23 Oct Speak Your Vues
YARMULKA RULE
Dear Editor:
This past Yom Tov one of my son’s friends came over to the house for a
play date and he told us that his Yeshiva does not allow him to wear
clips in his yarmulka because it’s begged esha. I never heard of this
before and think it’s crazy. What do you think?
A Flatbush mother
Editor’s Note: Every yeshiva has its own set of rules and families
should choose a yeshiva that reflects their values.
OVEREATING ON YOM TOV
Dear Editor:
Yom Tov was fantastic. I just feel like I gained fifty pounds in the
last month. Do you think in the time of the Beis Hamikdash they ate as
much as we do during this month?
Zahava K.
Editor’s Note: If you see how much the Kohanim had to eat of the
Korbanos and in such a short time and it was all Pesachdig you would
not complain.
CHOL HAMOED EDITION
Dear Editor:
My family enjoyed Chol Hamoed very much this year even though it was
raining a lot because of the Jewish Vues Chol Hamoed section. It was
definitely the best Chol Hamoed section out there. Keep up the good
work! We love the Jewish Vues.
Chanie Fishman from Boro Park
Editor’s Note: Please let us know what you did on Chol Hamoed as we
love feedback.
SUCCOS IN THE CATSKILLS
Dear Editor:
This Chol Hamoed I went upstate to the Catskills with my family and
couldn’t believe how many things were open. The weather was bad but we
still found lots to do! It was pretty funny how the Kartrite indoor
waterpark was so full with yidden. I want to thank Rabbi Jungreiss
from the Woodbourne shul for putting up a Succah and allowing everyone
to use it over the entire Succos.
Chaim T. from Kensington
Editor’s Note: It is a Kiddush Hashem to hear such great anecdotes.
WORKING ON CHOL HAMOED
Dear Editor:
I find it amazing how many people can take off from work for Chol
Hamoed. When I was growing up in Flatbush there were always a few
people that took off but not like today. It seems that most people in
my neighborhood took off the entire Yom Tov. I had to go into work
for 2 out of the 3 days of Chol Hamoed and my family was upset with
me. My children said that all their friends’ parents took off the
entire Chol Hamoed. I really did not know what to tell them.
Yankee Eichenstein from Flatbush
Editor’s Note: It is always a difficult decision if one should work on
Chol Hamoed or not and it really works on a case-by-case basis. It is
always nice to hear that people a re mekayem Simchas Yom Tov With a
hiddur.
CRITICIZING TRUMP
Dear Editor:
Various media outlets criticized President Trump over one of his
defenses of his decision to remove American troops who were assisting
Kurdish fighters in Syria. “They didn’t help us in the Second World
War,” President Trump said regarding the Kurds. “They didn’t help us
with Normandy, as an example.” To rebut Trump’s argument, CNN quoted
Michael Rubin, from the American Enterprise Institute: “World War II
was a war among states and the Kurds weren’t a state.” It also quoted
Henri Barkey, a Middle East expert from the Council of Foreign
Relations, who said, “Just like many other people who did not have a
state, (Kurds) could not have helped the United States.”
In fact, though, both in World War One and World War Two stateless
Zionist Jews lobbied and organized in the U.S., U.K., Canada,
pre-state Israel, and elsewhere to form independent fighting units to
join on the U.S. side and fight against Germany and the Ottomans in
World War One and again against the Nazi Germany and the Axis in World
War Two. This was all before the creation of the State of Israel.
In World War One first the Zion Mule Corps (650 Jewish soldiers;
served at Gallipoli) and then later the Jewish Legion (5,000 Jewish
solders) were organized as fighting units under British army command.
In World War Two, the Jewish Brigade (30,000 Jewish solders), was part
of the British army and was based on the World War One model and
precedent.
