Rabbi Sladowsky Remembered
Dear Editor:
After the tribute in last week’s paper to Rabbi Yitzchak Sladowsky z”l, his esteemed wife Fay reached out to thank us for giving her husband the posthumous recognition he so rightfully deserves. In conversation, it came out that I may have not been clear in stating that at the height of their spiritual leadership at Forest Park Jewish Center, there were over 350 families that regularly participated in the array of programming organized by their shul.
I would also like to note that Rabbi Sladowsky was a formative founder of Shalom Task Force, believing wholeheartedly in their mission to combat and prevent domestic violence and foster healthy and safe relationships and families within the Jewish community, which may not have had access to traditional services, and which also requires culturally sensitive programming.
We salute the Rabbi’s legendary work, and we wish the Rebbetzin many more years of health and happiness from her beloved family and friends.
Shabsie Saphirstein
Dear Editor:
Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address was a complete trainwreck. Yes, it was hailed by the left-wing media as a political victory for him, but when the bar for Biden’s success was set at him completing his telepromptered speech without keeling over and being rushed to the ICU, “victory” might not be the appropriate word here.
His opening paragraph included a disgusting comparison of Trump to Hitler and it didn’t get much better after that. He showed more energy railing against the effects of “shrinkflation” and how there are fewer potato chips in his snack bag, all while acting as if companies suddenly got greedy when he took office and his failing economic policies had nothing to do with it. As if complaining about the symptoms of the inflation he caused wasn’t bad enough, he then introduced a plan to pay people $400 a month to tide them over during inflation before mortgage rates come down. The sheer stupidity of introducing more government money during an inflationary cycle as a solution to inflation reveals the utter buffoonery of our president, who clearly lacks Economics 101 knowledge. Inflation, by definition, is too much money chasing too few goods. The last thing any rational person would offer as a solution to inflation is more government money.
The president spent about two sentences on the horrors of October 7. Then he went on and on for paragraphs chiding Israel about civilian casualties, including citing Hamas’ completely unreliable figure of 30,000 deaths while culminating with the tired and preposterous line that Israel’s “only real solution is a two-state solution.” Ho hum, that’s never been tried before. Other writers to this newspaper, such as Vice President Pecoraro, have made nonsensical claims that Biden is pro-Israel. Biden, as he has always been, is pro-himself. Which is why he’s selling out Israel right now in an election year for 100,000 Hamas-supporting voters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Biden’s concern about ending the war before Ramadan shows his anti-Israel bias and a disgusting double standard, considering the 10/7 attacks occurred on Simchas Torah. Biden was caught on a hot mic saying that Prime Minister Netanyahu would have to have a “come to Jesus” meeting with him regarding the war. Biden would never use that rhetoric or choice of words with any Muslim leader, which just shows his utter disdain for Israel.
The coup de grâce of the evening was the President being pressured by hecklers into mentioning the name of Laken Riley, a nursing student recently murdered by one of the eight million illegal immigrants he let into the country. Her name has been in the news for weeks as her high-profile murder outraged many Americans already incensed by Biden’s dangerous and destructive policies at our open border. Since this was not planned out and scripted into his teleprompter, Biden botched her name, calling her “Lincoln” instead of Laken, and committed the horrible, unforgivable act of referring to her illegal immigrant murderer as “an illegal.
After the speech, Biden offered an apology that would have made ancient Sodom proud. Vice President Pecoraro often refers to Biden as a “mentch.” A mentch would have apologized to Laken’s parents for the grief his cynical immigration policies have caused. Instead, we got an apology to the illegal immigrant murderer for calling him “illegal” instead of “undocumented,” “migrant,” “newcomer,” “neighbor,” or whatever the latest politically correct term the morally bankrupt, leftoids who rule our society have come up with. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few adjectives to describe Joe Biden: “demented,” “doltish,” “spineless,” “corrupt,” “liar,” “plagiarist,” “racist,” and “failure.” “Mentch” is certainly not one of them.
Avi Goldberg
Dear Editor:
Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg rails against Rabbi Meir Kahane z”l and his followers for their advocacy of an “unethical solution” to transfer the hostile Arab population of the Land of Israel.
So equally, he must consider the forced expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron in 2005 “unethical.” But I don’t remember him flying to Israel, as Rabbi Schonfeld did, to directly protest such an outrage, on of all days Tish’ah B’Av. Nor do I remember seeing him at any of the New York City protests against such a vile, suicidal expulsion, which, as feared, has inexorably led to the October 7 massacre and war now raging. So how seriously should his critique, buttressed by one disgruntled JDL defector, be taken?
Sincerely,
Chaim ben Zvi
Voting For Your Own Demise
Dear Editor:
While I certainly lament the loss of innocent life, I find it very hard to conjure up sympathy for the loss of civilian life in Gaza. Polling data shows that an overwhelming majority of Gazans supported the 10/7 murderous rampage as well as the elimination of Jews from Israel.
Closer to home, Letitia James, who easily won re-election using a “Get Trump” platform for her campaign, has likely scared off billions of dollars of potential future investments in New York City by securing a bogus half-billion-dollar judgment against Trump. Why would any other businessman want to invest in New York City with a third-world Banana Republic “Justice” system lurking, ready to take out those with the wrong political views?!
