Dear Editor:
I am writing with regard to Mrs. Susie Garber’s well-written article titled “Leadership Changes at Vaad Harabonim of Queens.” I personally have had occasion to call Rabbi Chaim Schwartz of the VHQ with various kashrus questions. I would like to thank him for his guidance for myself and the community over the years. I would like to express hakaras ha’tov as well to the other rabbanim who were mentioned in the article: Rabbi Herschel Welcher, Rabbi Marty Katz, and Rabbi Daniel Haramati, as well as all of the rabbanim who have selflessly given their time and efforts over the years to ensure that the community has the highest standards of kashrus.
Since the article included a bit of history regarding the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, I feel obligated to relate that credit for the creation of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens goes to my father, Rabbi Chaim Yoel Laks. As the rabbi of the first Orthodox shul in the community, Congregation Toras Emes, on Parsons Boulevard and 78th Road, he took pride in the growth of the community, with additional Orthodox shuls having been established. He realized that there was a need for a communal organization to ensure for the kashrus of the food establishments in the neighborhood, as well as for other Jewish communal needs.
Since he had previously served as a rav in Philadelphia, where there was a Vaad of Philadelphia; he appreciated its value and wanted to arrange for a Vaad in Queens, as well. He reached out to the other rabbanim in the community at the time and called for a meeting to take place at Toras Emes on May 2, 1957. Of course, my father had full intentions to attend the meeting that he arranged for, which was taking place at the shul where he was the rabbi. Hashem decided otherwise, since my mother went into labor that night with my older brother. The meeting took place without my father present, and the Vaad Harabonim of Queens was “born” the same night as my brother Yussie. Despite not having been present at the original meeting, my father had many years of involvement with the Vaad Harabonim of Queens.
I’m sure that my father is very proud in shamayim to see the continuity of the organization that was his brainchild. I would like to express my best wishes to Rabbi Hanson on his new position as the executive kashrus administrator.
Sincerely,
Ilana Goldschein
Change
Dear Editor:
Does anyone have a spare $12,000 lying around the house? What? You don’t need keratopigmentation? It seems a lot of people feel it’s necessary to spend that kind of money to change the color of their eyes. Your intrepid letter writer doesn’t need to do that because she already has blue eyes. True, she wishes she had blonde hair instead of frizzy brown grayish hair, but she’s too cheap to change that.
Change is an important word to many. It can mean physical change, like the aforementioned, or personality change. Are you the same person you were 30 years ago when you got married? Probably not, but you’re probably happy you’re not. Remember telling your children to grow up. Now, you wish they were your cute babies.
If you’re a senior citizen, think about the changes you can still make in your life. You have more time to learn Torah instead of wishing you had learned more when you were younger. As a matter of fact, you can spend many gap years in Israel and make aliyah. Afraid of such a big commitment and change? Then visit Israel for the shalosh regalim. That way, you’re dipping your toes in the water before making the big plunge.
I know what you’re thinking. She’s a big “kenocker” (pardon my poor Yiddish). She talks big but does little. You are right. There are many changes I have to make (not just to my wardrobe). Making aliyah is a big commitment. But you know what they say: “M’shaneh makom, m’shaneh mazal.” Change your place (I guess it can also refer to Florida), and your mazal changes along with it.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
What will happen on January 5, 2025, when the $9 base Congestion Pricing toll kicks in? When it advances the promised $15 billion in carryover capital projects from the previous $51 billion 2020-2024 Five-Year Capital Program paid for by this funding source? There will be $15 billion in Congestion Pricing funded capital projects, $5-10 billion in ongoing capital projects and programs not funded by Congestion Pricing from the current $51 billion 2020-2024 Five-Year Capital Plan, whose work will be carried over into the next Five-Year Capital Plan. These are along with new projects and programs under the new $68 billion 2025-2029 Five-Year Capital Plan.
