A Response to Ahuva Lamm
Thank you for your well thought-out response (Letters, July 7) to my recent article “Why I Love Guys.”
As the title implies, this piece was meant to be a mostly tongue-in-cheek snapshot of my personal experiences, primarily in dealing with guests of both genders during several decades of hosting.
To answer your question, I find writing to be a therapeutic means of expression and a healthy outlet through which I can creatively distill my thoughts and feelings. I hope that you likewise experienced some degree of catharsis while fashioning your Letter to the Editor, and kudos to The Jewish Press for printing it in full.
While I agree with a number of the points you make, we are obviously each speaking from our personal life experience and perspective. I do not intend to address each of your observations, but I would like to share the following: B”H, my husband and I are happily married for over 43 years (kein yirbu), and are the proud parents of five sons and five daughters, b’chasdei Hashem all married and with families of their own. These days we are happily overwhelmed with hosting our own children and grandchildren, as well as nieces and nephews and other relatives who are fortunate enough to be studying and/or residing in the Holy Land.
I think you will be pleased to hear that at our Shabbos and Yom Tov table everyone, male and female alike, is encouraged to share a dvar Torah at every meal. And if there is no male zimun, my husband invites a quorum of three eligible females to do the zimun instead.
B”H, I have never had a recurrence of the unfortunate Succos meal I recounted.
I sincerely apologize if my musing inadvertently touched a nerve or reignited personal angst; such was definitely not my intention.
Naama Klein
Via Email
Solution to the College Dilemma: Aliyah
The article by Richard Altabe, “It’s Time To Look At Where We Send Our Kids To College” (July 7) is right on point. It is sad to see how, after we spend a quarter million dollars for each of our children’s education, they move on to a university where everything we taught them may be overturned. A recent study in the Spring 2022 issue of Jewish Action found that of all yeshiva students who go on to a secular university, forty percent go off the derech, and a large percentage intermarry.
While Yeshiva University and Touro are wonderful universities, there is a much better solution. That solution is to do one of the biggest mitzvos available to use, one we pray for every day: to make aliyah. In Eretz Yisrael one does not pay a quarter million dollars for each child’s education. The Israeli university education does not attack our beliefs, values and support for Israel. The opportunity for intermarriage is much, much lower. The opportunity for a great job is greater in Israel than in the U.S. And Israel is the fourth happiest country in the world. And on top of that is one of greatest mitzvos one can do.
We should learn from this week’s parsha, where Hashem and Moshe are very angry at Gad and Reuven when they did not want to go into Eretz Yisrael because they wanted to fatten their cattle from the fields on Ever HaYarden. They put material concerns ahead of the spiritual. Are we telling Hashem the same thing – that after all the miracles Hashem has done for Israel, e.g, winning the War of Independence, the Six-Day War, etc., and of course creating the Startup Nation and making Israel one of the most powerful economic and military powers in the world.
This is something we should all think about.
Rabbi Paul Bloom
Jerusalem and Edison, N.J.
A Better Outlook for Jewish College Students
Richard Altabe’s appeal (“It’s Time to Look at Where We Send our Kids to College,” July 7) to prioritize Jewish colleges speaks of physical and spiritual security, but for students who cannot afford an Orthodox-run college, or have majors and scholarships offered at public and non-Jewish colleges, the situation is not as hopeless as it appears in his column.
In the face of physical antisemitism and anti-Israel activism, Jewish students should be trained to know their rights. They can file a complaint as any other aggrieved minority group has done, occupy space on campus where they can express themselves in safety, and strengthen on-campus and off-campus organizations that serve their needs.
In regards to woke ideology as it concerns Israel, gender identity and orientation, observant students have two options: either to refute their arguments in a respectful manner, or simply to let them fly into one ear and out of the other. At work, many of us are required to attend lectures about diversity that contradict halacha. We listen to them, but we are not convinced by their arguments. When our faith is strong, these lectures are as futile as a sidewalk missionary.
If Muslim students can successfully petition for halal food in campus cafeterias, why haven’t Orthodox students fought for kosher food to be available? JLIC (Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus) has been vital to maintaining religious observance – but why was Chabad omitted from the article? It is a mistake to presume that Chabad’s only purpose is to be mekarev non-Orthodox students. From my experience at CCNY and other CUNY campuses, they organize minyanim, bring kosher meals to campus, speak in defense of Israel, and offer opportunities to learn.
Concerning Hofstra University, the nearest Chabad is a couple of blocks from campus. Day schools should coordinate with Chabad and nearby shuls about incoming college students, so that they can be in touch before the freshman semester begins. Within 20 minutes of this university is the sizable West Hempstead community. If students need Shabbos accommodations, there are plenty of baalei batim who can host them.
When I lived in Queens, I hosted students from Queens College and Lander College for Shabbos. I now live in West Hempstead and if there are students at Adelphi, Nassau Community College, or Hofstra that are seeking weeknight learning opportunities, or Shabbos hosting, my community can assist them.
Sergey Kadinsky
West Hempstead, N.Y.
Welcome Back, Rachel Bluth
Thank you so very much for bringing back Rachel Bluth in the Family Matters section of The Jewish Press, and thank you so very much Rachel Bluth for coming back. Your warm, kind, heimish way of writing and genuine feeling in answering those who write to you is so heartwarming. I am sure I speak for many when I ask you not to go on hiatus again.
Kenny Sommer
New York, N.Y.
We Need a Sociology of Faith
In the July 7 edition of The Jewish Press, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of the Coalition for Jewish Values acknowledges the victory for tolerance resulting from the Supreme Court’s decision supporting free speech and religious liberty in its ruling concerning the Colorado businesswoman who refused to design websites for same-sex weddings, which she opposes on religious grounds.
