An Open Response To Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld’s Article
Dear Editor:
I read Rabbi Schonfeld’s article in the August 22 edition of the Queens Jewish
Link entitled, “A Letter to Myself.” I found the letter informative, because it helped to explain why a candidate for Surrogate’s Court Judge in Queens has received no support from the Queens or Far Rockaway Jewish Alliances. I have to disagree with Rabbi Schonfeld’s conclusion, however, that the Queens community is better off than the Baltimore community because we have “a group of activists trying to work within the system in the best interests of the community.” After my experience with the two Jewish Alliances, I understand why the Baltimore community may not want to jeopardize its Torah values and integrity by being associated with “the Democrat machine.” I think Baltimore got it right.
I began helping my friend Stephen Weiner a few months ago when he told me he was interested in running for Surrogate’s Court Judge. Stephen is a life-long New Yorker who was raised in the Bronx. He attended the Bronx High School of Science, Yale College, and then Columbia Law School, where he was selected to be on its prestigious Law Review. After graduation from law school, Stephen worked at major firms and eventually launched his own practice. After marrying Betty-Ann, 38 years ago, Stephen moved to Sunnyside where he became active in the Young Israel of Sunnyside. Stephen also became a stepfather to Betty-Ann’s special-needs son, Adam, who continues to live with them.
For the last 20 years, Stephen has practiced exclusively in the area of trusts, wills, probate, administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. After the current Surrogate’s Court Judge announced his decision to retire, Stephen approached the leadership of the Queens GOP, expressing his interest in running. His sole motivation was to run a better court and change its reputation as the most political court in Queens County, controlled by the machine politicians.
Given his experience, education, and integrity, he was nominated and received enough signatures for a spot on the Republican and Conservative ballot lines.
Cassandra Johnson, running on the Democratic line, is a career government employee who has no experience practicing in Surrogate’s Court, and was reportedly hand-selected by US Congressman Gregory Meeks, who is the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Ranking Member. Meeks, who is critical of Israel, recently tried to block Israel’s purchase of F-15 fighter jets. In a July 24 statement following Netanyahu’s address to Congress, Meeks excoriated Netanyahu for not accepting a Two-State Solution, which Meeks described as ‘‘the only option that will allow Israel to remain both Jewish and democratic in the long term.” Politicians who support the disastrous and disproven Two-State Solution, plain and simple, are not supporters of Israel. Harris and Walz support a Two-State Solution.
As Rabbi Schonfeld correctly pointed out, the Harris-Walz campaign went even further and snubbed the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, making them not only anti-Israel, but even worse. The Democrats’ ideology and rhetoric have had devastating consequences on college campuses and have spurred violence against many innocent Jews.
Deep blue Democratic cities, like New York City, have been hotbeds of anti-Semitism since October 7. Many of the politicians in New York City are progressive, which claim more anti-Semites than any other political faction. Their views filter down to their constituents. In fact, according to the ADL, New York ranked second only to California in anti-Semitic incidents in 2023. Through May 2024, New York City recorded 164 complaints of anti-Semitic hate crimes – a 45 percent surge from the previous year. Democrats who do not abhor hate crimes against our Jewish residents and who do not wink and nod at the anti-Semitic politicians in their own party do not deserve the Jewish communities’ votes.
Rabbi Schonfeld reports that many of the politically active people in Queens take the position that if a political representative has been good to the community “then only show appreciation and gratitude in return.” I wondered at what expense. Stephen was invited to meet with the Queens Jewish Alliance (“QJA”) members to be vetted for their support and endorsement. We arrived at the palatial home of a member of the QJA, situated on the best block in Kew Gardens Hills. We were informed by the chair of the QJA that they recommend all Republicans to register as Democrats in order to vote for the best Democrat candidate in the primary. I thought, as a Republican, why would I want the best Democrat as a challenger to the Republican candidate. It seemed disingenuous to do that. We sat down and the interview process began.
Stephen spoke about his background and answered all the members’ questions. They appeared impressed and stated so. He was sincere, intelligent, and demonstrated a deep knowledge of the Surrogate’s Court. Over the past two months, I reached out to some of the QJA members to arrange for a meet-and-greet in Kew Gardens Hills for community members to get to know Stephen. No one was interested. Then I asked about placing a lawn sign, which again was met with a negative response. This week, when I finally asked about QJA’s endorsement in the Surrogate’s Court race, I received a message stating, “when/if we make an endorsement, you’ll know.” I was perplexed, until I read Rabbi Schonfeld’s article.
