Dear Editor:
I’m glad to see that my friend Rabbi Schonfeld has finally realized the danger Trump poses to the Republican Party and the country.
However, I’m puzzled as to why it took the latest Kanye West/Nick Fuentes fiasco to cause Rabbi Schonfeld, along with others, to come to this realization. By the way, Trump still has not condemned West’s or Fuente’s anti-Semitism. And he will not, since that would offend a large portion of his base.
Trump showed us exactly who he was during the debates preceding the Republican primaries in 2016. He never was able to debate the other candidates on policy due to his stunning ignorance, so he attempted to score points by insulting them: making absurd claims such as Ted Cruz’s father’s complicity in the JFK assassination, disparaging his competitors’ appearance/stature and claiming that George W. Bush was responsible for 9/11. There are more, but you catch my drift. During that time, he mocked a disabled journalist, the horrific Access Hollywood video resurfaced, and he disparaged John McCain, a decorated war hero.
His missteps as president are too numerous to list; however, we must never forget that he attempted to steal an election he lost and thereby upend democracy after his attempts to claim fraud via legal means failed. Recall the [Brad] Raffensperger call during which he asked Georgia’s Secretary of State to “give him” 11,000+ votes. Now we are about to lose the sixth Republican Senate seat due to the unsuitable candidates that Trump promoted. Had he stayed out of these races, they all likely would have easily been won by Republicans.
As a lifelong Republican, I say without hesitation that such a deranged man should never have been the Republican nominee and certainly not the president. Appreciating support for Israel emanating from his administration does not excuse his lack of intellectual or moral fitness for office. Let us Republicans get behind one Republican challenger in 2024, hopefully Ron DeSantis (any more than one or at most two challengers can give Trump a plurality again by splitting up the normie vote). If, G- d forbid, Trump is the nominee in 2024, the Democratic candidate will surely win.
Sincerely,
Arlene Ross
Dear Editor:
I was dismayed and disappointed upon reading Rabbi Schonfeld’s article, “Trump Chump.” Rabbi Schonfeld is, of course, a wise man, and I was very perplexed at how he could get tripped up to be derailed by this Kanye West dinner-gate. He writes that this is the final thing with which to write off Donald Trump.
Let me say that I turned sour on Donald Trump when he deserted our Kurds allies from Syria, his withholding weaponry from Ukraine as he was trying to pressure Zelensky into investigating Hunter Biden, and finally what he did in passively watching TV in the White House as the rioting was occurring on January 6.
Rabbi Schonfeld mentioned the Charlottesville quote from Trump, that there were “good people on both sides,” as an indictment of Trump’s character. Quite honestly, I was shocked that he referenced that often-misapplied quote to mean that the Nazis and Antifa were good people. Of course, anyone who has seen that clip by Trump in its entirety knows that he explicitly condemned both Antifa and the white nationalists, but his comment of good people on both sides was referring to the people on the periphery who were there to rally for or against the elimination of the confederate statue in the town square.
As far as this current scandal that all the Jewish organizations are having an apoplectic fit about, the answer is very simple.
Greg Kelly on Newsmax, on his December 1 show, highlighted all the newspaper clippings that show that Kanye West is either bipolar or at the very least an emotionally disturbed person. Donald Trump considers himself – and many people agree – that he is street smart. He doesn’t shy away from bullies, and part of that is that he can see through the fragility of a bully and can finesse him with charm and manufactured praise. He has done the same with Putin, Kim from North Korea, and now with Kanye West. Trump feels that his powers of charm and persuasion and finessing can overcome a bully’s insecurities and offensiveness.
Koheles says that there are times for everything under the sun, a time for peace and a time for a war, and I say that there are times to confront someone, and times to look away or at least to minimize the confrontation. Kanye West at this point is like a cornered animal, and he can be very dangerous to the Jewish community if the wrong approach is employed. We saw how much power the lunatic Louis Farrakhan had to instigate strife towards Jews. Farrakhan indeed has a deep-seated and long-standing hatred of whites and Jews. But Kanye is a new convert to the anti-Semitism crowd.
If your child yells at you that he hates you, you don’t excommunicate him and throw him out of the house. You deal with him sternly but compassionately and try to work out what is ailing him. There is such a thing as Street Smarts, and knowing how to deal with lower educated and raw characters. I was brought up in a lower-income black neighborhood in Washington, DC, and I worked in the post office with many types of people for 25 years. And I’m telling you that Donald Trump is not wrong in the way that he dealt with Kanye. Forcing Kanye to battle the Jewish community is the wrong approach, and that’s exactly what the rabbis, including our own dear Rabbi Schonfeld, are advocating.
I also have serious questions about Trump. He clearly is not the most stable type of person, but I don’t consider him a lunatic either. As the Rabbi was saying, it depends on who runs against him – both in the primary and in the general election – but this Kanye West dinner-gate thing is not the event to plunge the sword into our friend Donald Trump.
