School Made the Right Call
I do not agree with you regarding the Frisch School (“Children as Political Props,” Jan. 25). It made a suggestion that those who believed in President Donald Trump’s decision on Jerusalem make it known.
It is about time that a president stood up to the Arab world and say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. People who do not believe in this point of view say it will hurt the peace talks. But where are the peace talks going? Arab countries just keep on saying they will wipe Israel off the map.
Let’s face it. The only way for Israel to survive is to have allies like the United States backing it up.
Meyer Cooper | Philadelphia
Proud of Jewish Exponent
I must admit that I was one of those Exponent readers who was quite unhappy with the 2015 changes in the leadership of the paper. I readily admit that I was wrong. Under Editor-in-Chief Joshua Runyan, week after week, the Exponent reflects the best of the ethics of Judaism (“Nothing Great About Oval Office Comments,” Jan. 18).
While some on the Jewish right wing falsely claim that Josh has moved the paper to the political left, in fact, he has moved it in a direction not so much informed by liberal politics but by what we are taught about our obligations to our fellow men and women within the Jewish and broader communities.
To be a committed Jew we are obligated to pursue justice, to care for those who suffer from hunger and poverty, to remember what our ancestors felt when they were strangers in Egypt and Babylonia, and to cherish and care for the earth.
For too long, some in our community have seemed to believe that the only measure of our expression of being a committed Jew was uncritical support of the government of Israel, even when that government behaves in ways inconsistent with Jewish values. As for those who cheer on President Donald Trump, how can any Jew cheer on a man who has benign views of neo-Nazis or has immigration sensibilities that smack of those in the early 20th century, when preference was given to northern Europeans such as Norwegians but cruelly limited access to America to our ancestors?
Exponent editorials and the editor-in-chief’s column regularly challenge us to think about our moral heritage. The Philadelphia Jewish community would do well take to heart what is written in the Exponent by someone who is not only a very skilled journalist, but also a learned Jew.
Burt Siegel | Elkins Park
