Don’t ever run again
Rabbi Levin’s article in The Jewish Chronicle’s July 2 edition provides an important consideration of Judaic pluralism. It brought to mind a short tale told by Rabbi Margolies, ohav shalom, known in this community for his forceful initiation and subsequent fostering of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy. He tells the story of his village Kiryat Moshe Montfiore (now in Israel) in 1929 when it was suddenly surrounded by Arabs.
As a youngster of 8 years of age, he remarked, “We had to make a run for it, from our house into the interior of the village on foot. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}As we were running, an aged neighbor, 73 years old, Chayah Dvorah was her name, drew up alongside. I loved her very dearly, and I wanted to make sure that we both made it. But the old woman was felled by a bullet as she ran. As she lay there, bleeding to death, I bent over her, I said: (in Hebrew), ‘What is the matter, grandma?’ I did not understand what was taking place. She said: ‘Nothing is the matter, my child, I am dying, but before I die, I want you to remember this.’ And what she said I will never forget: ‘You must promise me, my child, that from now on you will stop running. Don’t ever run again.’ This wonderful septuagenarian bespoke the spirit of the entire Jewish people in the land of Palestine, as was later to be demonstrated.”
Were I to add to the words of Chayah Dvorah, I would say:
Don’t ever run again, and don’t ever run against each other.
As Rabbi Friedman of the Torah Learning Center recently remarked, using the words of the late Hasidic Rebbe, we are all affiliated Jews of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Harris Winitz
Kansas City, Missouri
Stakes are too high
It has become increasingly apparent that President Obama is no friend of Israel. To counter this view, Obama’s Jewish defenders have used favorable quotes from Michael Oren, who was constrained by diplomatic niceties when he was the ambassador from Israel. Now that Oren is no longer ambassador, he is able to reveal in his book “Ally” what really happened in his intimate, direct dealings with the administration.
In the face of the now overwhelming evidence against Obama, Rabbi Rick Shapiro attempts a defense in his letter (July 2). Rabbi Shapiro offers no facts to support his claim. So he tries to discredit Oren by associating him with an unnamed “political establishment” that had been “vilifying President Obama and his family.” Apparently, disagreeing with Obama’s disastrous moves means that you are personally attacking not only Obama, but also “his family.” And Oren’s agreement with those who disagree with Obama nullifies Oren’s first-hand experiences with the Administration. Rabbi Shapiro does not mention that Oren taught at such right-wing institutions as Harvard and Yale, was known to battle with Netanyahu over settlement policies, and publicly opposed the war in Iraq.
Rabbi Shapiro claims Dan Shapiro and John Kerry would be better sources of information. Both of them happen to work for Obama.
In order to defend Obama and reduce his cognitive dissonance, Rabbi Shapiro must ignore the facts. It would be nice if Shapiro was as emotional about the security of Israel as he is in defending Obama. The rest of us need to be more objective. With Israel’s existence on the line, the stakes are too high.
Jeff Horen
Overland Park, Kansas{/mprestriction}