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Mr. Glazer, You are a disgrace!!!
(The following is an open letter from a 94-year old Holocaust survivor to Jonathan Glazer, the director of “The Zone of Interest” who condemned Israel during his acceptance speech at this year’s Oscar ceremony)
Dear Mr. Glazer:
I am 94 years old and the only member of 105 souls in my family to survive the Holocaust. I miraculously survived nearly three years in the hell of Auschwitz and one year in the hell of Buchenwald.
I watched in anguish Sunday night when I heard you use the platform of the Oscars ceremony to equate Hamas’ maniacal brutality against innocent Israelis with Israel’s difficult but necessary self-defense in the face of Hamas’s ongoing barbarity,
Your comments were factually inaccurate and morally indefensible.
The “occupation” of which you speak has nothing to do with the Holocaust. The Jewish people’s existence and right to live in the land of Israel predates the Holocaust by hundreds of years. Today’s political and geographic landscape is the direct result of wars started by past Arab leaders who refused to accept Jewish people as their neighbors in our historic homeland. Now that several Arab countries are making peace with Israel because security and prosperity are better for all people, Iran and its terrorist proxies started another war abetted by too many who, through naivete or malice, blame “the occupation.”
Worse is that you chose to use the Holocaust to validate your personal opinion. You made a Holocaust movie and won an Oscar. And you are Jewish. Good for you. But it is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for the six million Jews, including one and a half million children, who were murdered solely because of their Jewish identity.
And it is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for those of us who personally saw the world stand silent as our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were murdered. We actually had nowhere to go – no possible place of refuge. No country would accept us even though world leaders knew full well that thousands of Jews were being murdered every day. There was no Jewish nation in which we could flee.
You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel.
Sincerely
David Schaechter
Send the National Guard to Protect the Border
Dear Editor:
Under President Joe Biden, Vice President Border Czar Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Department of Homeland Security Chief Alejandra Mayorkas almost 7 million people illegally crossed into our nation at the southern border. Now more are attempting the same at our Canadian border. On March 8, 1911 President William Taft sent 20,000 US Marines to the border in response to the Mexican Revolution. Why doesn’t President Biden send some of our 160,000 military stationed abroad, 482,000 Army Activity duty stationed in the USA or 337,000 National Guard to both our Mexican and Canadian border? They can assist our overwhelmed US Customs and Border Patrol and local law enforcement to regain control of our border.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Support LI Diner Owner Under Siege
Dear Editor:
The Golden Globe Diner, located at 365 Main Street in Huntington, Long Island, is facing a brutal backlash for the proprietor’s support for Israel after the October 7th massacre. And the owner, Peter Tsadilas, isn’t even Jewish but he is “more Jewish” than some who claim to be of the faith. He became concerned after one of his patrons told him the story of his own son’s travel to Israel to join the IDF. To quote from an article in the Levitt Letter:
Tsadilas decided he had to do something to show support for Jews and Israel amidst the war. “I put up four Israeli flags around the diner and pictures of the hostages. I started by posting pictures of the kids under 10 years old…..and it filled up half the window.” Afterward, three new employees quit without notice. He also lost a lot of Middle Eastern patrons. “But the real issues began when DoorDash stopped picking up my food. I got backlash from DoorDash clients.” And the article continues to list the obstacles Peter faced and overcame for his decision. He is now even willing to pay for Israeli flags for other local diner owners to post in their windows. In other words, he’s a super hero!
In short, Peter risked losing his flourishing business to support Israel because he felt it was the right thing to do. And he never regrets his actions. The least we can do, those who live on the Island is to tell your non-Jewish friends about it since we observe the law of kashrut and cannot patronize it. Support a non-Jew who stood up, spoke up and acted as a hero to be emulated, thanked and re-paid in kind for his bold actions.
Sincerely
Alan Bergstein
Dix Hills, NY
Why Aren’t There More Pro-Israel Rallies?
Dear Editor:
I appreciated that letter from your reader Mitchell Himmelfarb asking why our Jewish leaders have not sponsored more pro-Israel rallies in recent months. It’s been more than three months since our big rally in Washington. Meanwhile, the pro-Palestinian organizations are holding demonstrations all the time. If we want to make an impression on the American public and the media, we need to be raising our voices all the time. We can’t have just one rally and then just sit on our hands and hope people sympathize with us. We have to be constantly reminding the public of our cause. Jewish groups that spend all their time putting out press releases are not doing their job. We need to be marching!
Sincerely,
Herb Stein
Boro Park
Using Jewish Identity to Attack Israel
Dear Editor:
The five city and state officials who just denounced Israel (your Feb. 22 article) are what we call “As a Jews.” Has anybody ever heard about Liz Krueger, Brad Holyman-Sigal, Harvey Epstein, Brad Lander or Lincoln Restler being involved in Jewish organizations or synagogues or communal life in any significant way? Anybody seen them in shul or in a kosher grocery store? Of course not. Because they only trot out their Jewish identity when they can weaponize it against Israel. Suddenly they declare “As a Jew, we denounce Israel.” That’s the phoniest kind of “Jewishness” that I can think of.
Sincerely,
Shoshana Levy
Rego Park, NY
