Letters to the Editor 12/4

Taking a bow

To the Editor:

“I would prostrate myself before the Pope to save the fingernail of one Jewish child.” They are among the most famous words uttered by Rav Ahron Kotler zt”l. The words appear in Prof. David Kranzler’s book, “Thy Brothers’ Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust” (1987). Rav Kotler, in addition to being the Kletzk and Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva, was a Vaad Hatzalah activist in the years 1941-1945. Your editorial (A view of America, bent at the waist; Nov. 27, 2009) comments and objects that President Obama has been seen bowing to the emperor of Japan, and before that, the king of Saudi Arabia. We were all startled. How far does a world leader go in pursuing peace? I’m only asking the question, not answering it.

Elliot Pasik

Long Beach

Exonerating Kasztner

To the Editor:

I was glad to see Dr. Ladislaus Löb’s response to Edith Polak’s “An Open Letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s Daughter” (Nov. 27, 2009). I am disappointed, however, that you did not think it was important enough to print in your newspaper, leaving it for the online version of the Jewish Star only.  I hope you reconsider. Your reading public deserves to have the facts.

Ms. Polak’s status as a child of survivors does not give her the right to sit in judgment of events she has only learned about secondhand, even if she learned them at the knees of survivors. It says in the Mishna in Avot, Chapter 2 - “Al tadin et chavercha ad shetagi’ah lemekomo; Do not judge your friend until you have come to his place.” I strongly urge Ms. Polak to take those words to heart.

How dare she presume to judge those faced with “choiceless choices” in a world gone mad. How dare she equate Kasztner’s actions with Eichmann’s, practically putting them on an even playing field, suggesting that they were co-conspirators? By 1944, Eichmann already had the Hungarian Jewish population marked for death; Kasztner’s actions (or if Polak is to be taken at her word, his inactions) did not facilitate the destruction of 400,000 souls. How dare she diminish the rescue of 1,684 Hungarian Jews by grudgingly acknowledging that Kasztner rescued a “few souls?”

I, too, am a child of survivors. I, too, feel the burden of speaking on behalf of those kedoshim who died during the Shoah. However, I will never sit in judgment of anyone who had to make impossible choices in an impossible situation. Only G-d can do that.

Carrie W. Teitcher

Oceanside

No more anti-Zionists

To the Editor:

My 22-year-old son proudly served in the IDF and recently married and made aliyah. I am writing to thank you for your editorials in The Jewish Star the last few weeks. I felt that you articulated perfectly how I personally feel about inviting openly anti-Zionist rebbeim to our community as honored guests (Is this really a smart thing to do?, Nov. 6, 2009; A recap and an olive branch, Nov. 20, 2009). The fact that, according to another local paper, the rabbi in question was here to raise funds for his schools because he refuses to accept money from the Israeli government is particularly galling. Please continue to express your views and the views of a big part of this community that seems to be underrepresented of late.

Esthy Hersch

Woodmere