10 August 8 • 2019
jn
views
which are run pretty much the way
they were under the previous admin-
istration — and Nazi concentration
camps is, in a word, unhinged. I’
m
not sure what purpose is being
served by trivializing the Holocaust.
Beth Batya Snider: Whatever your
politics, whatever your views on
Holocaust comparisons, it is import-
ant to realize and object to humans
being treated inhumanely by our
government. People must not be
locked up in conditions worse than
dog pounds. Politicians must work
together to alleviate this crisis.
Maureen Lyn Bernard: The pro-
testers are people who want to help
people seeking asylum that are being
held against their will in inhumane
conditions.
Daniel Kerin: This first-generation
Jewish American of Holocaust sur-
vivors — and legal immigrants —
PROUDLY supports President Trump!
Eric Weiss: These are not Jews —
they are Leftists.
Al Wright: Here is the difference
between a detention camp and any
concentration camp: People are
trying to get in America illegally and
they claim political asylum when
they get caught so they get put in a
detention camp. They get free every-
thing: food, electricity, everything
they need to live, or they could go
back home but they choose to stay
there because it’
s probably better
than what they had at home. Now, in
a concentration camp, people did not
want to be there. They were rounded
up; they were killed, gassed, exe-
cuted, baked in ovens! Do you guys
realize the difference????
Nancy Besser: Frightening how
anyone can call Obama’
s detention
centers concentration camps. Any
Jew that can even listen to this real-
ly needs to question their Judaism.
They are detention centers because
they are here illegally. Most of our
parents or grandparents immigrated
here, too, and went through legal
channels and there were no issues.
I am a child of Holocaust survivor
parents and to see this being com-
pared to concentration camps where
they gassed my father’
s entire family
and slaughtered them like animals is
beyond sickening.
I was always Democratic but now
with this party, the way they are and
the rabid anti-Semitism … How dare
you speak ill of Trump? He has done
more for Israel then any president in
U.S. history. All of your candidates
will throw Israel under the bus, and
they surely have a hatred for Jews.
It was the Jews that helped vote in
Obama and look what he did with
Israel. The left does away with reli-
gion and JCCs and surely does not
know what Judaism even teaches.
This is frightening. If Jews do not
stand proud to be Jewish and stand
for Israel, they are no different than
any Islamic terrorist. How can any
Jew even consider voting Democrat
now with the rabid anti-Semitism or
does it not matter?
Readers also responded to the
online story “House Overwhelmingly
Condemns Israel Boycott Movement
in Resolution Vote.”
Nancy Federman Kaplan: As the
vote showed, there is near-una-
nimity in the House against the
BDS movement. The only reason
for suggesting that “bipartisanship
(on the subject of Israel and BDS)
is fleeting” is that McConnell then
attacked House Democrats for not
passing a much harsher resolu-
tion, which does not have nearly as
much support in Congress (including
among Republicans). A better head-
line would have been “GOP Seeks to
Destroy Bipartisan Unity on Capitol
Hill.”
Frances Swoish: Yet, “the squad”
embraces BDS.
Al Wright: I’
m shocked, actually.
The JN welcomes comments online
at thejewishnews.com or on its
Facebook page. Letters can be sent
to letters@renmedia.us.
continued from page 8
Not a Question of Open
or Closed Borders
The problem with Jonathan Tobin’
s
weighing of open borders against
Jewish values (July 25, page 10) is
that border security is not simply
a question of open or closed. By
arguing against open borders, he, by
inference, is endorsing closed bor-
ders by failing to propose another
solution.
He did devote at least one sentence
to compassionate treatment of immi-
grants being consistent with Jewish
values, but that’
s the more important
issue lost in the remaining page of
prose.
Between the blatant bigotry and
cruelty of the Trump administration
and the foolish response from the
far left of open borders, open to who
knows what, is a rational approach.
Instead of remembering when we
were strangers in a strange land, we
are debating only two extreme choic-
es. The issues we should be debating
are the standards by which immi-
grants are allowed in and are granted
citizenship. Comparison of deporta-
tion rates for Obama and Trump are
half-truths. The issue is the justice
in the decision over who stays and
how they are treated while we decide.
Asylum is for those fleeing perse-
cution, not economic opportunists.
“Who” matters more than “how
many.” I consent neither to blind
philanthropy with my money nor
cruelty in my name. I choose none of
the above.
Frankly, I didn’
t need convincing
that open borders are foolish. Equal
justice for the stranger means both
rights and obligations, such as not
pillaging the host. I also draw a line
at abject cruelty, especially against
children, as a political policy to dis-
courage opportunistic migrants. The
end does not justify the means. On
second thought, the comparisons
to Obama are not all meaningless
because his similarly high deporta-
tion rates prove the Trump tactics
are unnecessary and, therefore, inex-
cusable.
I now know what he’
s against, but
what is Tobin for? The status quo? A
wall? The words of Ben Ferencz, the
last living Nuremburg prosecutor,
still resonate with me when he said
that he hanged people for the same
thing.
— Dennis L. Green
Farmington Hills
Racist Remarks
Shouldn’
t Be Tolerated
Jews should find it chilling as
Trump and some unconscionable
Republicans justify racist remarks
targeting four congresswomen as
support for Israel and deriding
anti-Semitism. NO!
This is pure pandering to Jews
and the message is wrong and
immoral. Bigotry is NOT an either/
or proposition. We do not have to
choose racism or anti-Semitism. We
can and must choose that both are
letters
Yiddish Limerick
s
ng
d-
to
e
nt
Tisha b’
Av
Dos is Tisha b’
Av, un tzum shul gayt a Yid
On the floor mir vel zitzn, Lamentations we’
ll read.
We lost undzer Bais HaMikdash, on this very day
Mir fastn, we mourn, we lost undzer tzvay.
It’
s a solemn reminder, fargess nit my kid.
Dos is - it is
Un tzum shul - And to synagogue
Gayt a Yid - a Jew goes
Mir vel zitzn - we will sit
Undzer Bais HaMikdash - our Temple
Mir fastn - we fast
Undzer tzvay - our two
Fargess nit - don’
t forget
By Rachel Kapen
continued on page 12