Dear Editor:
Everyone knows that the essence of Pesach is the asking of the Four Questions and beyond. Therefore, I have another query to add to the list: Why are prices on Main Street and Kissena Boulevard so exorbitant? Is a z’roa, which has little to no meat on it, really $6?
Should a container of cottage cheese cost $6.99? What secret ingredients in cole slaw warrants the $9.99 price tag? Why is it that the foods traditionally eaten on Easter go down in price before their holiday while the prices on Pesach foods soar? By the way, kudos to Queens Pita for actually putting sale prices on chametz food the week prior to the chag.
The mitzvah of Maos Chitim is an integral part of the Pesach observance. We traditionally tie this mitzvah to the less fortunate among us. Yet, what happens to the middle-class Jews who can’t afford Cancun or Miami? Why are they stuck paying these prices at home or driving to Costco or Brooklyn for better prices? What is the Vaad Harabonim doing to curb these outrageous prices? Perhaps I’m in the minority when it comes to being upset about this situation. I’m not calling for an immediate boycotting of the stores, but if this price hiking continues, we might have to take our purchasing powers elsewhere.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
I would also like to respond to Warren Hecht’s article, “The DOJ on the Move.” Warren is celebrating the fact that highly partisan Garland wants to go after Trump for January 6. Revenge is so sweet! Warren has Trump Derangement Syndrome so bad that he is unable to analyze the facts. Trump has been a great friend of the Jewish people. Trump put pressure on Iran and voided the horrific Iran Deal. Biden is negotiating with Russia and China to bring this deal back. How can a Jew wish bad on Trump?
Here are the facts. Matthew Rosenberg of The New York Times admitted privately that “The left’s overreaction to January 6 is over the top... It is not the big deal they are making of it.” The DOJ has arrested over 700 people in connection with January 6. The vast majority of these people were only charged with trespassing. At a recent trial, Capitol Police admitted that they waved in the protesters to go into the Capitol. The judge found the defendant not guilty.
The ringleader of the few demonstrators who broke windows was Epps. Epps was never charged because he is probably an FBI agent.
In another trial, two defendants were acquitted for the attempted kidnapping of Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The jury found that the FBI created and organized the “crime” and entrapped the defendants. The FBI admitted that they were involved in the phony Whitmer case, and there is growing evidence that the FBI was also involved in the January 6 demonstrations.
Warren Hecht is a defense attorney. He supports entrapment – as long as it is used against Trump supporters; but he would fight tooth and nail if it was used against his own clients. At the January 6 rally, Trump urged his supporters to be peaceful, and by and large they were. The fact that a few people may have acted improperly on January 6 cannot be blamed on Trump any more than the actions of the Bernie Sanders supporter who shot at Republican senators can be blamed on Bernie Sanders. This double standard must stop.
Eric Rubin
Dear Editor:
With all due respect to Rabbi Schonfeld, I was quite bewildered by his take on the airport anecdote he related. A woman asks Rabbi Buchwald to watch her bags for a few minutes. After a while, he is “startled” when he realizes the bags are gone. When he realizes she in fact retrieved them, the rabbis’ first reaction is to inwardly berate her for not saying thank you? I would have been relieved that the bags were not taken by someone else!
What could have plausibly happened is that she approached the bags, and realizing that the rabbi was distracted and not, in fact, watching the bags very well, grabbed them in a huff of annoyance. I am amazed how the rabbi managed to turn this into a lesson of the uniqueness of the Jewish people and a kiddush Hashem when this could in fact have actually been a sad case of chilul Hashem! Perhaps we should not be so hasty to judge others before examining the situation from all possible angles. It might have been the woman who was due an apology.
Sincerely,
Ora Canter
Dear Editor:
April 15 marks the 75th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson playing his first Major League baseball game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was a milestone for integrating the sport. It was a time that working-class and middle-class men and women of all ages, classes, races, and religions commingled in the stands rooting for Robinson and his teammates, regardless of ethnic origin, game after game.
Ordinary Brooklyn natives could ride the bus, trolley, or subway to Ebbets Field to see their beloved Dodgers. Everyone could afford a bleacher, general admission, reserve, or box seat. Hot dogs, beer, other refreshments – and souvenirs – were reasonably priced.
Just as Jackie Robinson fought racism in the 1950s, Detroit Tigers’ Hank Greenberg had to do the same with anti-Semitism in his time. Robinson and Greenberg both document the long-lasting relationship between African American and Jewish sports fans standing together for decades in support of each other.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Great Neck, New York
Dear Editor:
Once again it is necessary to correct fellow reader Shalom Markowitz.
But first I must give credit where credit is due. Even though I’m a proud Democrat, Shalom is correct about Eric Adams (but not about Bill de Blasio) being hypocritical with his ending the vaccine mandate for local athletes. Where we differ is that Shalom approves such hypocrisy, while I disagree vehemently.
Now for the numerous necessary corrections. John Durham (the Special Counsel named by President Trump) has revealed nothing that exonerates Trump from being proved to be at best a badly compromised useful idiot for Putin, if not a traitor to Russia.
The Mueller Report, though twisted by Trump Attorney General William Barr, clearly proved that the Trump crime syndicate colluded with the Russians beyond any reasonable doubt.
The prosecutions by New York State AG James and the Manhattan DA’s office have gathered enough evidence that the Trump crime family criminally inflated property values for loans, then deflated the values on the same properties for tax purposes. Their stating those cold hard facts may be tough for Shalom to take, but that doesn’t make it slander.
Former FBI Director James Comey on the other hand sabotaged the Clinton campaign with unfounded last-minute allegations related to deleting recipes from a server (just before the election) while immorally hiding the investigation into the treasonous collusion between Trump and Putin from the voters.
As for investigations, Shalom wants us to look at a laptop of unknown provenance that allegedly belonged to a son (who never worked in the White House) that could have easily been doctored by the Russians who want our patriotic President Biden replaced by their proven stooge Trump, as opposed to prosecuting Donald Trump Jr. (who actually worked in the White House) for seditionist texts to illegally ignore the votes of 81 million Americans and allow Trump to overthrow our democracy.
Finally, considering the hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) of dollars Trump’s kids and son-in-law made off of China and the Saudis from their White House offices, while Trump charged our Secret Service agents millions to protect him while he golfed at his properties (even charging our country for golf carts), trying to make this an “example of haves vs. have-nots” is comical.
David S. Pecoraro
Rosedale, New York