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Resources For Gap Year
Why Do They Hate You?
Thank you for shining a light on the
increasing trend of taking a gap year
in your article “The Great Gap” (Aug.
24, page 28). The gap year is crucial
for many students to learn more about
themselves before heading to college
and is also a watershed moment for
many teens on their Jewish journey.
The cost of these gap year programs
can often be financially prohibitive for
students and their families. With some
programs costing more than $25,000, it
is important to recognize our commu-
nity resources.
Here at the Federation we offer two
types of grants for students seeking to
take a gap year or study in Israel during
— or even after — college. Through the
Get There! Program, teens and young
adults can apply for the Ben Teitel Israel
& Overseas Teen Travel Fund incentive
grant of up to $1,500 for accredited pro-
grams regardless of financial need. The
Samuel & Jean Frankel Jewish Heritage
Fund need-based grant is for families
in our community who need assistance
financially. Applications require a full
financial history and relevant tax docu-
ments, with scholarships awarded up to
$5,000.
No one in this community should be
discouraged from thinking about the
incredible experience of a year in Israel,
finding themselves and uncovering their
Jewish identity. For more information
on the Get There! Program, contact me
at allen@jfmd.org or (248) 203-1467 or
apply online at www.jewishdetroit.org/
getthere.
I was struck by the frail, elderly
Roman Catholic woman who asked
Alan Zimmerman, “Why do they
hate you?” in his outstanding essay,
“In Charlottesville, The Local Jewish
Community Presses On” (Aug. 24, page
6). This is a question that has great rel-
evance today.
Transgenders and Hispanics must
be wondering this after the president
just banned transgender recruits and
pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio,
who had been convicted of criminal
contempt in a racial profiling case. They
may look at their TV and ask, “Why
does he hate us so much?”
The president may not be a racist
or anti-Semite, but his appeal to white
supremacists, anti-Semites and anti-
immigration proponents is powerful.
They like him, so, therefore, he gives
them respect. Whether intended or not,
he enables a frightening cloak of hatred
in America.
We hope for examples of moral lead-
ership from our presidents, but Donald
Trump has turned his thumbs down to
the great American belief in all people
created equal and “liberty and justice
for all.”
Jacob Allen
Associate, Israel & Overseas
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
Who Marches Under
Communist Flag?
While it is frightening to see Nazis
marching in the streets of the United
States, we should not make the mis-
take of thinking that everyone who
opposes them are peaceful demonstra-
tors. Antifa is not. It is an admitted
anarchist, Marxist, anti-capitalist group
that marches under the Communist
flag. Jews have never fared well under
any Communist regime. They seek to
deprive us of our most precious rights,
including free speech and assembly.
They march with their faces covered like
Hamas and Isis. They have destroyed
property in every place they have
marched, including Washington, D.C.,
New York, Berkeley, Portland, Phoenix
and Seattle. Antifa should be called out
as the violent, repressive group that it is.
They are not our friends.
Dana Letvin
West Bloomfield
8
September 7 • 2017
jn
Arnie Goldman
Farmington Hills
Failure To
Condemn Trump
I am offended by the failure of Trump-
supporting members of the Jewish com-
munity to condemn him after events of
the last couple weeks. Along with the
multitude of other reasons why Donald
Trump is unfit to hold public office, any
Jew should be ashamed to have voted
for him because before his election he
didn’t repudiate neo-Nazis and other
anti-Semites.
Since his election, he continued that
practice, such as inviting Ted Nugent to
join him for a visit to the White House
and bringing Steve Bannon on board
(now gone) as a senior adviser. Now Mr.
Trump has praised those who marched
with neo-Nazis and white supremacists
as “very fine people” and analogized
those opposed to hatred, bigotry and
violence to those who promote it.
He jeers at journalists who oppose
him and calls them the “lying press,” or
as they were called in Nazi Germany
and currently by some Trump support-
ers, the Lügenpresse. While wringing
their hands about conduct by our presi-
dent befitting pre-Nazi Germany, how
do Jewish apologists for Donald Trump
justify continuing to support him?
Jeffrey M. Lesser
Farmington Hills
Who’s Holding
Hands With Who?
I was very disturbed by the story
“Twitter Hack: Jewish Republican
Senate candidate portrayed as David
Duke supporter” (Aug. 31, page 20). The
column gave most of its space to the
unsubstantiated allegations and innu-
endos by Michigan Democratic Chair
Brandon Dillon that Epstein, in spite
of her denials and claims of hacking,
“liked” the statements by Klu Klux Klan
leader David Duke. By making those
statements to the DJN, it appears that
Dillon was attempting to paint Lena
Epstein and Trump supporters as racist
and anti-Semitic.
What the story failed to point out
is that Brandon Dillon has, himself,
unabashedly embraced a supporter
of racism and anti-Semitism — Keith
Ellison.
According to the Detroit News, Dillon
endorsed Keith Ellison for Democrat
Party Chair. Ellison was a supporter of
anti-Semite and racist Louis Farrakhan,
who called Judaism a gutter religion
and called whites “devils.” Ellison infa-
mously stated that American foreign
policy is “governed” by Israeli interests.
Ellison also voted against a biparti-
san House Resolution condemning
President Obama’s approval of the UN’s
2017 anti-Israel resolution. Apparently,
Michigan Democrat Party Chair Dillon
held no concerns about Ellison’s associ-
ation with Farrakhan nor his statements
about Israel.
Attempting to cast doubt on Epstein’s
claims that her Twitter account was
hacked, Dillon was quoted as saying,
“Her claims of hacking would be more
believable if she weren’t holding hands
with people like Ted Nugent and Donald
Trump.”
Dillon’s accusatory insinuations might
be more worthy of consideration if he
“weren’t holding hands with people” like
Keith Ellison.
Irving Ginsberg
Farmington Hills
Yiddish Limerick
END OF SUMMER
Di zummer ge’endict, di kinder
in school
no camping, no picnics, no
swim in the pool.
Oy, ich can nisht glaybn
but dos is undzer laybn,
we can gornisht ton, this is the
rule.
Di zummer ge’endict- the
summer ended
di kinder- the kids
Ich can nisht glaybn- I cannot
believe
Dos is- this is
Undzer laybn- our life
Gornisht- nothing
ton- do.