Clearly, the QJA has an investment in Cassandra Johnson winning the race. The QJA is not interested at all in supporting a qualified candidate who happens to be observant. Stephen is not a political animal and cannot offer the Queens Jewish Alliance what the Democratic machine politicians can. All Stephen can promise is that he will run a fair, honest, and efficient court for all of Queens County. The Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance expressed no interest in even meeting Stephen.
My conclusion, after reading the article, is that a Jewish community that is apolitical is far better than a politically active community. The problem with a politically active community is that it can be corrupted by promises of favors and financial benefits. When the community turns a blind eye to a righteous, qualified candidate, who happens to be a frum Jew, the community has lost its way. Democrats know that Jews vote, and they covet their votes. Unfortunately, Democrats know how to manipulate people to secure their votes. I could not help thinking, after reading the article, that we have a lot of chickens in the community voting for KFC.
Kathryn Donnelly
Wonderful Time
Dear Editor:
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Remember that Staples advertisement, where the parents are gleefully jumping into the air while throwing the school supplies into the shopping cart? The kids, on the other hand, have a doleful look on their faces. I, however, was so excited to buy the multi-colored erasers that go on top of the pencils, the yellow soap-like erasers, the rubber strap that held your 20 books together, and the bright-colored folders and large notebook with metal clasps and yellow page dividers. The only thing we didn’t buy were book covers, since my mother was able to make them out of aluminum foil.
Okay, so we’ve established that I’m as old as the hills. I remember when I moved to New York and got onto the school bus going to HANC (West Hempstead wasn’t so cool back then). I asked a fellow student who those four mop-haired guys on the cover of their folders were. She looked at me as if I had horns growing out of my head. I couldn’t explain to her that the Fab Four hadn’t descended onto Pittsburgh yet.
Every September, 1 was proceeded by a trip to the local shoe store, where I was forced to buy saddle shoes and white shoe polish. Those shoes definitely didn’t help my “cool” status in school. Only in high school did I graduate to penny loafers. I also got a locker and an accompanying lock whose combination I forgot by day two of school. Was it two rounds to the right or to the left? Similarly, I forget my cell-phone number now, since I rarely call myself.
Words of wisdom to parents: Make sure you have read all the books that your kids were supposed to have read but didn’t read this summer. Also, go over the order of t’kias Shofar because they will have to know that. Make sure that your house is stocked with Fruit by the Foot and hope that your kids will eat bagel and cream cheese (as my daughter did) 200 days of the year.
Debbie Horowitz
It’s Kamala’s Turn to Hide
Dear Editor:
For years and for good reason, President Biden hid from the press and avoided debating Donald Trump. The debate, which he was pressured into agreeing to, finally exposed his mental weakness and put an end to his run for the presidency. Now, VP Kamala Harris, who for the past 3.5 years was considered inept, an embarrassment, and one of the weakest VPs in history, is taking her turn at playing hide-and-seek.
Kamala has yet to take questions, promised to do an interview within three weeks, and will take Tim Walz with her on that interview. She only agreed to one debate by pro-democratic ABC, has asked to bring notes, and has requested open mikes hoping she can intimidate Trump into antagonizing a “poor, innocent woman.” Kamala has even demanded that they change the rules she and Trump agreed to, insisting they sit rather than stand. She is trying any means to find an excuse to pull out of this debate. To her horror, Trump is undaunted and will agree to any rules that force her into this debate.