Lastly, blacks don’t care that Kanye West is shunned by whites and Jews. He is still highly regarded in that community. He can have a lot of sway over a lot of blacks culturally in this angry state of mind. If not handled right, he could become a new Farrakhan.
Abe Fuchs
Dear Editor:
Our government lies to us. All the time. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s true.
When the much-hyped COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out at the beginning of 2021, they were touted as the solution to finally ending the COVID pandemic. We were told that all we had to do was take the shots and we would be immune to COVID. Towards the middle of 2021, as evidence mounted that this was not the case, our vaunted public health officials told us these were just “breakthrough cases,” nothing to worry about as vaccine efficacy was still in the high-90s, percentagewise. “Breakthrough cases” is of course a silly term made up by lying government officials to cover up and delay the obvious, that COVID-19 vaccines never provided immunity to its users. Not convinced? When was the last time you heard the term “breakthrough case” in describing a vaccinated person who subsequently gets infected with COVID? It doesn’t exist anymore in the government lexicon. It’s hard to call 250 million instances of the same event as “breakthrough,” no?
Our government constantly misdirects, obfuscates, and outright lies to us to delay bad news until a softer landing can be achieved for the party in power. Remember “transitory inflation?” We’re now in Year Two of this “transitory” state – except no one calls it that anymore. That was just another fictitious term made up by the current administration and trotted out by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to explain why people could no longer afford to buy groceries and fill up their cars’ gas tanks. Does anyone call the current high prices we are forced to pay “transitory?” Of course not.
My point is: When our elected officials get up to the lectern and make some declaration with great conviction such as “The vaccines are safe and effective,” “The vaccines prevent infection and transmission,” “This is the pandemic of the unvaccinated,” “Gas prices are up because of the Putin Price Hike,” or “The economy has never been stronger,” perhaps some skepticism is in order.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
According to an article published in the Los Angeles Times online, retired senior citizens are returning to the workforce, and other senior citizens are putting off retirement because of the high price of everything. Inflation has raised food prices so high that people who are on a fixed income or who don’t make a high salary are finding it difficult to afford food. Some people receive food stamps, but many struggling people are not eligible for them because the income cutoff is so low. Some foods should be subsidized by the government for everyone – not just for WIC program recipients.
It is a responsibility of the US government to make sure that all people are able to afford food – which is a basic necessity. Unfortunately, it does not appear that the government is doing enough to deal with this problem.
Sincerely,
Elliott Wittert
Dear Editor:
“Food, glorious food!” No, I’m not writing a review of the musical Oliver. Instead, I want to explain how food can be elevated to a superior level by reciting brachos or giving a d’var Torah at a meal, or it could be denigrated to a bacchanal as was the case with Donald Trump and his anti-Semitic cohorts.
Tanach is replete with examples of “foul” meals. There are the infamous banquets of Achashveirosh in Megillas Esther. In addition, we have the banquet given by Beilshatzar, who used the vessels from the Beis HaMikdash as dishes. This led to the “writing on the wall,” which said, when translated into English, “Measured, measured, weighed and divided” (Daniel 5:25). The King then called on Daniel to interpret these words, and they meant that on that same night Beilshatzar’s kingdom would be divided and taken away from him by Darius and Cyrus. This led to the infamous story of the King ordering his servants to kill anyone who entered the palace. The King himself had exited the palace to take care of his personal needs and, upon re-entering the palace, was killed by his servant.
When hosting guests, we should be more like Avraham who rushed to prepare a sumptuous (albeit an entree of tongue) meal for his guests. I’m sure only Torah and Lot’s future were discussed. Therefore, we should model our hosting after Avraham and definitely not vote for Trump in 2024.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
President Biden wants to send another $37 billion of taxpayers’ funds to Ukraine. This is on top of $68 billion previously sent. Why hasn’t our federal General Accounting Office (GAO) performed any audits of these funds? Taxpayers deserve to know that these dollars have been spent for their intended purpose. There should be a full accounting to confirm no waste, fraud, or abuse has resulted in any misspent cash.
Remember all the billions that disappeared during our 20-year Afghanistan fiasco? When will our European NATO allies match us dollar for dollar in aid to Ukraine?
By the end of 2022, two million-plus illegal immigrants will have crossed our Southern border for the second year in a row. Preserving our own national sovereignty is equally as important as Ukraine’s. The President and Congress should ensure that every additional billion sent to Ukraine is matched by allocating a billion more to secure our own border.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Great Neck, New York
Dear Editor:
This is in regard to the “Trump Chump” article by the Rabbinic Consultant, Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, in the December 1 issue, where the consultant gives a mea culpa that is ten percent mea and 90 percent everyone else is culpa.
When Yitzchak realizes that he was duped, he does not say, “Oh, well, Yaakov anyway has these and these flaws, so maybe I was better off with Eisav anyway.”
No, he has a “sudden realization that he had lived a life of having been deceived in his basic beliefs.” I hope that the consultant is not claiming to be smarter than Yitzchak Avinu.
I guess that it is as the saying goes: “der seichel kimpt nuch der yuren.”
Mark Goldberg