Dear Editor:
In an Op-Ed in last week’s paper, Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg took Rabbi Schonfeld to task for praising Rabbi Kahane a”h.
The article is basically an attack on Rabbi Kahane personally and on his philosophy. It is replete with derogatory comments, especially in the quotes from Mr. Klein Halevi, but as one who has read most of Rabbi Kahane’s books, I was hard-pressed to find in the piece a serious refutation of Rabbi Kahane’s assertions and dire predictions (which unfortunately materialized) that create the basis of his ideology.
Rabbi Rosenberg’s critique relies heavily on the writings of one Yossi Klein Halevi who claims to have been associated in his youth with Rabbi Kahane’s JDL. An online search reveals that Mr. Klein Halevi made aliyah from the US to Israel in 1982 with his non-Jewish girlfriend who later converted to Judaism. Klein Halevi supports the two-state solution and is also against all Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. He operated some kind of an Arab-Israeli interfaith center in Ramleh. Klein Halevi is certainly “not one of us, as they say in the religious world,” yet Rabbi Rosenberg has no problem disparaging Rabbi Kahane based on the opinion of this ultra-leftist journalist who despises Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael regardless of their subscription to Rabbi Kahane’s beliefs or not.
Rabbi Rosenberg writes that the Israeli people ostracized Rabbi Kahane and that the Israeli government banned Rabbi Kahane from running in the Israeli elections. That claim is a bit simplistic. The reality is a bit more nuanced. At the time of those elections, Rabbi Kahane’s party was poised to receive over eight seats in the parliament, hardly an indication of rejection by the Israelis. And the ban on Rabbi Kahane was initiated mostly by members of the Likud party, not so much for his so-called racism (some of them held identical beliefs), but more for the fear of him siphoning off right-wing voters from Likud and diminishing their political power in the Knesset.
Speaking about “great halachic authorities of his day,” it is noteworthy that Rabbi Kahane was eulogized by the poseik Rabbi Moshe Tendler z”l (son-in-law of Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l) who attested at length to Rabbi Kahane’s greatness. His funeral in Israel was also attended by thousands of religious and traditional Jews, amongst them Israel’s Chief Rabbi, the great Gaon Rav Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l, who spoke highly of Rabbi Kahane and his views. Additional rabbis have made similar statements, as well. As an observant Jew, I’ll take their testaments over Mr. Halevi’s any day.
Rabbi Kahane’s views, understood by whoever takes the time to read his writings, center around the idea that, for the Jewish Nation to live peacefully in the Land of Israel, they must have bitachon and emunah in Hashem only, do whatever needs to be done for the security of the state, while fearing no one but Hashem. He also implores us not to rely on the false promises of the nations and certainly not to obsess with finding favor in their eyes. Based entirely upon Torah and Talmudic sources, this manifesto, while being a tall order for many, nevertheless does not render it “racist and a chilul Hashem.”
Thirty years of non-stop Arab terror claiming the lives of thousands and thousands of innocent Israelis and culminating in the brutal massacres of October seventh that are frighteningly reminiscent in their grizzly details to the pogroms of Kishinev, Hebron 1928, Kelcz, and Babi Yar, is the ultimate chilul Hashem. It has also made it strikingly clear that Israel’s policies of the last three decades have failed miserably. Repeating more of the same is simply suicidal. It is this that should make Rabbi Rosenberg “shudder with dread,” not Rabbi Schonfeld’s or some other individual’s praise for Rabbi Kahane in a local newspaper.
Thirty years was enough of a chance for the governing opponents of Rabbi Kahane to come up with an alternative effective plan to quell Arab terror, but they just haven’t. This is presumably why polls predict that were the election held today, Mr. Ben-Gvir’s party’s seats in the parliament would reach double digits. Though he may not be popular with President Biden/Obama, France, Iran and the Palestinians, Ben-Gvir has shown authentic Jewish leadership by displaying great concern for his fellow Jew and acting upon it, as well.
Rabbi Kahane suggests a solution to the pressing Arab terror problem, and it is perfectly okay to disagree with him, but then Rabbi Rosenberg should please be so kind and share with us his proposal on how to end the “dilemma” of constant terror and escalation of Jewish bloodshed in the Land of Israel. What is the “complex and less satisfying” approach that Rabbi Rosenberg alludes to in his article? He doesn’t tell us. Following the dictates of the US and the European Union and appeasing the Arabs, as Rabbi Rosenberg favors, does not seem to have worked so far.
