Dear Editor:
We just finished celebrating Purim, the holiday that reminds us that Hashem is always there, behind the scenes. We need to look for Him.
I want to share with you a recent pratis story as my son Eliezer would call it. I had been searching for a vaccine for the past month, but it was in vain – like looking for a needle in a haystack. I registered for several sites but heard nothing. Then I received a phone call out of the blue, on Purim, from Mount Sinai Hospital offering me a shot any day I wanted! I had never signed up with Mount Sinai, although my doctors are from that hospital. I considered it a Purim miracle, siyata diShmaya. I am so grateful to Hashem for His help in getting me this shot!
Every day, we say in Mizmor Shir: “histarta panecha, hayisi nivhal – You (Hashem) hid Your face, I was terrified.” As we look at how our life unfolds, we realize if we connect the dots, that Hashem is involved in our daily lives. It is very comforting to know that!
Rachel Epstein
Dear Editor:
I’ve read so many serious Op-Ed letters about serious topics, I wanted to mix it and add some lightheartedness here because it’s needed.
I just want to thank Goldy Krantz for her column and her straight approach she takes when answering emails sent to her. I love reading her column and turn to it first every week, and I am never disappointed. Maybe it’s because I’m so removed from the shidduch dating issue that I find the questions and experiences amusing, but I love reading Goldy’s responses. Her answers remind me of how my grandfather z”l would answer questions – always with a story and the plain truth. Goldy provides an example from her own life, showing the readers she can relate to the situation, so it’s not like she is pulling the answer out of thin air and then she gets right to it.
Dating Today always makes me smile. Thank you for having Goldy as a columnist.
Shaindy Schwartz
Dear Editor:
Mr. Hecht’s attempt at humor fell flat. He should stick to his law practice. While none of what he wrote was serious in nature, his last line was a dig at every Trump supporter. I for one did not find it funny. Mr. Hecht would love nothing more than Cyrus Vance, Jr. find even the minutest error in President Trump’s tax returns so he could be prosecuted. It’s a shame the Supreme Court even allowed the DA from Manhattan to get his hands on the returns in the first place.
What once was a joke – Joe Biden in the Oval Office – is now turning into a nightmare. Forty days in and the damage he has done is incalculable: first on foreign policy, where he rejoined the Paris Climate Accord and is looking to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal. The former is destructive to our economy by killing jobs and placing stranglehold restrictions on our energy sector. The latter will put all Americans and Israelis in physical danger as it gives Iran a clear path to nuclear weapons and cash.
His domestic policy puts the illegals first, which is why there’s a flooding of immigration on our southern border in just one month. His attack on women’s sports has now put our daughters at risk of being housed with or competing against biological boys, if we send our daughters to Jewish institutions of higher learning. The bill has specific language that religious institutions are not exempt. That is a direct attack on our first amendment right of freedom of religion. He wants to raise the minimum wage, which will put more lower income families out of work. And he has no problem spending money, raising the debt, and bankrupting our children and grandchildren, who are on the hook for that money. He will do anything that will increase government power and make more and more families reliant on government. He wants to limit your ability to own a firearm, while the crime and murder rates in New York keep going up. We must wake up and push back before the avalanche of removing our freedoms is gone.
Shalom Markowitz
Dear Editor:
I don’t know how Goldy Krantz comes up with these topics week after week. Obviously people write in, but I didn’t realize that there is so much happening in the world of dating. There are many categories and subcategories. When I was dating and then when my children dated, I would never even think of some of these issues: not liking the perfume or cologne your date is wearing, not wanting to succeed in life so you don’t worry about intimidating or shattering the ego of someone who may date you – so settle for a simplistic job, and children being the shadchan for their parents. Even now, during COVID, I thought people were video-dating, but I know now that people and businesses are letting others use their homes/furniture store for dates.
The world of dating has changed, but I leave it up to Goldy to keep me updated. And the way she answers some questions! She answers with seichel and real-life experience instead of how some shadchanim answer writers in other newspapers – with sage advice, bringing in Tanach to tie it all together. Tanach has nothing to do with dating in 2021, this crazy world that we are living in.
Keep up the good work.
M.S.
Dear Editor:
Is the Iranian regime stupid?
The United States, Russia, China, England, France, India, Pakistan, Israel – and probably a few others – all have nuclear bombs.
What’s taking Iran so long to build one?
While Trump was in office, he instituted inane sanctions on the regime, which only cozied them up closer to China. Hasn’t China by now given them all the info for even a four-year-old to build The Bomb?
I know a lot of Persians here in America who are far from stupid.
So, again, as I’ve been asking for awhile: Is the Iranian regime stupid?
Charles Tal
Fresh Meadows
Dear Editor:
The Port Authority promises of electric buses using the new $10 billion 42nd Street Bus Terminal facility left out some critical information. The estimated cost of an electric bus can range from $1 million to $1.4 million per vehicle, or $200,000 or more over the price of a standard clean diesel bus. The price depends on if it is a standard 40-foot, articulated, or over-the-road coach model. Each operator would also have to modify their own respective bus garages to install plug-in electric and other features to accommodate electric buses. This could cost millions for each garage. None of these costs were included in the most recent $10 billion overall project cost estimate.
Who is going to come up with $1 billion to $2 billion more for these two additional tasks? How much will the Port Authority contribute to NJ Transit and various private operators to pay for electric buses and facility conversions? Buses have a useful life of between 12 and 15 years. It would take all bus operators 15 to 20 years before they could convert 100 percent of their fleets assigned to Port Authority Bus Terminal routes to be all electric.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Fauci Says Americans
Can Stop Wearing Masks
In The Year 3082 (Satire)
WASHINGTON, DC—In a hopeful interview today on CBS, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that Americans will be able to stop wearing masks everywhere in the year 3082.
“The science is very clear on this,” Fauci said. “Even with the COVID vaccine, it still isn’t safe enough to return to normal. There are other viruses and diseases out there as well – the flu, pneumonia, cholera, rabies, polio, measles, Ebola, malaria, chickenpox, smallpox, shingles, yellow fever, the bubonic plague and the common cold. Until we totally eradicate all of these diseases, we’re going to have to mask up for the next 1,000 years.”
Fauci also suggested other steps we can take to resume life as normal again, sooner than later, among them:
- Social distancing of at least 10,000 feet
- Wearing 500 masks at once, and making sure there’s six feet in between each mask
- Wearing a hazmat suit while taking a shower in your own home
- Licking every doorknob in America to gain herd immunity from the virus
- Turning off your television
When asked later which science he was following, Fauci replied that he’s following the science of “whichever media outlet gives me the highest ratings.”
Rafi Metz