10 | OCTOBER 29 • 2020 

VIEWS

continued from page 8

letters

Trump and Israel
Howard Lupovitch has no idea 
why President Trump is an out-
spoken supporter of Israel (Oct. 
15, pg. 6). I favor the reason 
that he is a supporter of the 
Zionist cause. 
 Let us not forget that three 
previous presidents promised 
to move the U.S. embassy to 
Jerusalem. No matter who wins 
the 2020 election, the embassy 
will remain in Jerusalem. 

— Robert Moretsky

Bloomfield 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Howard Lupovitch is a histori-
an and was expected to provide 
historical truth. Instead, he 
accommodates the views of 
the Democrat party. Lupovitch 

thinks that President Trump, 
with all the good he did for 
Israel, is evil, and VP Biden, 
who worked on the U.S./Iran 
deal, is all that Jews can ask for. 
He downplays the UAE and 
Bahrain peace deal. 
 Bret Stephens, a Pulitzer 
Prize-winning columnist of the 
New York Times who opposes 
Trump bitterly, has written in 
praise of the 45th president 
for negotiating these peace 
agreements. He saw Trump as a 
visionary who understood that 
70 years of U.S. prime negoti-
ators’
 failure to bring peace to 
the Middle East requires new 
thinking. 
 The deal was a true Middle 
East and global earthquake, and 

Lupovitch must be factual, fair 
and responsible and admit it.

— Isaac Barr, MD

Michigan Forum

Another Jewish 
Candidate

Sorry to see that your elections 
coverage (Oct. 15 issue) did not 
include [additional] candidates 
that are also running for offices. 
 I am one of those candidates. 
I am running for reelection in 
Oak Park as a trustee in the 
Oak Park School District.
In a JN paper from 2008, on 
the cover is a picture of myself 
and Misty Patterson with our 
manager and inside a lengthy 
article. 

I have served the last 11 
years.

— Maxine Gutfreund

Candidate for Oak Park Trustee

Correction: 
The story about teen baker 
Eliana Schreiber (Oct. 22, pg. 
26) had errors. Her father, Avy 
Schreiber, lives in Oak Park, not 
Southfield. Eliana worked at 
Clark’
s Ice Cream year-round, 
and Grace Golodner is 16, not 17.

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We will answer them in an 
upcoming issue!

magnanimity.
If Lincoln could be 
magnanimous following a 
horrific Civil War, then surely 
we can treat others with civility 
following an election. Lincoln’
s 
lesson of healing is as necessary 
today as it was in 1865.
If you backed the losing 
candidate, I would suggest a 
thorough self-examination is 
in order. You may feel comfort 
in wallowing in anger and 
shooting off pithy emails 
and memes to your friends 
about how aggrieved you 
feel, but what’
s that going to 
accomplish? What is achieved 
by allowing your anger to fester 
if all you do with that anger is 
regret the past and wish it were 
different?
It is far more productive — 
albeit much harder — to ask 
yourself the tougher questions: 
Did I do my share to get 
my candidate elected? Did I 
volunteer enough of my time? 

Did I contribute financially 
and, if so, was it really enough 
or just a symbolic, token 
amount? Did I display a lawn 
sign, a bumper sticker, make 
phone calls, go door to door, 
work at the polls? Did I do 
anything at all, or just sit on the 
sidelines, criticize others and 
keep my fingers crossed that 
my candidate would win?

PATRIOTISM IN ISRAEL
Americans are asked so little 
by our government. Basically, 
all we are expected to do is 
obey the laws and pay taxes. 
By contrast, the State of Israel 
requires all citizens over 18 
to submit to national military 
service. Despite a wide diversity 
among the Israeli people, there 
is a profound sense of pride and 
patriotism.
I will never forget my last trip 
there when a crowd of people 
on a Tel Aviv street, for no 
apparent reason, spontaneously 

busted into the singing of the 
national anthem, “Hatikvah.
” 
My group naturally joined in, 
and as I sang, I studied the 
faces of the Israelis around me, 
some of them tearful and all 
feeling the heartfelt love toward 
their country. It was a surreal 
moment, and I recall being 
profoundly aware that one 
would never see something like 
that in America.
We haven’
t had a military 
draft in America since 1973. 
Nothing at all mandates that we 
serve our country. But we can 
choose to impose that mandate 
on ourselves by pouring our 
time and energy into our 
elections. Healthy democracies 
demand no less. Democracy 
is not a spectator sport, as the 
saying goes. 
It’
s popular to forecast gloom 
and doom if the election 
doesn’
t go the way we’
d like. I’
m 
as passionate as the next guy 
when it comes to politics, but 

excuse me if I don’
t buy into 
the hyperbole that this will be 
the death of America if one 
candidate doesn’
t win.
I’
m quite sure the sun will 
rise on Jan. 21, 2021. But I’
ll 
have little sympathy for those 
that bemoan the outcome but 
did nothing to avoid it. And I’
ll 
be closely watching whether 
those same people — whose 
candidate will not be getting 
sworn in on Inauguration Day 
— will withdraw into apathy or 
commit to a whole new level of 
involvement in this democracy 
of ours.
In the post-mortem period of 
this tumultuous election, each 
American will have to face that 
all-important decision. Will 
they retreat from democracy or 
double down on it?
How they decide will 
ultimately have a profound 
impact upon the lives of my 
children, my grandchildren and 
the future of this nation. 

