Attack on Republicans Outrageous
A letter-writer’s claim that the Republican Party and the Republican Jewish Coalition “answer to the Christian right” is both ignorant and prejudiced (“Don’t Overlook Republicans’ Role,” Feb. 8). While he is entitled to his distasteful opinion, it is outrageous that the Exponent would choose to print his letter.
I have consistently voted Republican ever since the disastrous presidency of Jimmy Carter and have been an RJC member for many years. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of Jewish voters choose to vote Republican, largely because they believe in less-intrusive government, strong military capabilities and a meritocratic society committed to equal opportunity instead of identity politics and quotas.
I would rather share a political party with evangelical Christians than with Antifa and Louis Farrakhan.
Jay Rose | Lower Merion
Don’t Take the Holocaust Out of Greater History
As a homeschool educator of 22 years, I have some issues with teaching the Shoah apart from the continuum of Jewish history as a whole (“Education Critical to Holocaust Recognition,” Feb. 1).
When our family lived in New Jersey — where Holocaust education is mandated — my son attended public school because of his special needs; he was the only Jewish student in his class. The teacher singled him out to have him tell the class what it feels like to be a Jew and to know he is a target for persecution. Tragically, my son came to see being Jewish as being a perpetual victim, and today no longer identifies as Jewish. When I saw what was happening to him, I enrolled him in a Chabad Hebrew school in addition to his secular schooling, but unfortunately the damage had been done.
My daughters were continuously homeschooled, and when I saw what mandated Holocaust education did to my son in the public schools of New Jersey, I decided to teach them about the Holocaust as part of the entire panorama of Jewish history. They learned the joys and beauties of being Jewish, as well as the sadness. As a result, today they identify as practicing Orthodox Jews.
The Shoah must not be removed from the entirety of Jewish history and taught as an isolated event. This causes non-Jews, as well as some Jewish students, to see being Jewish as nothing more than being an eternal victim. Let students also learn about some Jewish fighters in history, such as King David. Let them learn of the glories of ancient Israel as well as the lives of the great Torah sages. Let them learn of the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Annette Ravinsky | Philadelphia
Epithets such as “ignorant” or “prejudiced” are not arguments.
If Jay Rose chooses to share a political party with Holocaust deniers (Chuck Johnson), Nazis (one GOP candidate for Congress in Illinois) and a president who thinks that supporters of neo-Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us” are very fine people – that is, of course, his freedom as an American.
And a betrayal of Yiddishkeit.
Jay Rose dumps on Jimmy Carter, the first evangelical Christian to sit in the Oval Office, yet talks about “sharing a political party with evangelical Christians.” Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
He says he supports the GOP “largely because they believe in less-intrusive government, strong military capabilities and a meritocratic society committed to equal opportunity instead of identity politics and quotas.”
Funny. It was the GOP-driven WASP establishment in universities, corporations, hospitals, etc., that first implemented ethnic/religious quotas, which served to discriminate against Jews. And it was “intrusive” government, under Democratic leadership, that enacted civil rights legislation and other anti-discrimination measures. Like Pharaoh, Rose knows not Joseph, and so embraces those forces in the past which had it in against his forbearers. Clearly he is ignorant of the commandment shamor wa-zachor. Sad.
Unable to refute its logic, Jay Rose denounces a fact-filled presentation as “prejudiced and “ignorant” while calling for its censorship (“it is outrageous that the Exponent would choose to print it”).
RJC values in action?
Along with his evangelical brethren, Rose proudly supports a Twitter troll who boasts publicly about groping women, and more than 40 percent of whose cabinet-level picks have ethics issues (The Washington Post, Feb 16) .
Doubtless he received his Jewish education at Yeshivas Chelm.