Moshe Lubart
Fani’s Fallen Star
Dear Editor:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis desperately wanted to be a star. Her ambition to be the next political superstar seems to be matched only by her corruption. At this point, she has been caught in so many lies, even the professional spinmeisters on TV can see the handwriting on the wall and are bracing for impact when Fani and her special prosecutor boyfriend, Nathan Wade, get the boot and this case implodes.
What’s fascinating about this mess is how arrogant and stupid Fani was in the way she conducted government business. She cobbled together a dog of a case, tying 19 defendants in an unprecedented racketeering case in an effort to take down the presumptive Republican nominee to enrich herself both financially and politically. She set herself up financially by having a financial stake in the prosecution by paying her boyfriend and getting the kickbacks. And if she were able to bag Trump, her political star would have soared and she knew it. When this case started, she hired a media company that would monitor her mentions in the media to ensure she kept a high profile. What she failed to realize, as is often the case when people are given enormous amounts of power, is that she was just not that smart. Trump’s legal defense team ran circles around her, set traps, and exposed all of her lies and corruption rather easily. Her thousands of calls and texts to Wade “before” her relationship started, her absurd tale of keeping stacks of cash in her house, and the late-night visits from Wade, were all laid out for the judge to see.
Her desperate attempt to play the race card, a favorite tactic of DEI hires, fell flat against the backdrop of all her lying and corruption. Her attempted takedown of Trump has backfired and now she has blown herself up. One of the more interesting angles of this saga is her dismissal of the evidence brought against her regarding the pinging of Wade’s phone in the vicinity of her residence during overnight hours. The D.A.’s office has taken the position that this was not dispositive of Wade being at the residence. The problem with this claim is that her office has presumably locked up hundreds of defendants over the years using cell-phone pinging data off of cell-phone towers as corroborating evidence of defendants being present at a crime scene. Yet another case of “rules for thee, but not for me.”
Will this exposed hypocrisy open up a floodgate of appeal filings in Fulton County for hundreds of convictions she has presided over? Stay tuned, for as each layer of Fani’s corruption is unwound, the plot will inevitably thicken.
Jason Stark
More on the Missing Context
Dear Editor:
When the lawfare against Trump started heating up a few months ago, I wrote a letter imploring Warren Hecht to include some context in his weekly analysis of the politically driven legal proceedings against Donald Trump. Mr. Hecht continued to feign ignorance as to why New York law was changed to allow E. Jean Carroll to bring her nonsensical case against Trump.
He pretended that four separate criminal indictments just coincidentally materialized a year before the election. He wrote that the nearly half a billion judgment against Trump in New York was just the prosecutor “following the law.” He has not once mentioned that the Georgia case was obviously brought at the behest of the current occupant of the White House. If Mr. Hecht was naive enough to believe that a state prosecutor was acting on her own to wipe out a White House political enemy, her Special Prosecutor submitting billing for pre-trial meetings with White House Counsel should have alerted Mr. Hecht to the nefarious nature and political context for the dubious Georgia case.
While I occasionally write in to express my frustrations with Mr. Hecht’s column, I do enjoy reading the pointed and often hilarious takes of other writers such as Stark, Goldgrab, and Goldberg. And last week’s hot take from Mr. Azulai certainly warrants special mention.
While most of the letter writers in this publication aim their fire at Mr. Hecht, we shouldn’t forget that irrespective of how biased and indefensible some of Mr. Hecht’s positions are, his viewpoints are representative of a large segment of this country. A scary thought indeed.
Doniel Behar
Papers
Dear Editor:
Okay, I’m going through my piles of paper so that my kids won’t think that I’ve “lost it.” There are the calendars dating back a few years, but none for this year, so I wasn’t sure when Purim was. Then there’s the property tax bill. Can someone explain why it’s gone up if the value of the house has gone down? There are papers with confirmation numbers that I said I wanted but now I don’t know why I wanted them. What don’t I save? Store receipts! So the dress from TJ Maxx which wouldn’t fit the women on “Suits” can’t be returned and remains hidden in my closet.
Then there are the piles of papers from my 42 years of teaching at QC. You never know when or if someone will come knocking at your door and asking for a subject-verb agreement test. Maybe someone will need help in linguistics and find it in the one semester I spent going for my PhD. Totally useless? I believe that each piece of paper has some significance. Sometimes the information helps me answer a clue on Jeopardy!
