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Unfortunately, in our current political climate, it is unusual for a person to criticize those who are members of their political party and praise those who are members of another party. An extreme example is the comment from one of the letters to the editor - whom I believe has stated in the past that he is the son of Holocaust survivors - who attacked me for criticizing Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments which demean those who suffered and died in the Holocaust. In contrast, it was refreshing to read Izzo Zwiren’s column in which he praised the president.

Fist, congratulations to Goldy Krantz for breaking my record for the number of letters to the editor in response to a column. She had six in last week’s paper.

Anyone who reads my columns regularly know that I rarely agree with my fellow columnist Moshe Hill. However, his analysis of Chuck Schumer’s inaction in the column “Cowardice, Thy Name is Chuck Schumer” is spot on.

In my article “Crash and Burn,” written right after the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters and the Republicans’ loss of the majority of the Senate, I thought that Trump’s political career was over. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

House member Marjorie Taylor Greene commented on a show called “Real America’s Voice” in connection to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requiring members to show proof that they were vaccinated in order not have to wear a mask:  “You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany…And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.” There was only limited condemnation of her comments, and none from Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and former President Trump. Unfortunately, the horror of the Holocaust is being lost the further away it is and there are fewer survivors.

Years ago, when I spent summers with my family at a bungalow colony, it used to bother me that there were breakaway minyanim even though there was a shul. Therefore, I can appreciate Rabbi Schonfeld’s frustration as he expressed in his column in last week’s paper (“Bamos: Still a Major Problem”). However, I believe he is mistaken in painting with a broad brush by claiming that outdoor minyanim exist because they are convenient and comfortable and not because of the COVID situation. As someone who davens both in shul and outside, there are many reasons why people daven outside. It is safer to daven outside. There is always airflow. Under most circumstances, under the new CDC guidelines, you can go without a mask. Contrast this with davening inside. The air is stagnant. Many times, no windows are open. If you want to open a window, especially if it is hot or cold outside, there is pushback. Also, there has been a decrease in people wearing masks in shuls either based on the shul policy or worshippers on their own deciding not to wear masks. This is not including those who do not wear the masks properly (covering both their mouth and nose).