The men responsible for organizing and leading the Jewish soldiers in
World War One and agitating for a Jewish fighting force in World War
Two are some of the most colorful and amazing individuals to ever be
part of the Zionist movement. That Barkey and Rubin could be expert
sources for CNN and not be highly familiar with their stories is
surprising and goes to show that many in media need to be more
selective about the experts they utilize.
The World War One Jewish fighters were led by British officer John
Henry Patterson. Patterson was the most famous African lion hunter in
British history. His story is told in the 1996 Val Kilmer / Michael
Douglas film The Ghost and the Darkness, Patterson was played by
Kilmer and the movie is based on a book by Patterson. Two other books
written by Patterson detail his work with Jewish solders and were
titled “With the Zionists in Gallipoli” and “With the Judaeans in the
Palestine Campaign.”
The Zionists who organized the World War One soldiers were Yosef
Trumpeldor and Ze’ev Jabotinsky.
Trumpeldor was a dashing one armed disabled veteran and former POW of
the Russian-Japanese war. In 1920 he and seven other valiant Zionist
defenders died in the defense of the Galilee village Tel Chai against
a much larger Arab force. A large statue of a lion sits at the site
and the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona is named after Trumpeldor as
well. The lion statue may well be the closest physical tribute that
Israel has to a Mount Rushmore.=
Ze’ev Jabotinsky was the greatest right-leaning Zionist leader in the
era between the World Wars. Prime Minster Netanyahu’s father, Benzion
Netanyahu, was a personal aide to Jabotinsky on the eve of World War
Two. Jabotinsky died in the US in 1940 while trying to convince
Americans to support a new Jewish Legion for World War Two. Patterson
joined Jabotinsky and Benzion Netanyahu in this work in the US.
Benzion named his oldest son, Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu, for Patterson.
In honor of Yoni’s brit milah (ritual circumcision) Patterson
presented the Netanyahu family with an engraved silver cup with the
wording “To my beloved godson Yonatan from Lt.-Col. John Henry
Patterson” at the ceremony in New York in 1946.
Jabotinsky’s book “The Story of the Jewish Legion” is about his World
War One exploits with Trumpeldor and Patterson. Before World War Two
he wrote the book “The Jewish War Front” which he presented an
argument that the Jewish people needed to form a Jewish army to take
an active part in the war against Nazi Germany.
Jabotinsky traveled to the US with Bibi Netanyahu’s father and other
Zionist activists. They took the ideas in the “The Jewish War Front”
as their inspiration when they initiated what can be termed the first
Zionist lobbying effort on Capitol Hill. This Jabotinsky movement
demand for stateless Jews being allowed to fight also included full
page newspaper ads written by the legendary Hollywood screenwriter Ben
Hecht that appeared in… The New York Times.
The stateless Kurds may not have had their Jabotinsky. Fortunately,
stateless Jews did have Jabotinsky and were thus able to create Jewish
army formations to fight alongside the Allies against the Nazis.
Without this Zionist partnership with the Allies Jewish history after
the World War Two would have continued in a much different direction.
Moshe Phillips
Editor’s Note: The Kurds’ plight is difficult to digest especially
since they lost 11000 soldiers on behalf of this war.
SOCIALISM
Dear Editor:
If simply supporting a federal government social program that helps
people such as Social Security and Medicare makes someone a
“Socialist”, then that would make Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon
“crazy socialists” because they both signed new federal government
social programs into law/existence and both supported Social Security.
Sincerely,
Stewart B. Epstein
Editor’s Note: Expanding it would definitely make one a Socialist.
GREAT WRITEUP
Dear Editor:
Loved your story about Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros except you
forgot to mention that he played baseball on Yom Kippur.
Shoshy T
Editors note: And the point is?
DO NOT HONOR SLANDERER
Dear Editor:
Next month Moment magazine will hold its “DC Gala & Awards Dinner”
honoring four distinguished journalists. The presenters will be four
prominent individuals. How disappointing that one of the presenters
they have chosen has publicly accused Jews of controlling the White
House and paying off members of Congress. Especially considering
Moment magazine is a Jewish publication originally co-founded by Elie
Wiesel.
