I am very appreciative that Mr. Lauder has assumed the leadership of the Jewish people. His ardent support of Jews around the world and of Israel has been effective due to his dedication as the president of the World Jewish Congress.
I am concerned that Mr. Lauder felt it necessary to complain to the world that Israel has its faults and he is displeased with the country that he loves so fervently.
I have served our Jewish community as a professional for more than 40 years. As such I was involved in the resettling of Holocaust survivors and the migration of Jewish people to the United States and Israel. In doing so, I encountered issues and challenges in the process. It was my professional responsibility to confront those concerns and work with individuals and organizations without complaint.
Though I agree with much of his article about Israel, I ask him to cease bringing his complaints to the entire world. Israel confronts complaints and hostility from so many individuals, organizations and countries. Mr. Lauder need not give them an opportunity to find further justification for their actions.
We must work out our differences with Israel among ourselves as Jews in the diaspora with expressions of sincere concern.
Sol Koenigsberg
Overland Park, Kansas
Pompeo, Israel and the Jews
Writing on page 1 of the March 15, 2018, edition of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, Ron Kampeas addresses the nomination of Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state. Although most KC Jews are Americans, Kampeas ignores the facts that Pompeo not only graduated from West Point; he was first in his class! (When I was an officer in the U.S. Amy, I held West Point graduates in high esteem.) Pompeo served as an offiicer in the Gulf War, graduated from Harvard Law School and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, points also ignored by Mr. Kampeas.
The International Jerusalem Post, March 16-22, 2018, page 9, carried in large, heavy print: ISRAELI OFFICIALS: POMPEO pro-ISRAEL, against Iran deal. Deputy Minister Michael Oren said the presumptive secretary of state “is very positively disposed toward us.” In contrast, Kampeas quotes the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Jerusalem Post discusses the predominance of Arabists in the U.S. State Department, observing that a secretary of state who does not conform to the State Department worldview is very good for the U.S., Oren said. Dore Gold, a former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, also praised the selection of Pompeo, according to the Post. Gold went on to observe “anyone who is good for America is good for Israel …”
Pompeo as a congressman and member of the House Intelligence Committee was a harsh critic of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, observing Iran to be the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, as pointed out by the Post but not by Mr. Kampeas. Pompeo was described by Matt Brooks, the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, as a friend of American Jews and a true friend of Israel.
David S. Jacobs, M.D.
Overland Park, Kansas