Then, there are the statements from the bank that are useless, since those numbers I have stored in my brain (which is totally useless to my kids). There are also the multiple pages from Medicare informing me that “This is not a bill,” but this is what you may owe. I have three words to them, “Leave me alone.” By the way, can I throw out my tax return papers anytime in the next decade? Just kidding. Hopefully, the IRS doesn’t subscribe to the QJL.
Debbie Horowitz
Kahane Again??
Dear Editor:
In last week’ QJL, Rabbi Rosenberg wrote a long piece on Rabbi Kahane zt”l. He mentions our encounter in the KGH library and was “not pleased at all” by my criticism of Warren Hecht in my subsequent letter to the QJL.
First of all, I did not recognize Rabbi Rosenberg at the time, and my praise of his integrity was sincere and not tainted by my distaste for what Warren Hecht wrote. However, now I am alarmed by this most recent attack on Rabbi Kahane who was murdered 33 years ago while delivering a speech, not advocating violence against Arabs, but urging the Jews to come home to Eretz Yisrael. Will he ever be allowed to rest in peace, without being attacked by his fellow Jews?
I really can’t fathom how Jews can actually believe that we empower our enemies and fuel anti-Semitism by writing in favor of the policies first espoused by Rabbi Kahane. This is not what fuels anti-Semitism! Shall we attribute what is happening on American college campuses to writing in favor of Rabbi Kahane’s positions? Three seconds after the October 7 massacre, which is exactly what Rabbi Kahane warned against, the world was already spewing its anti-Semitic vitriol! How absurd to blame it on Rabbi Kahane.
Does anyone notice that the “Palestinians” and the entire Arab and Muslim world never publicly condemn attacks on Jews? They exhibit a unity that were it not so murderous, would be laudable. Anti-Semitism will never go away, but Jewish weakness and worrying what the gentiles will think will only make the targets on our backs larger.
When Israel’s very existence is at risk and Jewish soldiers are dying every day, let’s focus on who are real enemies are and show the world that we are strong and determined to defeat evil and not waste ink on intellectual ping-pong that besmirches a proud, committed Jew who never wavered from his love of Israel and the Jewish people, and paid the ultimate price for that love.
JoAnn Kestin-Fishbane
Dear Editor:
Under President Joe Biden, Vice President Border Czar Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, almost seven million people illegally crossed into our nation at the southern border. Now more are attempting the same at our Canadian border.
On March 8, 1911, President William H. Taft sent 20,000 US Marines to the border in response to the Mexican Revolution. Why doesn’t President Biden send some of our 160,000 military stationed abroad, 482,000 Army active duty stationed in the USA or 337,000 National Guard to both our Mexican and Canadian border
They can assist our overwhelmed US Customs and Border Patrol and local law enforcement to regain control of our border.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Response to Reactions:
Kahane Chai?
Dear Editor:
I am grateful to those who responded to my op-ed on the dangers of the resurgence of Kahanism in these difficult times. Rabbi Schonfeld and Ms. Kestin-Fishbane do not support the expulsion of Arabs from Israel, which is a great relief. What, then do they support from Kahane’s platform – just the rhetoric? Just the idea that he foresaw danger? Based on his views, is there anything they would advise Israel’s government to do today?
As I read Ms. Kestin-Fishbane’s words, I sensed someone who saw the human and charismatic sides of Meir Kahane, which by all accounts were impressive, especially during his US years. She feels for him personally and viscerally, while not defending his ideas.
Rabbi Schonfeld writes that “I was quite clear that I was not an all-out supporter of Rabbi Kahane. As I wrote, ‘Personally during his lifetime I did not subscribe to his teachings about Jewish resistance to anti-Semitism… I believe that violence begets violence and does more harm than good.’” But his very next sentence was, “Today it may well be that my outlook on that has evolved due to the naked anti-Semitism being practiced and tolerated in our streets and universities.” What is a reader supposed to think? A respected national figure cannot be vague on such a matter.
Rabbi Moshe Lubart, on the other hand, feels that Kahane was right in his policy of expulsion, which is very scary. His view is precisely why I wrote my article. Mr. Lubart accuses me of attacking Kahane personally, especially in quotations from Yossi Klein Halevi, and then proceeds to attack Yossi Klein Halevi personally. In fact, I shied away Kahane’s personal life. Any curious reader can easily dig up dirt, but I think that it is more important to discuss issues.