Governor Hochul, who also won her election rather easily, deployed the National Guard to New York City in an attempt to quell the mayhem and violence that currently occupies the New York City subway system. Why was such a drastic move necessary when this normally is a job for local police to handle?
The answer is that even when police arrest criminals, they are almost always immediately released. New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who won election by securing more than 80 percent of the vote, has decided not to prosecute most violent offenders. Perhaps he is just saving his energy for his own Trump prosecution. The bottom line here is that New York City is being fast-tracked by its elected officials to look like Venezuela with illegal immigrants and homeless all over the streets, out of control violent crime, all while taxing law-abiding New York City residents into submission.
As with Gaza, I find it difficult to feel bad for the New York City residents who, election after election, reliably vote for their own demise.
Doniel Behar
UnWARRENted Praise
Dear Editor:
I would like to weigh in on an issue that has appeared in this publication over the last few weeks. Two weeks ago, Warren Hecht wrote that we should not blame the Attorney General Letitia James or Judge Arthur Engoron for the approximately $450 million verdict (with interest) against Donald Trump as they were just enforcing the law on the books. Last week, Jonathan Goldgrab raised several issues that Mr. Hecht omitted from his column, including James’ campaign promise to bring down Trump, her selective prosecution of Trump for an act that is commonplace in the industry, and the violation of the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment.
I don’t know whether Mr. Goldgrab is an attorney, but Mr. Hecht is. He should therefore familiarize himself with the relevant statutes in play here, before heaping praise on the Attorney General and Judge in this case for a job well done.
The law on the books that Mr. Hecht presumably was referring to in his column on the Trump verdict is Executive Law § 63(12). The law was originally enacted in the 1950s with the legislative intent of providing consumer protection. For instance, if a business was involved in persistent fraud against many consumers but no consumer had enough of an interest to shoulder the financial burden of bringing litigation against the business, the law provides that the Attorney General’s office can step in and sue on their behalf. In the Trump case, every participant in the transaction in question was a sophisticated financial player doing their own due diligence. No bank would ever assume risk on a loan of hundreds of millions of dollars and take the borrower’s word on asset valuation without doing their own due diligence. The banks in the Trump litigation were no different and certainly did not rely on any of Mr. Trump’s valuations. As such, this is a terrible misapplication of the law on the part of Attorney General Letitia James.
If a law school student was asked about Executive Law 63(12) on a law school exam and applied the law in the same manner that the Attorney General did in this case, he or she would likely receive an “F” for their efforts. If this case weren’t rife with political machinations, the Judge would have given the Attorney General an “F” for her efforts, as well, and thrown her and her frivolous case out of his courtroom. The fact that the case was decided against Trump has nothing to do with the application of justice or any job well done by the prosecution. As such, any compliments for the Attorney General from Mr. Hecht on this matter are completely unWARRENted! :)
Jason Stark
Groceries
Dear Editor:
What was going through my head? This is what I was thinking as I was going through my pantry trying to clean out my shelves. (Okay, I’m part “Yeki,” so I’m preparing for Pesach.) The first item that catches my eye is a huge container of oatmeal. There are three possible reasons for its being in my pantry: 1) It was on sale at ShopRite (most plausible reason), 2) It’s part of the cranberry crunch recipe that I don’t make anymore, or 3) It’s part of a healthful breakfast. (Anyone who knows me knows my idea of a healthful breakfast is a cookie and a cup of coffee, not oatmeal, fruit, and milk.)
My next surprise was a taco kit. Now, since I don’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I don’t know what possessed me to buy Ortega Grande taco. I believe I was tired of serving meatballs on Friday night, and I thought this would make a good replacement. However, as most people know, it’s kind of messy, and after eating challah, who would really want this? Besides, the ingredients look more apropos to a chemistry lab.
The next purchase that befuddled me was organic maple syrup. Since, as you know, I don’t make pancakes or fry leftover challah, why did I purchase this? Well, obviously, it’s germane to some chicken recipe or cholent recipe where one throws the whole kitchen sink into the crockpot.
Don’t worry. I still have use for the five vinegar bottles and garlic powder that I have bought for each Pesach. After all, vinegar is a great glass cleaner.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
The New York Local Journalism Sustainability Act would provide tax credits to local community-based newspapers for hiring local news reporters. It is important to lobby Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, along with your local State Senator and State Assembly member to support this critical legislation. Most communities are down to one local daily or weekly newspaper. Newspapers have to deal with increasing costs for newsprint, delivery, and distribution, as well as reduced advertising revenues and competition from the Internet and other news information sources.
Daily newspapers concentrate on international, Washington, Albany, business, and sports stories. They have few reporters covering local neighborhood news. Weekly newspapers fill the void for coverage of local community and religious news.
I’m grateful that you have afforded me the opportunity to express my views via letters to the editor, along with others who may have different opinions on the issues of the day.
Albany needs to join us in supporting weekly community newspapers. Readers patronize advertisers; they provide the revenues to help keep them in business. Let us hope there continues to be room for everyone, including the Queens Jewish Link.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Long Time Reader and Contributor
