10 August 22 • 2019
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Readers had a lot to say about our Aug. 
12th online story “US House Majority and 
Minority Leaders, in Jerusalem, say Tlaib 
and Omar Should be Allowed to Visit.”

Diane Blossey: Any country can refuse 
them.

Bernard Antin: Understandably, as lead-
ers of the Congress, they would stand up 
for their colleagues out of respect for the 
office they hold. However, Israel should 
stand up and stridently say NO; it would be 
insane to host a proclaimed enemy.

Chava Docks: Who cares what they say?

Abe Kadushin: Why aren’
t they on the 
current trip with all the others?

Darwin Jiles Jr.: Israel passed a law 
reserving the right to deny entry to advo-
cates of Israel boycotts. Omar and Tlaib 
both back the Boycott, Divestment and 
Sanctions movement against Israel, or 
BDS. That’
s why Tlaib & Omar should NOT 
be allowed entry! However, Israel is SO 
MERCIFUL to “their enemies” I am sure an 
exception will be made.

Louise Silverman Abrams: Why? I hope 
if they have the honor of going, they land 
in jail.

Jane Lori: Why should we say who Israel 
should allow into their country?

See related story on page 12. 

Readers also responded to the essay 
by Holocaust survivor Michael Weiss, 
“Concentration Camps and Detention 
Centers: There’
s a Big Difference,” that 
appeared in the Aug. 8 issue and on our 
digital platforms.

Nomi Nancy Joyrich: There are many 
survivors and children of survivors who 
feel exactly the opposite from this author. 
(Including me!) And for those of you who 
are under the illusion that prisoners in the 
detention camps are all receiving med-
ical treatment and recreation, please do 
some fact checking! It’
s also important to 
remember that many of those detained 
have not violated any laws as they entered 
to seek asylum, which is not illegal. And 
even if they did violate the law, it is a 
misdemeanor to cross the border illegally 
— not a crime worthy of prison or being 
separated from your family.

Micki Grossman: I know and love Mickey 
Weiss; however, the camps in Poland 
and Germany began as work camps and 
detention centers before turning into death 

camps. No one knows what #45 is plan-
ning next. He is talking about deportation.
So did Hitler before he got to the “final 
solution.” Inhumanity is wrong right from 
the start.

Richard Weinstein: It’
s about time to read 
an article with some common sense!

Yevgeniya Tzeporah Gazman: 
Forgiveness is closer to the heart.

Monica Lewis Patrick: Looks the same 
to me!

Irene Onickel Petts: It didn’
t start with 
death camps.

Steven Podvoll: In fairness, conditions 
in these detention centers are inhumane. 
These poor folks are refugees. And we 
are supposed to welcome the stranger. 
Imagine how many lives could have been 
saved had we welcomed refugees circa 
1937. But anyone suggesting these deten-
tion centers represent a slippery slope 
toward genocide is engaging in hyperbole 
and false equivalence. They are no such 
thing.

Kevin Todd Clepps: Detention centers for 
illegal immigrants are not concentration 
camps. People in concentration camps 

were mass murdered; people in detention 
centers get medical care and food.

Carly Sugar: No one is making light 
of what happened in Nazi Europe. 
Comparisons drawn are meant to highlight 
what could happen if state-led human 
rights violations are left unchecked.

Will we, as Jews, turn our heads at eth-
nically motivated, state-mandated, violent 
separation of children from their parents 
and despicable conditions in detainment 
camps?

Folks in the comments here are focused 
on the WRONG POINT. Don’
t let this be an 
argument of semantics!

I’
m sure if asked, we’
d all stand for fair-
ness, justice, humane treatment of all 
humans despite nationality, citizenship, 
ethnicity, race … at least I hope we would.

The JN welcomes comments online at 
thejewishnews.com or on its Facebook 
page. Letters can be sent to letters@
renmedia.us.

online comments

letters from page 2
agree with using this terminology, the 
bigger issue for me is that many are so 
vehement about their position on what 
to call these places, that it seems they 
have dismissed the effect the words 
“concentration camps,
” have on so 
many whose lives have been personally 
touched by the Holocaust. 
It appears the need to be so fervent-
ly adamant about this being the only 
name that truly describes these centers 
is mainly for shock value rather than for 
accuracy. The need to control the name 
in order to gain attention has given rise 
to yet another argument amidst this 
raging crisis and is causing the existing 
political chasm to widen further. Do we 
really need another reason to argue? I 
truly hope not.
In the middle of all of this, what is 
entirely apparent to me is what has 
been lost in the shuffle: sensitivity and 
kindness toward those for whom this 
moniker isn’
t simply inaccurate, it is also 
viscerally disturbing. Residing within 
our local Jewish community are so many 
Holocaust survivors and their families. 
Did it ever occur to those who are loudly 
expressing their firm stance on what to 

call these places the effect it is having on 
this particular population? Did it even 
cross anyone’
s mind as to the psycholog-
ical and emotional impact these words, 
posters and photos are having on those 
who actually lived the true horrors of 
Nazi Germany? 
I am sure this letter won’
t alter the 
stance of people who are hung up on 
debating this issue (and that debate 
is not my intent in writing this) but, 
instead, it is my hope that the idea of 
compassion and sensitivity for those 
of us who are gut-wrenched by seeing 
and hearing these words will be given 
thoughtful consideration rather than 
being met by more anger. We can agree 
to disagree about terminology but, when 
it comes to matters of kindness, there 
should be no argument.

— Dina Kawer

Huntington Woods

Another Opinion on 
Detention Centers
Detention centers may be equated with 
what happened in the Holocaust.
What happened in Germany evolved 

from the early ’
30s and built up to the 
Holocaust.
The squalid conditions, cruel family 
separations, coupled with President 
Trump’
s racist taunts, all lead to dehu-
manizing the people in the “cages.
”
Group think sees these people as not 
“our kind of humans.
” Much can then be 
done to them without conscience.
Sound familiar? Sound like the 1930s 
and the lead-up to the Holocaust?
Little by little, and incrementally, the 
public is desensitized to the plight of 
those involved. “They are not like us.
”
What is going on in this country may, 
by all means, be analogous to what took 
place in Europe. It is a similar pattern at 
work.
We would like to think it cannot hap-
pen here. We have a Constitution, a sep-
aration of powers, checks and balances. 
We also have a president who ignores all 
of this on an almost daily basis.
He follows no rules and gets away 
with most of it.
It can happen here. 

— Diane Pomish

West Bloomfield 

No Comparison
I was happy you printed a less-biased 
commentary written by Jonathon Tobin 
(“What Real Incitement to Murder Looks 
Like,
” Aug. 15, page 10). However, the 
opinion written by Raman Singh, et al 
from the Interfaith Leadership Council of 
Metropolitan Detroit on page 6 blamed 
President Trump for being a cheerleader 
for racism and anti-Semitism. 
The article contained an irrelevant 
quote from the German Lutheran Pastor 
Martin Niemoller, who said first they 
came for the Socialists and I said noth-
ing, and so on. There is no comparison 
today with what happened in Nazi 
Germany. Calling President Trump a 
cheerleader for racism and anti-Semi-
tism is a lie and defames the office of the 
president.

— Robert Moretsky

West Bloomfield