14 Nov Speak your VUES

APPRECIATING SHUL

Dear Editor:

I’d like to chime in on the topic of stop the schlepping in Shul so there will be less talking. It is a shame that we have lost the appreciation of sitting in a mikdash me’at and we can converse on a personal level with Hashem.

I wish people would start to think and truly believe that being in Shul is a golden opportunity you get to hang out in the king’s house and you get to speak one on one with the King.

If you truly think this way you would complain that davening is not schlepped enough!

Rabbi D. Schwartz

Editor’s Note: In theory you are right, but in practice there are enough who do not appreciate it and disrupt the structure of the shul if there is schlepping.

SMART COMPUTER PURCHASE

Dear Editor:

I am looking to buy a computer. What type of computer should I buy? Should I get a Mac or a PC?

Shuli Fried

Editor’s Note: Why don’t you go to the nearest computer store and discuss your needs with the tech guy there. He will be able to guide you.

KOSHER GYM

IS MISSED

Dear Editor:

I miss the Kosher gym. I am a male who is overweight and really needs a place to exercise. All the places I know have mixed gyms. What am I to do?

Yankel Green

Editor’s Note: Walking around the neighborhood counts as exercise too, you know. Try it out four times a week and you will see how much good it can do!

RABBI MEIR KAHANE zt”l

Dear Editor,

All I can say what a well written story. I remember Rabbi Kahane very well.

Your letter caught the essence of the man and the great work he did.

He will be always be remembered as the man that lead to the charge to free Soviet Jewery.

He was often criticized and not appreciated. If only Israel had listened to Rabbi Kahane and  transferred the Arabs, how much safer would Israel be now?

In the end we all know now Kahane was right.

May his work and his teachings continue to live on

Sam T

RABBI MEIR KAHANE zt”l

Dear Editor:

A little while ago I wrote into this section numerous times regarding a letter by Baruch Marzel, and over the issues we got to debate The Vues printing him and Meir Kahane a bit. That was all good and I believe we had an interesting discussion. However, when I got to pick up my copy of the Vues this week I was truly shocked. Shocked to find three full pages praising Kahanism (not just Meir Kahane himself), but virtually every word he stood for. The letter written by Mr. Fuchs bashes Likud, calls the entire Arab nation “cancer”, calls for Israel to cease to be a western democracy, states that Jews can have no non-Jewish ally and that Jews and goyim may never exist together. Dear editor, I mean no disrespect, but how is printing that over three pages not a Chillum Hashem? Your paper gets printed in the thousands. It’s easily accessible to anyone (not just Jews). It represents Flatbush, it represents the Jewish people in Brooklyn. And you print such words over three full pages? Words that anyone reading this right now will hopefully not agree with. I’d like to ask the person reading this: would you support gentiles being deported out of Israel or even killed? Would you support Israel ceasing to be a mainstream democracy and becoming a Kahaneist dictatorship? I truly hope that the answers to those questions were a resounding ‘no’. I am proud of Israel and am proud of the Flatbush Jewish community. Reading those three pages being dedicated to such a, in my view Chillul Hashem, really, really hurt me. I don’t know if The Vues is under any rabbinic supervision, but I’d like to know which Rabbi approved of such a letter to be printed. Just as I’d like to know who made kosher food kosher – I’d like to know who found that letter to be acceptable. I know that some followers of Meir Kahane have trouble distancing themselves from him because of their youth following his groups (out of them, very nice people like Dov Hikind or Alan Hirsch). But this isn’t about Kahane, this isn’t about people who followed him in their youth and possibly abandoned his ideas later, this is about Jews in Brooklyn and what people think of us. This is serious and I hope that, in the future, you’ll consider the possible consequences of such a text being printed.

With best regards,

Martin Samoylov.

I usually do not answer any of the letters to the editor but this letter

I felt that I needed to answer right away.  A.H.

Itís hard to believe that one can come back again to attack one of the great Jewish leaders of our time. I thought you were too busy saving am Yisroel that you did not have time to write letters but I guess you took time off to again attack.

As I said before you obviously did not know Baruch Marzel and now you show that you did not really read the teachings of Rabbi Kahane.

Rabbi Kahane often said  “Our biggest enemies is ourselves”.

You say our article is a chilul Hashem, attacking a Tzadik is a real chilul hashem.

When Soviet Jewry were  being persecuted did Rabbi Kahne worry about about what mainstream Jewish organizations would say? Did he worry like you about repercussions?

No way. He did what had to be done and now, no one denies now that his actions were instrumental in freeing Soviet Jewry. Did you support his actions then?

When chasidim in Williamsburg were being harassed, even though they had criticized Rabbi Kahane previously, they were not too embarrassed to call Rabbi Kahane and the JDL to clean up their problems. Was that also a chilul Hashem?

Have you ever tried walking through an Arab neighborhood in Israel and experienced the love they have for you. Do you have a fear of walking alone in the old city of Jeruslaem or Hebron?

If only the voice of Rabbi Kahane was heard when he was alive you would not be afraid to walk through the whole land of Israel. He did not advocate killing Arabs he only wanted them transferred to Arab countries, but no Arab country wanted them.

If you call the Torah a dictatorship then I guess Kahane followers wanted a dictatorship. There was no one I ever knew that was more sincere I his beliefs. He did nothing for personal gain only out of Ahavat Yisroel.

His Torah knowledge was endless and could debated with the greatest Torah scholars halacha. He wrote many seforim.

This is about Jews and we really want the people around us to know We are proud to be Jewish and that we are not afraid to say that.

Believe me we received more positive reaction to this article than negative.

You ask what Rabbi would give a hechsher on this article: At the recent Yahrzeit of Rabbi Kahane Rabbi Lior said ìJust as Yaacov Avinu did not die, his words lived on. Rabbi Kahane did not die his words and his teachings live on.î

Alan Hirsch