Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community There is a certain respected figure in New York City who radically differs with me in political...
This article will be shorter than I intended. First of all, given what is taking place, my head is not completely tuned in. More importantly, I was going to write about the greatness of the Jewish community, as well as the epic failure of some of its religious leadership.
A few weeks ago, the 107th precinct held a synagogue security meeting for all of Queens South. The meeting was chaired by Queens South commander David Barrere and included numerous police officials and officers. Many fine members of the Jewish community from our area to Far Rockaway were in the audience. Our representatives, State Senator Joe Addabbo and Councilman Rory Lancman, sat at the head table.
As the saying goes, “Those who don’t know, speak. Those who do know are silent.” Or as the Chazal put it, “A word is worth one sela and silence is worth two” (Midrash Koheles 5:3).
I am returning to a topic that I have written about in the past but very much bears repeating – even though much of it is a lost cause.
It’s great being a liberal. You don’t have to give much thought to your positions or the repercussions. Just come up with a catchy phrase that makes you feel good all over. Need to deal with a serious problem? Create another one to solve it. Don’t like the burden of respecting the life of the unborn? Just say you’re pro-choice and let the baby be killed at full-term. But you don’t like the state taking the life of a murderer? Just say, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” means the state. Don’t like women being harassed at work? Just come up with #MeToo, and poof! The accused is done away with, with no due process. Feel that the poor criminals are being discriminated against by not being able to post bail? Just do way with bail altogether. Too bad on the rest of society. Feel bad for illegal immigrants being incarcerated for violating the law? Call them “undocumented” and now they get better treatment than you or I do.
I was originally going to title this article “Maybe It’s Time To Support AOC.” But anyone to whom I told this, including one of the co-publishers, was horrified at the thought. Even after I explained my intention behind the title, they were afraid the reader would stop at the headline and not absorb the subtleties.