Democrats and the political propaganda press are suddenly lauding Kamala’s praises without allowing the public to be informed or to ask questions regarding any of her policies. Voters, including most Democrats, have no idea that Kamala supports reparation to atone for slavery, supports giving voting rights to death row inmates, supports defunding the police, and was the one who set up a fund to bail out protestors during the 2020 riots. She supports eliminating ICE (the people trying to close the border) and not making crossing the border illegal. She was the “Border Czar” appointed by President Biden, yet she allowed in 12 million illegal immigrants, many of whom are terrorists, drug dealers, and human traffickers. She offers illegal immigrants free housing, health insurance, education, and interest-free loans. Most people are unaware that she and Walz are pro-gender-affirming care. The vast majority of people don’t realize that Kamala co-sponsored the radical Green New Deal, which stops drilling, bans fracking, and insists on the use of electric cars only. She is in favor of eliminating any private health insurance and pro-late-term abortion. Where Trump had a plan to safely and with strength withdraw from Afghanistan, Kamala was the last vote on recklessly pulling out of Afghanistan, leaving behind doomed American soldiers and a fortune of weapons acquired by the Taliban. Kamala also had the final vote on the failed economic Bidenomics policy. She is pushing a grocery price cap plan, which sounds impressive, but both houses of Congress and economic scholars have said it is not viable and could never pass. Kamala’s only “new idea,” not to tax tips, was first announced by Trump weeks before she came up with it.
Kamala says she has changed some of her policies, but there is no denying that by choosing Tim Walz as her running mate, this is the most left-wing, Marxist, socialist, Woke, and Liberal ticket in US history.
Kamala claims she differs with some of Biden’s policies, but she isn’t telling us which. Her stance on Israel is the one policy she openly admits to differ. She agrees that Israel has a right to self-defense. Still, unlike Biden, who has a genuine history of caring about Israel’s survival, Kamala is more concerned with the plight of the Palestinians. While anti-Semitism is rampant, she headed an organization to combat Islamophobia. She proudly stood by her stepdaughter as she pledged to raise eight million dollars for the Palestinians. Kamala’s husband, a Jew in name only, was in a law firm that represented the most significant Hamas contributors. People falsely claimed that when this news broke, her husband resigned, but in truth, he resigned to support his wife in her campaign, never mentioning the Hamas connection.
The strategy for Kamala to win is to keep her mouth shut, not show her ridiculous laugh, keep her team saying, “She didn’t mean that,” avoid interviews, study for weeks, and memorize answers for the debate that she hopes will never happen. Kamala’s team says she doesn’t have time to write up her policies before the election. The press says Kamala is smart for not doing interviews and brave for avoiding the press. Kamala said, “Never let anyone tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.” Kamala is hiding so the public doesn’t discover who she is. Sadly, so many people will vote for an incompetent, dangerous woman just because she is a woman, because she is Black, because she is a Democrat, because they don’t like Trump’s personality, but mainly because Kamala won’t let the public realize how unqualified she is, how liberal she is, and how much she is lying and hiding.
Ruki Renov
Dear Editor:
Last week, Larry Penner wrote in with a proposal to make Social Security and Medicare solvent.
A simpler way is to just not pay for these programs to begin with.
That seems to have been the original plan.
When Social Security was established in 1935, the age of eligibility was set at 65 but life expectancy was 59 years. And when Medicare was established in 1965, the age of eligibility was also 65 but life expectancy was 67. Today, life expectancy is 76 years. We should update the age of eligibility for Social Security to 82 and for Medicare to 78 so that most people will never become eligible!
Benjamin Kusin
Dear Editor:
This letter is in response to Warren Hecht’s column titled “President Bone Spurs.” I’m not in the business of dispensing column advice, but as someone who opines weekly on political matters, why is it that you rarely discuss issues that are important to the readers of your column?
The price of everything has skyrocketed, New York City is a crime-infested dump with illegals running wild, and yet somehow Donald Trump’s bone spurs from 60 years ago is at the forefront of your mind. To be fair, though, the bone spurs is a welcome change from the tedious weekly columns pretending the absurd lawfare cases thrown at Trump were rooted in anything other than political theater.
T.R.
The Real Reason Behind the Revised Jobs Report
Dear Editor:
The Labor Department announced this past week that they overestimated the number of new jobs created by the Biden administration by a whopping 30 percent. Taken at face value, one would wonder how they could be off by such a large number. But nothing from this administration can be taken at face value, as they habitually lie about everything.
If you disagree with me and consider this an honest mistake, you should consider why every “mistake” and “miscalculation” that is done only goes in one direction: in favor of the Biden administration. Jobs reports that are touted for days by the lackeys in this administration and the media are downgraded months later with much less fanfare. Same with the inflation reports that are also routinely underestimating actual inflation and are later revised. These types of shenanigans are not new for the Lyin’ Biden administration, as the Hunter laptop non-scandal in 2020 likely tipped the election towards Biden, only for them to admit the truth three years later, once any potential harm from fallout of all of Hunter’s crimes was severely diminished. This administration lies with impunity, directly benefits from the lies and only later issues a “correction.”
