My Trip To Israel In May
Dear Editor:
I would like to share some thoughts about my recent trip to Eretz Yisrael. Although I did not take El Al, on the plane I was surrounded by many Jews in various attire, both religious and secular. Some men walked around with tzitzis, and I saw one Jewish man helping another put on t’filin. I saw this in Israel as well. Many of the stewardesses spoke Hebrew.
I had arranged my trip around the program known as Volunteers for Israel, which is coordinated by SAR EL. I volunteered on an army base for one week, followed by two weeks of visiting friends. VFI is open to anyone over 18 who is healthy and wants to be of service. Once you have filled out all the paperwork and received medical clearance from one’s doctor, you are interviewed. I was assigned along with nine other people to an army base in the south, near Beer Sheva. We slept in the army barracks and ate in the mess tent with all the soldiers. The highlight for me was raising the Israeli flag every morning, standing at attention and singing the HaTikvah. The words of HaTikvah take on a whole new meaning when you are in Eretz Yisrael! We painted containers, sorted and folded army uniforms, washed shelves, and basically did whatever we were asked to do, however menial. The soldiers were friendly and curious about why we were there. They expressed their appreciation for our presence and desire to help.
Overall, I felt very safe in Israel, not only on the army base but in Yerushalayim and elsewhere. The light rail was a pleasure to ride, like a trolley, and the underground train was very fast. I was happy to see Israeli soldiers walking the streets.
Yom Yerushalayim was amazing. I watched young men and women marching to the Kosel with Israeli flags, singing songs. I spent time in the courtyard of Rabbi Aryeh Levin’s shul on Thursday evening, Erev Yom Yerushalayim. We heard firsthand reports from those who witnessed the liberation of the Kosel. The grandson of Rabbi Levin also spoke, as well as Sivan Rahav Meir. Listening to the description of the events, you could almost imagine being there in person. We all davened Maariv together and sang K’ish echad b’leiv echad. We said Sh’ma Yisrael together, and Hashem Hu HaElokim. I felt like I was at Har Sinai reciting Sheimos as if it were Yom Kippur. It was quite an emotional experience. The audience was made up of all kinds of Jews, secular and religious, who were united in their love of Yerushalayim. From the moment I arrived in Israel until I left, I felt at home. My prayers had special kavanah. This is where I belong! Ultimately, we will all end up there when Mashiach comes.
I did not experience any tension between people, no matter where I went. I saw religious Jews interacting respectfully with chiloni Jews. I was convinced that this is what Hashem wants. Unity, not divisiveness! I know that as a tourist, I see Israel with rose-colored glasses, but I did not feel like a tourist. I said as much to someone I met at a makolet (supermarket). She replied, “I have been here five years and I still have those rose-colored glasses on!” I am grateful to Hashem that I was able to travel to Israel and have the opportunity to help the country in some small way. I hope to return and volunteer again, like so many others. My dream is to live there, and I hope with Hashem’s help to make it a reality.
Last Sunday, I marched in the Celebrate Israel Parade with Volunteers for Israel. With great pride I held up a banner and was heartened by the cheers from the crowd. Although there were fewer people than in previous years, those who came were enthusiastic. I saw policemen with Israeli flags, T-shirts saying, “End Jew Hatred,” and “My heart belongs to Israel.” That message sums up my thoughts.
Rachel Epstein
Dear Editor:
When one considers the horrific direction that this country has taken over the past few years and the continued dominance of Democrats on election day, one is left wondering: How could it be that Americans continue to elect the party that brought us unnecessary lockdowns, out-of-control crime waves, open borders, and the worst inflation in nearly half a century? Are a majority of Americans really in favor of more expensive gas, much higher grocery prices, partial birth abortion, drag queen story hour, purchasing $60,000-electric cars, pointless proxy wars with Russia, and the hyper-racialization of every aspect of our society?
Is this country’s electorate really that stupid that it continues to vote against its own self-interest?
Well, the short answer is yes, but a key factor that cannot be discounted is the underhandedness and maniacal shenanigans of Democrats to do everything within their power to maintain their stronghold. The framing of issues such as the January 6 trespassing case as an “insurrection,” the farcical characterization of white supremacy as “the greatest threat to our Republic,” the lie that Georgia was suppressing Black votes by using “Jim Crow 2.0” tactics, the lie that billionaires don’t pay taxes, the framing of the long-term unsustainability of Social Security as “Republicans want to take it away from you” are all sold to the public to distract them from the facts that their lives have gotten markedly worse under whoever is running the current administration. Divide and conquer is key for Democrats to maintain their power. If they can sow dissension along racial, sexual, and socioeconomic lines, then they can distract the mostly poorly informed public from the facts that it is the Democrats’ own destructive policies that have led us to where we stand now.
Is there any hope for the future? Unclear, but relying on Republicans to turn things around is unlikely. If there is any group that is more ignorant than the general public, it is the political operatives of the Republican Party. Putting all political points aside, it is still mainstream thinking within those who run the Republican Party to encourage their voters to vote on Election Day. So, while Democrats go door-to-door ballot-harvesting for six weeks, the geniuses who run the Republican Party decided that eschewing mail-in balloting in favor of having everyone wait in long lines with overloaded, broken machines (at least in Arizona) is a winning strategy!
The last thing Democrats care about is election integrity. Election rule changes and mail-in balloting certainly make elections less secure. But since those are the rules now, it is well past time for Republicans to get their heads in the game by stopping Democrats from running grass roots circles around them and start winning the battleground states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia. The last election was decided by a few thousand votes in these purple states. If Republicans can deploy their ground game and get their own low-informed, unlikely to vote, voters to vote, maybe they will have a shot.
