Corrections To Queens Bus Redesign Article
Dear Editor:
I read a very interesting article in your paper about the upcoming Queens Bus Redesign. It was well-written, but unfortunately, I found a few mistakes:
The first round of changes will start on Sunday, June 29, not Monday, June 30. The second round will start on August 31, not September 2. All changes in our area will begin on June 29.
There will be no Q73. It was part of an older plan the MTA shared with the public that they decided not to use.
The article did not mention that the Q20B will no longer exist, and the Q20A will become the Q20. On Kissena, the Q34 will also retire, though it appears the Q25 will cover for it.
Everything written about the Q46 was correct, but I’ll add that we’re also getting two new buses on Union Turnpike: the Q45 and the new Q48. The Q45 will start where the Q46 does, then make local stops until it reaches 188th Street, where it will turn left and end about a block or two from the Long Island Expressway. The Q48 will follow the Q46’s route but will turn left at 260th Street instead of heading to the hospital. Check mta.info/project/queens-bus-network-redesign for more information.
Menachem Grossman
A Few Words About Rabbi Lipskar Zt”l
Dear Editor:
Rabbi Lipskar zt”l was known as the central pillar and Rav of The Shul in Bal Harbour, Florida, and the founder and guiding spirit behind Aleph Institute, but we knew him as the quiet yet powerful Rav who lived and breathed Jerusalem.
The Rav zt”l, who personified “quiet strength of conviction,” pure goodness, humility, and modesty, loved the concept of redeeming Jerusalem. He believed with the depth of his neshamah in the importance of every single inch of holy land in Jerusalem and was an ongoing practical supporter in many projects of Ateret Cohanim over the last decade or longer.
This included the establishment of the vital and flourishing Rohr Kolel in Beit Yonatan in the Shiloach and his intent on making a practical “shidduch” between The Shul of Bal Harbour and The Shul of Shiloach.
He was truly interested and invested in all Ateret Cohanim news and in every family who moved into the heart of Jerusalem, wanting involvement in every aspect of Geulat Yerushalayim.
The Rav zt”l, his devoted wife Chani, and their children Devorah-Leah and Zalman with their respective families had family functions and toured many times with Ateret Cohanim and were familiar with many of the projects and endeavors of Ateret Cohanim.
Today, the walls, stones, families, and yeshiva students in the heart of Jerusalem have all shed a tear!
Rabbi Lipskar zt”l will be greatly missed by us and by Yerushalayim.
Mati Dan & Daniel Luria –
Ateret Cohanim Israel
Shani Hikind & the Board of AFAC
Praise For Rabbi Schoenfeld’s Article
Dear Editor:
It was wonderful to read Rabbi Schoenfeld’s article in the QJL this past week. His articles and opinions are always right on target! May he have good health and continue writing for the Link for many more years in good health!
Michael Rollhaus
Enough About Me
Dear Editor:
Don’t worry! You won’t hear all the details about my trip to Israel. Nevertheless, I burst with pride that my daughter was admitted to the Bar in a beautiful, albeit lengthy, ceremony in Yerushalayim. There were 339 inductees, 200 of whom were women. Some justices and bar association heads gave Cory Booker-length speeches in Hebrew that were way above my 12th-grade dikduk level, but all in all, with references to the hostages and Tehillim being said, it was quite an impressive ceremony.
Enough about me. I hope you all enjoyed your two Sedarim, Pesach food, and Chol HaMoed outings because now is the time to rip up all the silver foil coverings, say “adios” to the ersatz kugels, pizzas, and assorted Pesach creations, and worry about or prepare for the next Yom Tov. We all say that after Pesach, Shavuot is a walk in the park. That may be true, but it’s certainly difficult for people who are lactose intolerant or don’t care for salmon or tuna casserole. I’m aging myself by mentioning the last dish, which consists of tuna and elbow macaroni topped with cream of mushroom soup and fried onions. I know you’re not copying down this recipe, but trust me, it’s not half bad.
Getting back to Israel, the good part is that you pick up some new vocabulary. I learned “kash” for straw and various other words I’ve since forgotten. It’s great when Israelis mistake you for an Israeli and rattle off something in Hebrew—or maybe they just don’t speak English. The bad part is when you say something in Hebrew to your kids, trying to hide it from your grandchildren. Your kids roll their eyes and tell you that your 6-year-old granddaughter speaks better Hebrew than you do. Therefore, I’ll have to work on the Yiddish I tried to pick up from the Chasidim on the plane. Gutten Shabbos!