Having $68 billion assumes that Governor Hochul and the State Legislature will find other new funding sources to make up for the current $33 billion shortfall to finance the new 2025-2029 Five-Year Capital Plan. Based upon past history of previous Five-Year Capital Plans going back to 1981, it is doubtful that the MTA can complete potentially up to a record $93 billion worth of capital projects and programs within the next upcoming five years. Remember that this does not include billions worth of additional routine maintenance, inspection, and safety-related projects and programs, all while operating 24/7 NYC Transit bus, subway, and Staten Island Railway, MTA bus, Long Island and Metro North Rail Road service all year around.
The MTA has yet to provide any updated Force Account (its own track, signal maintainers and other specialized craft employees), Track Outage, Procurement, Construction Schedules, Routine Asset Maintenance, and Safety Inspection, Schedules or Staffing Plans to validate any technical capacity to successfully manage all of the above between 2025 and 2029.
Commuters, taxpayers, MTA Board members, MTA employees, transit advocates, local, city, and state elected officials deserve transparency and answers from Governor Hochul and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber to these reasonable concerns and questions prior to January 5, 2025.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Is Everyone Going Bananas?
Dear Editor:
There was a moment when the Republicans won the elections that I believed the world was waking up and returning to some semblance of sanity. Then a banana duct-taped to a canvas sold at auction for $6.2 million. The buyer has to continually replace the banana, but he owns a certificate saying the original conceptual art painting is his. Copies of this painting, priced from $19.29 to $278, are selling like wildfire. You can buy a banana for 20 cents and create your own masterpiece.
Perhaps crazier is that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.” Hamas issued a statement in support of the ICC and the arrest warrants, calling on countries across the world to adhere to and cooperate with the courts. France, Canada, and Mayor Dopey Jihadi of Dearborn, Michigan, have already announced that they would comply with the ICC.
The ICC has never issued warrants against anyone in Iran, the “head of the terrorist snake.” They only issued a warrant against one Hamas terrorist, Mohammed Deif (who was eliminated by Israel), insanely equating Netanyahu and Gallant, elected officials who are defending their country from annihilation by terrorists.
Israel, which provides water, electricity, gas, oil, and banking ability to Gaza, in the midst of fighting a war that Hamas began, has been made to take responsibility for feeding the Palestinians, despite the fact that 80 percent of them side with Hamas, and Hamas blocks and steals the majority of the provisions that Israel, the US, and the world are so preoccupied with supplying to them.
There are 52 Arab states, and the world is too blind to recognize that it is only due to anti-Semitism that they insist on splitting the one tiny Jewish state of Israel into two. They are even more blind or crazy to believe that the Palestinians, who have continually rejected all agreements for a two-state solution, are really willing to live in peace under any circumstances other than full occupation of Israel.
I thank G-d that the United States is standing up for Israel against the ICC and that, hopefully, Trump and his new cabinet will change the world, stand firmly by Israel, stop funding the UN, and sanction the ICC.
The entire world should be condemning Iran and its terrorist proxies who committed the most horrendous atrocities against humankind, but it is a world willing to look at a banana painting and call it ingenious art, so what can we expect?
Ruki Renov
The Truth Behind Trump’s Victory
Dear Editor:
Leftists say they hate Donald Trump because they claim he sows hateful and divisive discord among Americans. But really the opposite is true: They are threatened by the fact that Trump is a unifying force with mass appeal. They say he’s a threat to democracy; but here, too, the opposite is true: Democrats engaged in endless lawfare to bankrupt, imprison, and keep Trump off the ballot. They inspired two assassination attempts, foisted a DEI candidate on us without any democratic process, and were the all-too-willing beneficiaries of media manipulation that occurred throughout the election cycle.
Now that the election is over and Trump’s margin of victory was too big to rig, the media has been working overtime to spin the meaning of the Democrats’ resounding defeat. Three weeks after the election supposedly ended, I’m told that ballots are still being counted. (If they keep counting till January, maybe they can overturn the election and declare Kamala the winner.) This faux balloting count narrows the margin of victory for Trump, which we are told by our moral superiors in the mainstream media means Trump doesn’t really have a mandate to enact his agenda.
