangerous outing.
Where are the re-hiring of those police who were let go because they refused to be vaccinated? Has the Mayor repudiated those anti-police groups that keep calling for a reduction in the NYPD budget? Where have the photos of a reassuring Mayor riding the subways to bring confidence back to ordinary fare payers?
Where have the voices of the City Council been to call out against the violence that has beset the city since Giuliani and Bloomberg have left? The out migration of taxpaying New Yorkers will continue to grow with the passing of months. We’re tired of empty promises from the party of the Left that is bending its knees to the violent mob.
Sincerely
Esther Machlin
Brooklyn