Debbie Horowitz
Assisted Suicide Soon To Be Taken Up By The State Senate
Dear Editor:
The State Assembly recently passed a bill by an overwhelming margin to permit physician-assisted suicide, which will soon come up for a vote in the State Senate. We need to contact members of the Senate and let them know the religious Jewish community strongly opposes this measure and urge the Governor to veto this bill should it pass.
Alan Fenster
Flushing, NY
Clarification On Dry Bones And Concerns About Zohran Mamdani
Dear Editor:
I’d like to clarify, for anyone who cares, that my Letter to the Editor last week, entitled “Dry Bones,” referred to the obituary of Yaacov Kirschen, the author of the Dry Bones comic strip, who passed away a few days earlier. I hope that clears things up.
Regarding last week’s article by Izzo Zwiren, “Who is Zohran Mamdani,” I’d like to add a few points about a potential Mamdani mayoralty. Besides Mamdani being an idiot who espouses ideas proven repeatedly not to work, he poses a serious potential danger to the Jewish population of this city and perhaps beyond.
From the late 1890s until 1910, Vienna, the gemütlich city of music, where Sigmund Freud resided until his final years, had a mayor named Karl Lueger. Vienna is also the capital of Austria, a country that enthusiastically forced its Jewish residents to clean cobblestones with toothbrushes after the Anschluss in 1938 and still denies its responsibility for its role in the Holocaust. Political scientist David Art of Tufts University notes that Austrians comprised 8 percent of the Third Reich’s population and 13 percent of the SS; he states that 40 percent of the staff and 75 percent of commanders at death camps were Austrian. Lueger was elected mayor of Vienna five times but was initially blocked by Emperor Franz Joseph, who loathed him and was concerned about his antisemitism.
Lueger, a zealous Catholic, excluded Jews from the municipal administration. After an 1882 electoral reform expanded suffrage, Lueger focused on petty bourgeois tradespeople, who blamed Jewish competition for their precarious situation, and found that raising the “Jewish Question” earned him enormous popularity.
Lueger was known for his antisemitic rhetoric and admired Edouard Drumont, who founded the Antisemitic League of France in 1889. Decades later, Adolf Hitler, a Vienna resident from 1907 to 1913, saw Lueger as an inspiration for his own views on Jews. Lueger advocated racist policies against non-German-speaking minorities in Austria-Hungary and in 1887 voted for a bill proposed by his opponent Georg von Schönerer to restrict the immigration of Russian and Romanian Jews. He also supported the völkisch movement of Guido von List and coined the term “Judapest,” referring to the supposed Jewish domination of Budapest.
Historian Léon Poliakov wrote in The History of Anti-Semitism:
“It soon became apparent that, especially in Vienna, any political group that wanted to appeal to artisans had no chance of success without an anti-Semitic platform. [...] It was at that time that a well-known phrase was coined in Vienna: ‘Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools.’ The situation was exploited by the Catholic politician Karl Lueger, the leader of the Austrian Christian-Social party, with a program identical to that of the Berlin party of the same name led by Pastor Stöcker. In 1887, Lueger raised the banner of anti-Semitism.”
Some observers contend that Lueger’s public racism was largely a pose to gain votes, making him one of the first to use populism as a political tool. Asked to explain why many of his friends were Jews, Lueger famously replied, “I decide who is a Jew.” (Hermann Göring made a similar statement in the late 1930s about his acquaintance with Bella Fromm, a Jewish journalist in Berlin.) Adolf Hitler was influenced by Lueger’s antisemitism and populism, ideas he incorporated into his rise to leadership of the Nazi Party in Germany.
Why have I shared this history? Because Mamdani could potentially become this century’s Lueger, perhaps inspiring a future Hitler. Some may call this ridiculous, and it may well be. But it may not be. Are you willing to risk it? If not, please take a few minutes out of your busy lives to vote against Mamdani. You may be saving your own life or that of your grandchild.