A scrupulous political observer, when assessing the veracity of any positive information related to the current administration should take into account the political ramifications of the information being laundered through the media as fact. At this point, only a sucker would believe the propaganda put forth as fact by the Democratic puppets in the mainstream media.
Avi Goldberg
Ignoring Action
vs. Ignoring Words
Dear Editor:
In his description of Tim Walz last week, Warren Hecht states Walz “may have embellished his record.” This is a grossly deceptive misstatement. Walz is guilty of stolen valor for claiming over the last two decades that he was a retired Command Sergeant Major when in actuality he never completed the coursework for that ranking. Mr. Hecht then characterizes J.D. Vance’s military experience as “the same” as Walz’s. This, too, is fundamentally dishonest, as no one has ever accused Vance of embellishing any part of his military record.
Given Vance’s honesty on his record, Mr. Hecht giving “credit” to Walz and Democrats for not attacking Vance’s record is ludicrous on its face. And then, of course, Mr. Hecht’s customary whataboutism, couched this week as “everyone in the military deserves our respect,” is another misdirect designed to make the reader forget about the fact that Walz lied about his record and Vance did not.
Mr. Hecht’s grand finish complaining of the QJL readership ignoring Trump’s “outlandish comments” is a fitting end to his weekly gaslighting. The world is on fire, thanks to Democratic foreign policy. Anti-Semitism has reached a fever pitch specifically within the Democratic Party. The value of the dollar has been deflated, thanks to “transformative” Democratic fiscal spending. Ten million people, including many violent criminals, waltzed in here, thanks to Democratic border policy. More than 100,000 Americans are killed each year by fentanyl that has come through our open border, thanks to Democratic non-enforcement of the border.
Mr. Hecht, you can complain about QJL readership giving Trump a free ride on some insensitive comments, but your ignoring the Democrats’ dismantling of our country under the leadership of the other person running for President is far more egregious.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
The first meeting of the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies was disappointing news. How can there be a dialog between all races when its membership is 100 percent African American. The New York State Legislature passed a law in 1817 ending slavery – decades before the Civil War.
Since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the private sector and government have invested in various programs benefiting African American citizens.
This included minority quotas for both employment hiring and admission to college, awarding of contracts to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, minority business mentoring programs, workplace mentoring programs for promotion to higher positions, and others. Glass ceilings in the workplace and government have been broken. African Americans hold senior management positions in government and business.
Several African American generations have benefited and grown since 1964. It is time to move on, rather than go back 158 years to re-litigate the 1861-1865 Civil War. We have grown to look beyond the color of a person’s skin, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or age, and accept each person for who they are today.
It is pure folly to believe that either Albany or Washington could find hundreds of billions or more to pay for reparations. According to the Congressional Budget Office, our current $35.251 trillion national debt will soon grow by $2.9 trillion annually reaching $56 trillion by 2034. Today’s federal tab averages $104,523 per citizen or $268,803 per taxpayer. (Source: August 23, 2024, National Debt Clock). Albany’s tab averages $21,298 per citizen with a total tab of $417.011 billion (Source August 23, 2024, State Debt Clock).
The late Civil Rights icon Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Wiser words have never been spoken.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Great Neck, New York
Dear Editor:
First, before fellow reader Avi Goldberg makes another uninformed pronouncement about the health of President Biden, he should be required to show where/how he acquired a license to practice medicine. Otherwise, let Avi turn his attention to the clear physical and mental deficiencies of Trump, whose obvious morbid obesity and severe psychological issues render him disqualified from being elected. Keeping such a diminished creature, our oldest nominee ever, on the campaign trail is clear elder abuse.
As for Doniel Behar, nothing in the anti-price gouging proposal by Vice President Harris is a departure from similar laws that are already on the books in Republican states. Our inflation rate, which was already the lowest in the post-Covid industrialized world, has dropped to about two percent after passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, for which the Vice President had to cast the tie-breaking vote, because not one Republican supported it. Also, the cost of prescription drugs like insulin is dropping due to legislation that the GOP fought tooth and nail. And Doniel, I previously warned that I would call out the inherent racism of your use of the term DEI. You may think you are being sly about not using a slur you really clearly wanted to use, but we see you, and I will always call out racism when I see it. Vice President Harris has proven her qualifications over and over for decades, starting as the prosecutor who will now argue the case against convict Trump.
