Letters to the editor 3-20-09

Issue of March 20, 2009 / 24 Adar 5769

Tomchei Shabbos gift

To the Editor:

My friend told me that her husband gives a shiur every morning in Lawrence. On Friday morning, a man walked in with an envelope for Tomchei Shabbos. He said that after reading the article in The Jewish Star (Tomchei Shabbos gears up for greater need; March 13, 2009), he decided to immediately write a check for Tomchei Shabbos. Yasher koach on your wonderful article.

Jeanette Lamm

Far Rockaway

Editor’s Note:

The correct phone number for Tomchei Shabbos is (718) 327-7283, instead of area code (516), as written in last week’s article.

Madoff’s fate unfair

To the Editor:

All we keep hearing about is Bernie Madoff. I see a magnificent apartment he lived in, his beautiful wife with her gorgeous hair, perfectly colored and cut, and I think about how he is going to live in a cell.

Growing up in Williamsburg, I remember my mother always saying “schve zu makin a leben.” She was referring to my father. He was a furrier and worked very hard. There were seven children to support. He would never work on shabbos and of course was told by the boss that if he did not come in on shabbos, don’t show up at all. So he would shlep the pelts of fur, which were very heavy, on the train and work on them the whole night, then shlep them back on the train the next day. He dropped dead at my feet when I was 10 and he was 53. We never lived like the Madoffs, but at least none of the children ever shamed the Kirschner name.

Now, many years later, I lost my husband and so did Ruth. The only difference is she will visit him about two or three times a month. All I do is leave a stone on Seymour’s grave. Is that fair?

West Hempstead