Rabbi Lubart’s pointing to great rabbis who spoke at the funeral of a murdered Jew makes one wonder why they did not publicly push for his agenda during his lifetime. And is it really the job of anyone who denounces an unethical solution for a vexing problem to solve that problem in the place of the Israeli government? I confess that it is beyond my abilities.
I am troubled that no respondent addressed the theology of Kahane, as opposed to his ideology.
I truly wish that all three respondents and the readers of the QJL would read Yossi Klein Halevi’s works, as well as Meir Kahane’s and decide whose future they would like to live in and how they might help it become less of a fantasy.
I am also bothered by the stature of those granting Kahane a measure of legitimacy. Rabbi Schonfeld needs no hechsher from me. Ms. Kestin-Fishbane is a beloved teacher. Rabbi Lubart is a talmid chacham and caring educator, who has been recognized for his dedication and openness in reaching every talmid. Our fathers knew each other going back to Japan, Shanghai, and the Lower East Side. I can only plead with you to be open to more than one approach here. And just as Rabbi Schonfeld has granted partial legitimacy to Meir Kahane, and, more recently, Chabad, may he add Avtalyon to the list.
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg
Warren’s Trump Derangement Syndrome?
Dear Editor:
Wikipedia defines Trump Derangement Syndrome as “the criticism or negative reactions to former United States President Donald Trump that are perceived to be irrational and have little regard towards Trump’s actual policy positions, or actions undertaken by his administration.” In last week’s Queens Jewish Link, Warren Hecht alleges that Putin is becoming more aggressive because he believes he has Trump’s support, despite the fact that Putin was relatively quiet during the entirety of Trump’s four-year term as President and began his invasion of Ukraine within about a year of the feeble Joe Biden taking office. I will leave it to the QJL readership to draw their own conclusions as to whether the previous two sentences have any relationship to each other.
Avi Goldberg
Dear Editor:
Yes, Mr. Hecht is correct: The House of Representatives should not impeach a cabinet secretary for maladministration. Unlike President Trump’s bogus two impeachments, the Mayorkas one is not only warranted, but necessary, because gross misconduct in violation of your oath of office most definitely falls under the constitution’s “high crimes and misdemeanors” standard. Otherwise, why would it be necessary to take an oath in the first place? By opening the southern border and not adhering to current immigration law, the Mayorkas impeachment is not frivolous at all, contrary to Mr. Hecht’s beliefs.
Mr. Hecht then goes on to say that one party has become Russia-friendly and therefore Putin is emboldened. Gee, I wonder which party that could be? I know he’s referring to the Republican Party, but once again he’s delusional. It was Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, who sold over 20% of the US’ uranium stockpile to Russia in 2010. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, and Obama did nothing. In 2021, Russia attacked Ukraine, and Biden sat on his hands. Vladimir Putin just came out last week and endorsed Joe Biden for a second term. So, Mr. Hecht is proven wrong again.
Since he remembers the Vietnam War, Mr. Hecht should be familiar with the entire Reagan presidency. He had a foreign policy doctrine “peace through strength.” It was one of prudence, not passivity. President Trump followed Reagan’s doctrine during his presidency. Our enemies were contained, and they dared not misbehave on the global stage because they’d be subject to repercussions. There are no “MAGA isolationists.”
We have already sent billions of dollars to Ukraine with no accounting for any of it. Government is the worst when it comes to accounting. Always handing out money, never any accountability where it all went. Over 100,000 Jews were murdered during the Ukrainian pogroms. That country has not always been kind to the Jews, so I’m no special pleader for Ukraine. However, they need our assistance to fight Putin and we must do what we can to help because Putin is our enemy. However, we must be careful not to keep throwing money at this conflict. After all, we have plenty of domestic issues that require our attention, as well.
There is a reason NJ Rep. Jeff Van Drew and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson both switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. They see that our cities are not safe. That men are playing in women’s sports. Men are being housed in women’s prisons. Killing babies is good. Inflation is through the roof. Groceries are unaffordable. DEI in our schools. Sexualization of our young children. The country is racist. The military is focused on trans ideology and climate change and not defending our freedom. Israel is the aggressor now and needs to stop the fighting.
This election in November has now become a battle of good vs. evil. We know where Mr. Hecht and Mr. Pecoraro stand. Where do you?
Shalom Markowitz
