views

letters

A Glaring Omission

Yes, it was a glaring omission.
President Trump did a disservice in
not mentioning Jews on International
Holocaust Remembrance Day. He
insulted Jews, especially those mur-
dered by the Nazis, by trying to “uni-
versalize” the Holocaust. We should
be upset.
We should also be upset, how-
ever, at the Holocaust Museum in
Washington, D.C. While presenting
the story of the Holocaust, they take
great pains to be inclusive regarding
other victims of the Nazis and other
genocides. While some may find this
admirable, this kind of inclusiveness
minimizes the uniqueness of the
Nazis’ final solution for the Jews. This
is also a tactic used by Jew-hating
revisionists.
Yes, there were other victims. Yes,
there have been other genocides. But
the Nazis’ main objective was a highly
organized and constantly refined
attempt to murder every living Jew
using the most efficient industrial
methods at hand. It was Jews who
faced Kristallnacht and boycotts in
the years leading up to the Holocaust.
We are reminded to “never forget.”
We know that every attempt to be
inclusive, like Trump, like Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in
2016, is fodder for the Jew-haters and
deniers who want to squeeze the Jews
out altogether and to help everyone
forget.
It’s not only Holocaust remem-
brance. One Jewish group seems to be
trying to remove Judaism from Purim,
recently “updating” the Purim story
as a social justice fable about Flint
water.
There are multiple Haggadot that
ask us to invest in many modern-day
causes and so, make Judaism generic,
as just another social justice move-
ment. There is even a Haggadah sup-
plement about “the Nakba” to “help
us understand how Palestinians see
Israel and this event.” How much fur-
ther can Jews trivialize Judaism?
Before we begin obsessing about
the alt-right, extreme-right, alt-right-
white, Breitbart-right and other mon-
sters under the bed, we should pay
attention to the way some of our fel-
low Jews are abusing our history and
traditions.
Every American president is tem-
porary. Judaism is eternal, unless we
Jews allow it to wither away. That
would be unforgivable.

Harry Onickel
Ferndale

Executive Order On
Immigration

Regarding the Feb. 9, page 5
“Michigan Board Of Rabbis Opposes
Executive Order On Immigration,”
where were the Michigan Board Of
Rabbis and the other listed organiza-
tions:
• When the dangerous Iran agree-
ment was instituted without congres-
sional approval?
• When the anti-Semitic, anti-
Israel Black Lives Matter organiza-
tion raised its ugly head and caused
havoc?
• When the vice-presidential candi-
date endorsed and was endorsed by
JStreet?
• When the previous president and
Democratic candidate were totally
disrespectful of the prime minister of
Israel?
• When Jewish students are intimi-
dated and harassed at the University
of Michigan, Vassar and other univer-
sities?
The Michigan Board of Rabbis and
the other listed organizations take the
easy road and do nothing.
Yet, when our president is making
an effort to make us safe and prevent
our country from resembling Sweden,
London, Paris and Brussels — they
condemn him.
The listed organizations have made
themselves irrelevant by their opposi-
tion to the president’s effort to pro-
tect the citizens of the United States
of America.

Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield

Sharia Separates
Medieval Islam From
Modern Islam

Americans split along party lines
in their support or opposition for
President Trump’s executive order on
immigration. I did not understand
fully the fervent opposition to this
executive order until I read Rabbi
Marla Hornsten’s commentary.
Two assertions in her commentary
reveal that she and I see the world,
especially the Middle East, differ-
ently. First, she asserts that the “vast
majority of those seeking entrance to
our country are fleeing oppression
…” Second, she asserts that the execu-
tive order “serves as an affront to reli-
gious people everywhere.”
Just because an immigrant is flee-
ing oppression does not guarantee
the immigrant is not a threat to

Americans and our way of life. Shias
and Sunnis flee each other, yet a sub-
stantial number of each sect believes,
for example, that gays and lesbians
ought to be put to death, young girls
must undergo female genital mutila-
tion and 9-year old girls are marriage
material.
Is there an acceptable number of
violent jihadists America should be
willing to accept as long as the “vast
majority” of immigrants do not pose a
threat to America?
I do not want anyone harboring
these medieval beliefs coming to our
country. This is how I see the world —
our immigration policies should not
be a suicide pact.
There are scant, if any, records or
intelligence from which immigra-
tion officials can determine the
beliefs or intentions of immigrants
from the seven countries in the
Middle East identified by the Obama
Administration as needing further
vetting. This is the reason a tempo-
rary pause in immigration for those
countries not only makes sense, but
is the constitutional duty of President
Trump.
While the casual observer of the
Middle East and Islam itself may see
the executive order on immigration as
an affront to religious people every-
where, this is because they conflate
the religion of Islam with the barbaric
legal, “moral,” political and “ethical”
code called Sharia.
Sharia is not a religion. So, this is
not about Islam nor all Muslims. And,
not all Muslims are sharia-adherent.
Perhaps only 25 percent to 40 per-
cent of Muslims worldwide are
sharia-adherent. Unfortunately, this
works out to a few hundred million
people who prefer to live in the Sixth
Century, where women are treated
like property and gays and lesbians
must be killed. Sharia is the evil
that separates Medieval Islam from
Modern Islam.
We don’t lock our doors at night
because we hate the people outside;
we lock them because we love the
people inside.
Let our immigration officials have
90-days to develop vetting protocols
to identify Sharia-adherent Muslims,
not only for the seven countries sub-
ject to the executive order, but for all
countries.

My
Story

An energetic professional business
builder on his own, Jon Dwoskin
became a volunteer mentor to loan
recipients of Hebrew Free Loan’s
Marvin I. Danto Small Business
Loan Program even before he
joined HFL’s Adjunct Committee.
“I was intrigued from the start,”
Jon said. “The minute I heard about
HFL, I wanted to be part of it. HFL
echoes my belief system: not just
lending money without interest,
which is important, but Jews helping
Jews, guiding someone onto a
smoother path. That’s why it was
founded.”
Jon takes his role as a mentor to
HFL business loan recipients just
as seriously as he would with a
paying client. “They do all the hard
work, but I’m good at visualizing
where their business is going and
aligning their acts with their values.
I advise them as if I have a vested
interest in their success, which I
do. Everyone does. When Jewish
businesses thrive, we all thrive.”
Whether he’s acting as advisor to
someone with a business loan, or
interviewing loan applicants for
other purposes, Jon’s heart is in it.
“It’s fulﬁlling to be here for others.
People may not be aware of every-
thing HFL does, or how it works, but
that’s probably because they don’t
need us just yet. No one knows
when something might come up. In
the meantime, HFL continues on,
generations after its founding,
guided by dynamic, hands-on
Board members who want to help
others and pay it forward. Whether
it’s for business or education or a
family in need, they’re here.”

Click. Call. Give Now.
www.hfldetroit.org
248.723.8184

Health. A fresh start.
A good education.
The next great business idea.

Hebrew Free Loan gives interest-
free loans to members of our
community for a variety of
personal and small business
needs. HFL loans are funded
entirely through community
donations which continually
recycle to others, generating
many times the original value
to help maintain the lives of
local Jews.

Steven B. Hantler
West Bloomfield

6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

jn

@HFLDetroit

February 23 • 2017

5