What the media won’t tell you is how Trump won: by winning almost half of Hispanic voters and an outsized portion of the Black vote, as well. The only demo Trump really did poorly with is with the most politically ignorant class of voters this country has: Jews. The fact that seven in ten Jews voted for Kamala in spite of the fact that the Democratic Party is home to nearly all the anti-Semites in Congress is disgraceful. Luckily, Trump is not the vengeful type, evidenced by the fact that he never locked Hillary up and he willingly met last week with Biden, who tried so hard to lock him up the last three years. Jews represent about 0.2% of the population, yet make up about a quarter of the Nobel Prize winners. How only 30% of this same group could figure out that it was a good idea to send Kamala/Biden/Obama/Pelosi/Schumer packing is truly mystifying.
Avi Goldberg
For Pete’s Sake
Dear Editor:
In discussing Donald Trump’s appointments, Warren Hecht assumes that Lloyd Austin’s 41 years of experience, including his time as Secretary of Defense, is superior to that of Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, who won two bronze stars during his time in the US military but has a considerably shorter resume than Austin.
When one merely looks at the experience gap between the two, one could reach the incorrect conclusion that Mr. Hecht has. To further highlight that experience does not necessarily make you superior, Victor Davis Hanson (Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute) formulated three questions to be asked of Pete Hegseth at his confirmation hearings:
1) Have you ever been in a situation where you just walked off your job for a week and no one knew where you were (like Lloyd Austin did last December while he was in charge of the entire military)?
2) Have you ever been in charge of an operation where you just left town, leaving $85 billion of military equipment in the hands of a terrorist enemy (like Lloyd Austin did in Afghanistan in August 2021)?
3) Have you ever run a military program like Lloyd Austin has, where the merit of being a well-conditioned fighting machine was not nearly as important and using proper pronouns and ensuring that the correct quota of race-based hires has been met?
Experience should not be considered an asset when it’s been a bad one.
Jonathan Goldgrab
Biden’s Insane Foreign Policy Just Got Crazier
Dear Editor:
It appears that those jubilant over Donald Trump’s electoral victory a few weeks ago may be premature in their celebration. In the waning days of the current, failed Biden administration, they appear hellbent on igniting World War III (along “Trump-proofing” any chance for a peace deal in the Middle East and making it easier for illegal immigrants to stay here long after Biden is gone).
Whoever is in charge of US foreign policy (Jill Biden? Jake Sullivan? Antony Blinken? no one really knows) green-lit the firing of US missiles by Ukraine deeper into Russia. This insane escalation of a regional conflict will correctly be viewed by Russia as a United States act of aggression against them. What comes next is anyone’s guess, but it cannot be overstated how awful this feckless and buffoonish administration has been.
Had Biden or his lackeys displayed any diplomacy skills whatsoever, the Russia-Ukraine war never would have happened. And now that hundreds of thousands have been killed in a pointless war, the outgoing failed administration decides to get aggressive with Russia right before Trump takes over?
Don’t forget, before the election, Biden promised he would not use these measures against Russia because they were dangerously provocative and would not change the course of the war other than to elevate the threat of a nuclear war. Now that the Democrats have lost, they have decided to go full throttle in provoking Russia and playing a game of chicken with Putin. We are relying on Putin’s common sense to prevail in the face of the Biden administration’s stupidity. This administration showed us that they don’t care about American lives: by forcing a leaky, defective, so-called “vaccine” on everyone, opening the border to violent criminals, and legalizing violent crime by not enforcing criminal law. This latest move with Russia is just a continuation of their reckless disregard for our own safety.
Jason Stark
Who’s the Real Boor?
Dear Editor:
Fellow letter writer Choni Kanter thinks Warren Hecht’s views on government are Purim Torah. If so, Purim came early this year.
Mr. Hecht finds the elegant and classy Melania Trump’s decision to skip a White House meeting with Jill Biden “boorish.” Nowhere in his column does Mr. Hecht indicate why Melania skipped out on the invitation. It was actually due to the very boorish Biden behavior, in ordering the early morning raid on his predecessor’s estate at Mar-a-Lago. Refusing an invitation by your successor after your successor orders an FBI raid on your property for a crime that he himself is guilty of, is not boorish. It’s just a normal human reaction to the thuggish, outrageous, political power play that Biden put on the Trumps.
Doniel Behar