I’m referring to Thomas Friedman of The New York Times.
Friedman’s troubling record on Israel began during his years as a
student at Brandeis University. In 1974, Yasser Arafat, gun holster on
his hip, made his infamous first appearance at the United Nations.
Jews in New York City organized a huge rally against him. Friedman and
a handful of fellow-students signed an open letter denouncing the
anti-Arafat rally.
That happened just a few months after Arafat’s terrorists massacred 18
Jews—including eight children—in Kiryat Shemona, and then 27 more
Jews—including 21 children—in Ma’alot. Friedman were demanding that
Israel negotiate with (and, of course, make concessions to) the chief
terrorist responsible for those murders.
Friedman told the campus newspaper, The Brandeis Justice, that his
career goal was to work at “the Middle East desk of the State
Department.” That would have given him opportunities to impose his
views on Israel.
That didn’t work out. But Friedman did later become a personal friend
and tennis partner of Secretary of State James Baker, the most
anti-Israel secretary of state in American history. According to
Baker’s autobiography, Friedman gave him advice on how to more
effectively pressure Israel.
Around 1982, Friedman went off to Lebanon as a correspondent for The
New York Times, posing as an objective reporter. Later, in his book
‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’, Friedman boasted that he “buried” Israel’s
top military brass by blaming them for Lebanon Christian killings of
Palestinian Muslims. So much for journalistic objectivity!
In the book, Friedman falsely portrayed himself as a lover of Israel
who only became its critic when he witnessed Israeli actions in
Lebanon. I guess if he admitted the truth—that he had been hostile to
Israel since his Brandeis University days—it would have blown his
cover. He needed to pretend that it was Israel which made him hate
Israel.
Friedman then spent several years as the Jerusalem bureau chief for
the Times. The “news” articles emanating from that bureau are almost
legendary for their extreme bias against Israel. After that stint,
Friedman returned to the United States to become a regular op-ed page
columnist.
In several of his more notorious columns over the years, Friedman has
portrayed Jews as sinister manipulators who try to control world
leaders. In his New York Times column of February 5, 2004, for
example, Friedman wrote that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
“had George Bush under house arrest in the Oval Office … surrounded by
Jewish and Christian pro-Israel lobbyists, by a vice president, Dick
Cheney, who’s ready to do whatever Mr. Sharon dictates …”
In his December 13, 2011 column, Friedman asserted that the standing
ovations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received when he addressed
Congress were “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.”
And in his November 19, 2013 column, Friedman wrote: “[N]ever have I
seen more lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — more willing to take
Israel’s side against their own president’s.” He claimed there is “a
growing tendency by many American lawmakers to do whatever the Israel
lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign
donations.”
Somebody who has slandered Israel and the American Jewish community in
this fashion does not deserve the honor of being one of the featured
“presenters” at the Moment awards dinner.
I’m disappointed that Jewish organizations, large and small, have so
far said nothing about Friedman being given this honor.
I understand why some groups are reluctant to criticize Moment or
Friedman. For one thing, criticizing journalists means those
journalists might not ever quote you. Also, it’s not the kind of issue
that’s great for fund-raising. Anti-Semitism on campus, for example,
has a much stronger emotional appeal to potential donors.
I don’t dispute the fact that Jewish organizations need to raise
funds. They have salaries to pay and many other expenses. I understand
why that might influence their considerations when deciding their
agenda.
But I would argue that the question of giving an honor to a serial
slanderer of Israel deserves to be on the Jewish agenda. First, there
is the powerful symbolism involved. A healthy Jewish community needs
to exhibit what the late Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky called
“hadar”— pride and self-respect. When someone kicks you, you don’t
give him an honor.
But the issue more than symbolic. It’s also practical. Giving an honor
to somebody who slanders Israel and the American Jewish community
sends a message to all potential slanderers that Jews are fair game.
