Seeking Driver Who Collided With Wheelchair
On Monday, March 28, at approximately 5:15 p.m., I had a green light and was crossing Avenue N on East 18th Street in Midwood, Brooklyn, when a driver made a left turn and collided with the back of my motorized wheelchair.
I ask that driver to please do the right thing and contact me. And I ask anyone who might know who she is to urge her to do so.
Please call 718-338-6515 or e-mail [email protected].
Thank you.
Sharon Shapiro
(Via E-Mail)
Rita Gam And The Fight For Israel
Re Dr. Rafael Medoff’s “Remembering Rita Gam and the Play That Pushed the Zionist Cause” (op-ed, April 8):
I would like to mention two famous sponsors of “A Flag Is Born” by Ben Hecht.
Eleanor Roosevelt and New York City Mayor William O’Dwyer both supported the play and the struggle of the Jews in pre-state Israel against the British occupation. As Dr. Medoff pointed out, this play did not help Hecht’s popularity in Britain. He was boycotted by both the British government and the British film industry. The reputations of Eleanor Roosevelt and William O’Dwyer in England were not helped either.
But there were people in Britain who opposed their country’s policy in pre-state Israel. One of those was Winston Churchill. He called upon the British government to end the war against the Jews of Palestine and those trying to get there.
A few years later, according to a story told by Ben Hecht, Churchill met the American impresario Billy Rose and asked if it was true that he had supported the Irgun and Stern Gang. Rose, rather sheepishly, admitted he had. Churchill told him that if he wanted independence for the Hebrew nation, he was with the right people.
Actress Rita Gam was supporting the right people.
Reuven Solomon
Forest Hills, NY
Imagining Ourselves As Slaves
Reader Harold Marks (Letters, April 8) questions why many minute details of our slavery in Egypt are not supplied by the Torah and asks, “can we really feel like slaves if we don’t know what life was like for slaves back then?”
The details he suggests would be important if someone were making a movie about slavery in ancient Egypt. But the Torah, not being a story book, generally gives us details that are relevant to us in some way.
My guess is God’s grasp on the capabilities and limitations of the human psyche is well-rounded enough that the details He did supply us with are sufficient for us to imagine being freed slaves.
This is especially true since in almost every generation there is at least a segment of the Jewish population going through anti-Semitic-related difficulties that rival, and sometimes exceed, the tribulations of Egypt. It’s certainly true of Holocaust survivors such as my parents, a”h, and most of my family of their generation. During the Seder, my father would tell stories of Egyptian bondage and the Holocaust as if they were one event.
I can’t conceive of a Jew at the Seder table trying hard to imagine being a freed slave but finding it impossible to do so because he doesn’t know if Jews in Egypt went fishing. Or that his wife can’t do it because she doesn’t know if Jewish women in Egypt had vegetable gardens.
Josh Greenberger
Brooklyn, NY
New York Republicans: Stop Trump!
Republicans are justifiably incensed at this administration, which has been contemptuous of the Constitution, Congress and critics, spectacularly maladroit diplomatically, fiscally irresponsible, and completely clueless as to its economic-growth crippling policies.
But turning to Donald Trump – a vulgarian as well as an utterly unpresidential boastful bully, seemingly lacking any fixed political positions, long on promises but short on specifics – would be to court absolute disaster, not just for the party, but for the country.
Supreme Court Justice Jackson wisely noted that “the Constitution is not a suicide pact.” Despite Trump’s protestations, a plurality of delegates is not a majority. He at best represents but a third of Republican voters. At worst, he is rapidly alienating wide sectors of the electorate, especially women and minorities. Trump, indeed, has made America grate again.
One wrong word spoken during a presidential news conference can ignite financial or diplomatic panic. Given Trump’s proclivity for running off at the mouth, his innate indifference to facts, and his vindictive lashing out even at the slightest slight, a Trump administration likely would endlessly lurch from crisis to crisis.
Next week New York Republican primary voters have an unprecedented opportunity, even a civic duty, to stop the Donald surge and thereby save America from a reckless leap into the abyss.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, NY
A Giant Among Men
The holy Mishnah says “asei lecha rav – find yourself a teacher.” My teacher, Rabbi Meyer Korbman, z”l, of Lakewood, New Jersey, made his journey to olam haba last month.
I davened for him throughout his illness and, despite my concern for his well-being, each time I said his name I derived chizuk and ruach. My emunah is that much stronger because of Rabbi Korbman.
Rabbi Korbman ignited the flame of Torah within my soul. And even at my darkest moments he managed to keep it lit. He taught me how to petition Hashem for mercy and guidance. When I told him at one point that I no longer believed in God, he embraced me and said, “Shvisi Hashem l’negdi tamid; Hashem is eternal. Even when you think Hashem has abandoned you, He is there for you even more than you know. Call out to Hashem at your darkest moment and that’s when he’ll be there for you.”
Most of all, Rabbi Korbman taught me that we perfect our relationship with Hashem by striving for perfection in our relationships with one another. He taught me what it means to be a mensch.
Rabbi Korbman epitomized this teaching. Never a harsh word. Never a word of lashon hara. He was dam l’kaf zechus to everyone. But he was as sharp as a tack and could spot corruption and evil a mile away. He had a keen understanding of the world around him and used his pulpit to bring perspective to so many. His sermons and drashot were always stirring and captivating, with each word penetrating the heart.
I am a yoreh shamayim because of Rabbi Korbman and credit him, in great part, for my love of Torah and mitzvot, which is at the core of the person I have become.
Rabbi Korbman was a giant among men. A tzaddik through and through. I recall that when I was 10 years and mourning the death of my grandfather, Rabbi Korbman put his arm around me and reassured me that my grandfather was indeed still there for me and will always listen when I call out to him. I have to believe that Rabbi Korbman too will listen to me when I call out to him. His teachings, warmth, and kindness will live within me forever.
Yehi zichro baruch.
Andy Schultz
Fairlawn, NJ