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letters
continued from page 8
Left vs. Right
Anti-Semitism
‘Integrity, Decency
and Empathy’
How anyone who watched the
Charlottesville events, replete with
swastika-clad, torch-bearing thugs
openly chanting “Jews will not
replace us,” could claim that the
public had better pay more attention
to “the growing and now dominant
anti-Semitism of the left” is beyond
me. Yet that is precisely Eugene
Greenstein’s argument in the Sept.
21 JN. Glibly conflating criticism of
Israeli or Zionist policies and sup-
port for Palestinian rights with anti-
Semitism (let us recall that techni-
cally Palestinians are Semites), and
lumping “Antifa” radicals or Black
Lives Matter campaigners, however
disruptive or repugnant their anti-
racist tactics might be, with political
Islam as enemies of Jews is a total
distortion.
A check of hate crimes data from
the Southern Poverty Law Center
will show that “leftists” seldom if
ever are among the perpetrators.
The author goes on to trash the
Islamic world’s treatment of women,
gays and others, conveniently
ignoring the fact, for example, that
religious extremists of all stripes
may share such views, and that
Palestinian women, predominantly
secular and also in many cases
Christian, are among the Arab
world’s most advanced, educated
and influential.
We would do well to recall that
the most reliable opponents of Nazi
horror in the 1930s and 1940s were
the parties and movements of the
Left. Of course, Jews along with
other minorities suffered in places
such as Stalinist Russia, and the
Roosevelt administration in the
U.S. was not noted for openness to
Jewish refugees, but if one seeks
protection against violence for Jews
and ethnic minorities, one is most
likely to find it among anti-fascist
parties. Today’s KKK, Nazis and Neo-
Fascists, including those in Europe,
are not composed of Muslims, gay
pride marchers or feminists. The
real threat of anti-Semitism remains,
as always, firmly rooted in garden
variety racial and ethnic paranoia
and bigotry.
On the same day that I read a letter
in the Jewish News titled “Morally
Perplexed” (Sept. 28) I read an
editorial in the SPLC Report pub-
lished by the Southern Poverty Law
Center. An interesting contrast. The
Jewish News letter writer insisted
that President Obama should be
described as “morally perplexed,”
citing the same tired beliefs that
President Obama had not been suf-
ficiently supportive of the Jewish
people, none of which are worth
reiterating here (although in time I
think we will be grateful for the Iran
Nuclear Agreement in contrast to
the letter writer’s ire).
The SPLC article quoted former
Vice President Joe Biden who was
describing President Obama as
one of the few people he knew pos-
sessing such “integrity, decency
and empathy.” President Obama
may not have pleased many in the
Jewish community, but I ask if any
of Biden’s criteria could apply in any
way to our current president? Even
one?
Dr. Fred Pearson
Beverly Hills
Novi
12455061
FoxRunNovi.com
10
October 12 • 2017
jn
Edie Broida
Farmington Hills
Interfaith Generosity
For the last five years, the congre-
gation of the Covenant Baptist
Church of West Bloomfield shared
its beautiful edifice with my own
Congregation B’nai Israel for the two
most sacred Jewish holidays: Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
In our current world, rife with
divisiveness and hatred causing
untold misery to millions, this gen-
erosity of heart shown from the
members of one faith to another is a
prime example of what our world is
in most desperate need of.
May this new year of 5778, which
we ushered in most recently, be a
harbinger of a new order that will
bring friendly co-existence between
the disparate creeds and nationali-
ties. May it be the deliverer of tikkun
olam, the repairing of the world,
needed now perhaps more than ever.
Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield
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