Rabbi Pruzansky described that the goal of the LGBT community “has been the eradication of any dissenting voice to their lifestyle, any reminder that the actions which they celebrate are prohibited by the Torah and considered anathema in all bible-believing religions.”
Rabbi Pruzansky adds, “No person should be forced to use his or her creative abilities to promote something they deem abhorrent.”
Yet this is precisely what students at almost every college, university, and public school are forced to do in those subject areas which intersect theology with the social sciences. Case in point, a widely used sociology textbook describes how sociologists think about religion: “Sociologist are not concerned with whether religious beliefs are true or false. The sociological perspective regards religions as socially constructed by human beings.”
Thus, even a sociologist of faith is “forced” to accept systemic atheism as the basis for societal morality. The questions of good or evil are no longer measured by biblical standards. Rather anything goes in a godless world of man-made values.
Students of faith are all subject to experiencing “micro-aggressions” whenever their belief systems are not given equal traction in academic discourse. Just as feminism came into existence to address the exclusion of women from full participation in society, just as Black sociologists like W.E.B. Dubois addressed the exclusion of African Americans from full participation in society, so too, a Sociology of Faith needs to be established to rectify the exclusion of biblical values in sociological analysis. More than half of the world’s population is comprised of people of Abrahamic faiths. As Rabbi Pruzansky reminds us in his perspective, “religious people are not second-class citizens.”
David Ferster
Great Neck, N.Y.
Civil Unrest and The Three Weeks
During the Three Weeks, Jews around the world should be focused on Ahavat Yisrael and the damage caused by sinat chinam. This means “the love of your fellow Jew” and the complete rejection of damaging hatred. Recently, many Israelis were illegally blocking a main traffic thoroughfare in Tel Aviv and starting fires to show their anger at the national government.
The proper and legal way to change national policies is through voting. Mob rule is contrary to the rule of law and damaging to democracy, and leads to civil unrest, violence and perhaps even death. Democracy requires adherence to the law as well as free speech. Change in law should come by the Knesset modifying the law, not by strangling the economy or threats of violence.
Personally, I feel that the Israeli Supreme Court is by far the most powerful supreme court in any democracy in the world. I also feel while the original proposal definitely needed modification, discussion and negotiation, compromise is the correct way forward. If the shoe were on the other foot and modification of the court’s power and the process of adding new justices to the court was adopted, the liberals and left wingers would be very upset if the right wingers used civil unrest to get their way.
Looking back at history, two examples demonstrate how major disputes ended. The first was wonderful. The second had very horrible results.
The first case involved freeing the slaves in the British Empire. Industrialists and philanthropists Moses Chaim Montefiore and his brother-in-law, Reb Nathan Meyer Rothschild, campaigned for its abolition. Incredibly, in 1835, they raised a government loan that made possible the abolition of slavery by using the funds to compensate plantation owners. No war or battle was waged and the entire action was done peacefully.
The second began with “Bloody Kansas” and it involved whether Kansas would be a slave state or a free state. Debate and conversations were thrown aside as the antagonists turned to guns and violence. Many were killed and great hatred resulted, and that continued into the Civil War. Significantly, during the presidency of James Buchanan, just before the Lincoln presidency, talks were held in Washington that were held to consider a solution similar to the Montefiore-Rothschild solution in America.
Unfortunately, hatred in what could be called sinat chinam prevented a peaceful resolution of the crisis. Six hundred thousand American soldiers (both North and South) died in America’s worst and most deadly war. For that reason, the cooling of tempers and rejection of violence and lawlessness is needed in Israel.
Charles Winfield
Boca Raton, Fla.
A Masterful Strike, Predictable Response
The UN’s unrelenting nastiness towards Israel just hit a new low. Post Israel’s latest incursion into Jenin, Secretary General Guterrez condemned its “excessive force,” particularly the “use of air strikes inconsistent with law enforcement operations” in a “crowded refugee camp.” Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, accused Israel of “possible war crimes.” A EU envoy decried the lack of “proportionality” as he led a delegation of UN officials and diplomats to the camp.
Such keen observers, as ever, turned a blind eye to Palestinian actions that precipitated such Israeli response. In this case, several months of random deadly attacks, 50 emanating from Jenin, with 19 escaping assailants fleeing there for refuge. Also ignored was Iran’s fomenting and funding Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infiltrators into its environs, part of an ongoing envelopment and engagement strategy against Israel. Unmentioned was Palestinian Authority inability, or unwillingness, to maintain order as the security situation was rapidly spiraling out of control. Most pertinently neglected was the deliberate perverse practice of terrorists placing themselves deep within the civilian population.
So Israel had to act. It used drones for precision air strikes, bulldozers to unearth street IEDs, and a multitasking force large enough to destroy munitions manufacturing facilities, confiscate weapons caches, and arrest wanted terrorists. That succeeded brilliantly, saving the lives of its own soldiers, as well as those of Palestinian civilians. The only killed Palestinians were terrorists, no soldiers were killed by enemy fire, much weaponry was seized, and weapons labs were destroyed, and although many terrorists fled, dozens were arrested. One particular discovery, which deserves wider notice, but won’t receive, was a mosque basement armory with underground tunnel linked to a nearby kindergarten.
Unfortunately, this skirmish will likely only provide temporary respite from Palestinian depredations. But it did provide some valuable lessons. However justified and well executed, Israeli actions will always face knee-jerk international condemnation. Nevertheless, it must do what it has to do, world public opinion be damned. All in all, this latest episode, nonetheless, provided a master class in IDF expertise and UN mendacity.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, N.Y.