Do we really want to be sending that kind of message?
Moshe Philips
Editor’s Note: New York Times and all of its reporters hate Jews period.
DEMOCRATS
Dear Editor:
The Democrats are becoming more delusional by the day. Democrats are
continuing in pursuing the Impeachment Inquiry because they say that
they have a constitutional obligation. However, if you actually read
the clause about impeachment in the Constitution, you will see that
impeachment proceedings should only commence if the President is
“guilty of Felonies, high crimes or high misdemeanors”. Trump has not
been charged with any of these penalties. If Democrats are so
concerned about their Constitutional responsibilities, then why didn’t
they vote to impeach Bill Clinton, who did violate multiple of
felonies?! If Democrats are so concerned about asking political favors
from foreign nations, then why didn’t they investigate Bill Clinton
when he asked Former PM of The UK, Tony Blair, to solve the British-
USAIR/American Airways feud? Clinton said in the transcript 20 years
ago,…” In a political season, it would be big over here to get this
open sore resolved. If you could have somebody take a look at it..”
Where were the Democrats then screaming that it was an abuse of power?
What is amazing is that Bill Clinton said the words,” in a political
season”, so he just asked a foreign leader to do something that will
help him politically. The reason why Democrats didn’t scream is
because this entire thing that they are doing to Trump is a scam. Why
didn’t Democrats investigate former Democrat Presidential Nominee,
John Kerry, when he said on the campaign trail in 2004, “I have met
foreign leaders who can’t go out and say this publicly, but boy they
look at you and say, ‘You’ve got to win this, you have to beat this
guy, we need a new policy.’”? Is this foreign interference according
to the Democrats? According to their standard for Trump, it is. Now
that you see that what they are doing is for political reasons, don’t
listen to Speaker Pelosi when she says that this is nothing
“political” or that she “prays for the president everyday” or that
“everyone is sad in the country about this”. Nancy Pelosi made a joke
last week at an event commenting about the Impeachment Inquiry. She
said, “Donald, you used to own a casino-you know the House always
wins?!” Very funny Madam Speaker, wait, I thought we are all supposed
to be sad?! Well, maybe when she said House she meant the White
House. Well, who knows if it was one of her gaffes or just another
proof that she is doing this whole impeachment for political reasons.
There was a politician in 1998 that said, “In the investigation of the
president (Clinton), fundamental principals which Americans hold dear-
fairness, privacy, checks and balances have been seriously violated
and why? Because we are here today because the Republicans in the
House are paralyzed with hatred with President Clinton.. Until the
Republicans free themselves of that hatred, our country will suffer.”
This politician was so right in 1998! The name of that politicians was
Representative Nancy Pelosi. Wow, Nancy Pelosi was right for once!
It’s a shame that she doesn’t listen to her 1998 self that the
President’s opposition is “paralyzed with hatred.. [and] our country
will suffer.” Democrats have had enough time with checks and balances
with their Russian Hoax, now it’s time for them to pass USMCA, lower
drug-prescription prices and etc. Last year Democrats ran on
healthcare, it is only right for them to start passing real solutions
and not to dwell on stupidities.
Sincerely,
Donny Simcha Guttman
Editor’s Note: It is not news anymore. The Democrats are just plain
Anti-Semites.
INTERVIEW
Dear Editor:
I am a big fan of Mordechai Shapiro, from day one, and I must say Ari
Hirsch did a great interview with him. I remember the 1st time I saw
him, was at a Miami boys choir concert in 1999, and at the end of
concert when Yerachmiel Begun was saying the names of all the boys in
the choir, I made sure to remember him and his name, because I already
knew back then, that the blond hair kid in the center of that Brooklyn
College Stage, who was none other than Mordechai Shapiro, hasa very
bright future in Jewish Music.
Editor’s Note: You’ve got good taste!