Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community My father zt”l would recall witnessing prominent Jews on their knees, being forced by the Nazis to...
As you will likely recall, about a month ago, I wrote an article about my “moving experience,” whereby I described being scammed by movers, nearly resulting in the loss of my belongings. I did manage to stop the movers in time, but it cost me significant cash out of pocket for them to offload the truck back into my house.
I’ve noticed lately that the great Orthodox publications – and there are many of them – have run out of hot-button issues to headline. Maybe that’s good news: no tragedies to report on. Baruch Hashem, things have been relatively quiet in Israel, outside of the usual low-level Arab terror. But that’s ho-hum. No major breakthroughs in world events, even though major elections in the US and Israel are upon us. Jewish positions are quite well established, with no major turf battles taking place between Jews, i.e., Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. (While that is true here in the United States, the battle for recognition of non-Orthodoxy is still being fought in Yerushalayim at the Kosel Plaza).
Do any of you remember the screaming headline of the New York Post in August of 1991: “Dave, Do Something!”? That was in response to the inaction of then-Mayor David Dinkins to the riots in Crown Heights. Young Gavin Cato was accidentally killed by a driver for the Lubavitcher Rebbe and a riot by African Americans followed in the neighborhood for three days, resulting in the murder of the totally innocent bystander, Yankel Rosenbaum. Dinkins’ response? Nothing. Let them vent. Ultimately, that surfaced as an election issue in the mayoralty race, which propelled Rudy Giuliani to office.
There is a great picture, making the rounds, of a lawn sign that reads “Kaparos…that time of year when all those who support killing babies run around saving chickens.”
I will not blame you if you disagree with the premise of this article. I’m not even sure I agree with it myself.
In our Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, one of our legendary baalei-battim was Dr. Simon Lopata a”h, who, among many other important characteristics, had a flair for the written and oral word. He listened carefully to speeches and if he had any comments, he would share them with the speaker. At least with me he did. In the beginning, I was sensitive to any criticism, “constructive” or not.