But then there are the irrefutable facts that were pointed out by Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, who all put country before party at the spectacular Democratic Convention last week.
First, the seditionist January 6 attack on our Capitol that resulted in the deaths of police officers disqualified Donald Trump from ever desecrating the Oval Office ever again. And anybody who fails to call Trump out for that should be branded a hypocrite if they ever lie about backing the blue.
Second, 34 convictions for felony fraud by a jury of 12 peers in New York disqualified Trump from ever taking an oath that requires him to see that the law be faithfully executed.
Finally, as VP candidate and former coach Tim Walz correctly stated, nobody puts together a playbook like Trump allies did with Project 2025 if they don’t plan on using it against Americans as they try to turn our nation into a Christian Nationalist State. It is such a vital MAGA document that VP candidate J.D. Vance got off his couch to write the forward to this nefarious plot. But if you don’t believe me, just go to kamalaharris.com/project2025 to see how it will destroy the democracy our parents and grandparents shed blood for on the battlefields where bone-spur-deferred Trump refused to visit because he considers them “suckers” and “losers.”
David S Pecoraro
Former Vice President
Rosedale Jewish Center
Will Trump Go To Jail?
Dear Editor:
President Trump is due in court in three weeks for sentencing in the Kangaroo Court of "Judge" Juan Merchan. I am sure we will be treated to a full smorgasbord of legal analysis from Warren Hecht but I am here to save Mr. Hecht all the effort and provide the only calculation that is germane to this sentencing: the political calculation. Does anyone besides Mr. Hecht believe that the decision to incarcerate or not incarcerate Trump will rest on anything other than political considerations? If Merchan believes it is politically beneficial for Democrats to throw Trump in jail two months before the election, then that is what will happen. If Merchan is worried he will be turning Trump into a martyr, which will hurt Democrats, then Trump will not receive jail time. Similar to the sham trial Trump endured, justice, due process, or fairness will play no role in the sentencing. This is the sad and pathetic state of our criminal "justice" system.
Doniel Behar
Coup D’etat
Dear Editor:
Now that the Democratic National Convention has ended, the dust is just beginning to settle. Maureen Dowd, a fixture at the very left New York Times, entitled an article on Sunday August 18, “After Biden Bloodletting Time for Fun.” She could not have been more on target. Of course, she got bombarded with one missive after another on social media. She wrote, “It wasn’t exactly ‘Julius Caesar’ in Rehoboth Beach. But it was a tectonic shift and of course there were going to be serious reverberations.” She did call it “a jaw-dropping putsch.” It was as near a coup d’etat as has ever happened in American history. It was clearly unprecedented. Former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain disapproved of what went down. He said in an interview, “I think that was wrong. Biden had secured the nomination through the Democratic process.” Fourteen million people cast their votes for Joe Biden to be the Democratic Presidential nominee. They did not vote for Kamala Harris to be the Presidential nominee.
When Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out of the race for President on March 31, 1968, he had barely won New Hampshire against Eugene McCarthy. LBJ’s Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who replaced him, won the nomination by winning the Primaries. He had actual voters voting for him to become the Democratic Presidential nominee. This was not the case for Harris. Legal scholars are debating whether or not the Harris nomination is constitutional since she did not receive one vote from a voting booth. There will be legal challenges. The real question is who is responsible for forcing President Biden out. Maureen Dowd names four people in this order: Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries. Subsequent articles in the Times indicate that Pelosi might have ended her 50-year bond with President Biden over her actions to make him step aside. They have not spoken since. Obama, who has been a shadow President to President Biden these past four years, was listed first by Dowd and probably was the key figure in the plot to bring down Biden and insert Harris. VP Harris was Obama’s protege and early supporter. Although Obama did not endorse Harris immediately, it appears that he was all in. It also appears that Harris was fully behind the plan to topple Biden. She would never have been able to raise $231 million in one day unless this was all prepared ahead of time. I am sure there will be volumes written about President Biden’s fateful weekend.
Dowd was not too far from the mark when she compared the fall of Joe Biden to Julius Caesar. Her words are not to be taken lightly. They have staying power. It will go down as a day of infamy in American politics.
Dr. Joe Frager