Solomon Miodownik
Democrats Winning on the Illegal Immigration Issue
Dear Editor:
Warren Hecht asserts that President Trump has broken the law by deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a wife-beater and MS-13 gang member, because he is not complying with a district court judge’s order to return this individual to the U.S. I would point out to Mr. Hecht that one of the President’s main duties is to keep the citizens of this country safe. I understand our government has three branches for a reason, but if the President’s power to deport a wife-beating, MS-13 member illegal immigrant can be usurped by a district court judge’s ruling, then the President has no real power, and his agenda to fix this country by deporting alien criminals is completely thwarted. That’s the larger point here.
Mr. Hecht criticized Trump’s position on deportation vis-à-vis several court rulings, but if there’s this much uproar over deporting one wife-beating gang member, then Democrats have won the war. There are early signs of Democrats winning on this issue—not on the merits, as Americans overwhelmingly favor deporting illegal criminals, but in the long game. This country was invaded by 20–30 million illegal immigrants. Trump’s goal was to deport as many as possible, starting with violent criminals first. To date, Trump has deported only about 100,000 illegals. That is an epic failure for those who love this country and value the safety of Americans but a huge victory for the Democrat Party. If they can put up this big a fight over one violent criminal invader, then Trump has no chance of implementing his plan. The next time Democrats are voted back into power, they will likely attempt to legalize all illegals through various amnesty schemes, ensuring one-party rule in perpetuity. While Mr. Hecht focuses on the nitty-gritty of the Garcia case, he misses the big picture: the long-term ramifications of the Democrats’ scheme to stall the President’s agenda by any means possible, including this latest round of lawfare.
Jason Stark
Listen To Your Heart
Dear Editor:
In response to Jason Stark’s raising the issue of inferior kashrus standards at hotel programs, I offer the following. Chazal teach us that when a Jew ingests non-kosher food, he is susceptible to “timtum halev,” a blemishing of his heart. I once heard from an adam gadol that it is common knowledge that women are more spiritually inclined than men and thus have greater sensitivity to spiritual matters. He went on to say that when a woman comes home from a Pesach program and declares she will never make Pesach again, this is an obvious manifestation of timtum halev.
Avi Goldberg
Dear Editor:
Once again, Mr. Hecht is grasping at straws to find something to criticize the President for. As his Democrat Party crashes and burns with no leader, Mr. Hecht does his best to run cover for it. It does not matter who appointed the judge to the bench! J. Michael Luttig was appointed by President Bush Sr. after serving in the Reagan administration, yet he is one of the most vocal anti-Trump voices. Further, just because you’re appointed by a Republican President does not mean you are a constitutionalist 100% of the time. Justice Roberts is a perfect example.
Nowhere in the Constitution are the phrases “gay marriage” or “healthcare,” yet we have the Obergefell and Obamacare decisions that forever changed this country. Amy Coney Barrett has been inconsistent and is not a guaranteed vote for the Constitution. She got one right—Hobbs. That’s all. Otherwise, she votes in lockstep with DEI hire and Marxist, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Judges are human, flesh and blood. They can make mistakes, as hard as that may be to believe, Mr. Hecht. If a judge rules against the Constitution, what is the recourse for the Executive Branch? The fact that we are still debating a man who was here illegally, beat his wife, and has been deported proves there is nothing but this shiny object for Democrats to hold on to.
Who is your party’s leader, Mr. Hecht? AOC and Bernie Sanders just finished a tour around America. The problem is, no one is buying their “fight the oligarchs” slogan. The Democrat Party has been bankrolled by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and George Soros. Once again, the Democrat Party has a projection problem. David Hogg, who has used living in Parkland, FL, and attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a mass shooting occurred, to make himself relevant and rich, is now the Vice Chair of the DNC. Is he your next party leader? With elder statesmen like Dick Durbin of Illinois retiring from Congress, the younger Democrats replacing them are Marxists, not liberals.
While Mr. Hecht is so worried about Executive power, he focuses on the wrong Executive. Shocker. Governor Kathleen Hochul is suing the Trump administration over “illegal taxes,” aka tariffs on imported goods. Talk about hypocrisy. Congestion pricing is exactly an illegal tax on anyone who wants to drive into midtown Manhattan. Climate change is a Marxist concept to destroy capitalism. There is no environmental threat to cars driving below 60th Street. Money and power, Mr. Hecht. That’s Kathy Hochul, not President Trump.
Shalom Markowitz