Don’t count on it.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
Real leaders practice what they preach. New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants to pay residents to shelter migrants in their own homes. How many will he put up in Gracie Mansion or his Brooklyn apartment?
Will other elected officials such as Governor Hochul, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, City Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council President Adrienne Adams, along with other New York Congress members, State Senators, Assembly members, Boro Presidents, District Attorneys, and Council members who support the Big Apple as a Sanctuary City open their homes to asylum seekers, as well, without taxpayers’ compensation?
New Yorkers who have second summer residency in the Hamptons or the Catskills can open their homes, as well. Who will be legally liable should an asylum seeker commit a crime while living in your home? Talk is cheap, but actions speak louder!
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Dear Editor:
Vacation! Chofesh! But freedom from what and for whom? It’s definitely not freedom for the woman who books the flights and hotel rooms, does the packing and prepares the food, if you are going to some non-Chabad world destination (although, thank G-d, there aren’t too many of those around).
First off, let me say that I’m not going to New Zealand. Okay, I admit I don’t even know where that is, but more importantly, their airline has just instituted a weigh-in policy. They obviously don’t understand that we frum Yidden, who are loathe to wasting food, are still eating the cheesecake, blintzes, and lasagna (Don’t worry, we’ve already thrown out the salmon) from Shavuos, as well as the cholent from Shabbos. Therefore, how dare you weigh us and put us between two anorexic passengers.
Some of us have opted to take the less expensive (okay, cheaper) route and take a car ride to Baltimore or Washington, which should take only five hours. The problem with that decision pops up after three hours of driving, and we’re just approaching the upper or lower levels of the GWB. It’s times like those when one appreciates Delaware, not for its most famous resident but for the fact that it’s so tiny.
Travel experts advise us to go to Miami or New Mexico since the airfares are so cheap. The only thing I know about New Mexico is that they sell nice blue jewelry. As far as Miami goes, these experts must all be bald, because if they had hair, they would never go to a place with 90-degree heat accompanied by 100 percent humidity. Also, my husband and I once went to Tower 41 so that he could daven Kabbalas Shabbos with a minyan. While waiting outside the room for him, I was asked by one of the stylishly clad women (from New York, but not KGH) if I was a new nanny.
What’s left? A cruise? No thanks. I get seasick just watching a boat in the water. A trip to Alaska? Why do they advertise a famous rabbi on this trip? Are there the k’varim of tzadikim there? What’s left? We must go to the country! But that trip deserves its own article.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
A Florida grand jury – not President Joe Biden, not Attorney General Merrick Garland, not Special Prosecutor Jack Smith – has now decided that Donald Trump should be indicted for violating the law after January 20, 2021. No pocket pardon can save Trump. These randomly chosen Floridians – some of whom are likely registered Republicans – have heard Trump’s own words and have been convinced that Trump violated federal law.
The charges of obstruction of justice render any comparison between former Vice President Pence or President Biden moot. Both Pence and Biden self-reported. Both voluntarily submitted to FBI searches. Neither was aware they had the long-forgotten documents. Neither had false declarations filed on their behalf. Neither of them stated on tape that they had a classified federal document in their possession that had not been declassified. None of this is true for Trump. That’s why this is a prima facia case against Trump.
Could this indictment be used by a future president who is more ruthless than Trump (hard to imagine) to punish an adversary? Perhaps.
But like chemotherapy, which is toxic, sometimes you have to take that risk to eradicate a cancer.
I have served as a member of a federal grand jury. I took an oath of office. I then took a separate oath of office in order to present charges to a federal magistrate as Acting Foreperson of that grand jury in Brooklyn. I obeyed my oath. I am proud of these Floridians who did likewise by deciding that no person is above the law.
David S. Pecoraro
Op-Ed: I’m Coming Out As Pro-LGBTQ (Satire)
Dear Editor:
Pride month is in full gear, and there’s no better time to come out in support of our pro-LGBTQ allies than now. So let me say this loud and clear: I support the LGBTQ agenda.
Yes, I support liberty, guns, the Bible, Trump, and a BBQ. We must defend our LGBTQ rights as they are continuously stripped away from us by the little tyrants in the federal government. Our LGBTQ rights are the bedrock of our constitutional republic.
I will never give up this fight, and neither should you.
Rafi Metz
Dear Editor:
We now have another instance of the Democratic Party burning down our institutions and showing their contempt for our traditions and our Constitution. First two bogus impeachments and spying on a rival Presidential nominee’s campaign. What Jack Smith just did by indicting former President Trump is he turned our once great country into a Third World Banana Republic. There is no walking this back. There is no formal declaration in the Presidential Records Act for how to declassify anything. According to our Constitution, only the President has the discretion to do so.
In a 2012 opinion, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in a case involving tapes in President Clinton’s sock drawer: “The [Presidential Records Act] does not confer any mandatory or even discretional authority on the archivist. Under the statute, this responsibility is left solely to the president.” Once President Trump leaves the White House with those documents, they are declassified. This whole charade is a disgrace.
It is parents’ nature to want to protect their children. We currently have a culture that is essentially at war with that notion. Disney, Bud Light, Target, and now Kohls are all in on the fight. The President last week said, “We have some hysterical and, I would argue, prejudiced, people” engaged in targeting LGBTQ people. It’s an appeal to fear and it’s an appeal that is totally, thoroughly unjustified, ugly.” President Biden announced a new Federal monitor to train schools on how to deal with book bans, the impact they have on LGBTQ kids, and how they violate civil rights laws. The official position of the Democratic Party as laid out by the President is that parents no longer have the right to protect their children. Only the government can dictate what is good for them. This is Marxist ideology at its core. And every Democrat in Congress is all in. Because, to them, it’s party before anything else.
Shalom Markowitz
