NEW YORK — As a busy criminal defense attorney with a roster of high-profile clients, I am not known to shy away from a fight. It doesn’t hurt that I grew up in Brooklyn, the scrappy son of immigrants and Holocaust survivors.
The Kansas City Star’s Oct. 17 Op-Ed, “Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian peacemaker,” contained numerous misleading and false claims, potentially inciting hate and violence against Jews and supporters of the Jewish state.
Sexual harassment is everyone’s problem
Though two other readers responded to Rabbi Rosenberg’s letter (“Sexual harassment discussions become unruly,” Nov. 2), I felt a need to respond as well. Rabbi Rosenberg wrote in his last paragraph, “I hope women will learn self-defense and legally carry whatever they need to defend themselves.”
Last week, along with 27,000 other Jewish Americans, Israeli-Americans and Israelis from around the world, I had an outstanding experience at my second-ever Israeli-American Council (IAC) Conference in Washington, D.C.
When my son was born, my mother said that she couldn’t get the song “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon out of her head. She’d hold him, rock him in her arms and gently, in lullaby fashion, whisper “Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy,” as Lennon’s legendary refrain would go.
Sexual harassment discussions becoming unruly
For me the straw that broke the camel’s back regarding sexual molestation accusations was the article published Monday, Oct. 23, on a website accusing Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, of fondling the article’s author during a Jewish fundraising dinner in 1989. The accusations were then repeated by a number of reputable news organizations.
Dangerous claim
In his letter to the editor, “Sexual harassment discussions become unruly,” (Nov. 2) Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg claims that “men become aroused by what they see and it is their nature to often act out.” I strongly disagree with this dangerous claim, but for argument’s sake, let’s imagine that even if true, it is also in men’s human nature to exhibit self-control as human beings and community members.
Heinz Gutmann, a young boy, lived with his mother, Mira, father, Ludwig and his little sister, Ruth in a hamlet of Worms, Germany, his entire life. In spite of the rise to power of the National Socialists, also called Nazis, living along the Rhine River was a time honored Jewish tradition.
Let’s fight anti-Semitism together
I am responding to the letter published last week (“One-sided blind opposition,” Oct. 12, 2017), by Sam Devinki. As I know Sam to be a strong supporter of the Jewish people and is involved in Jewish community organizations that are the proponents of our people, I write this as a person that appreciates his positive activity and wants him to be aware of some facts that are perhaps unknown to him.
Anti-Semitism in America is on the rise. In the past year, Jewish cemeteries were desecrated in Philadelphia, Rochester and St. Louis; my rabbinical school was vandalized with a swastika, targeted for the first time in its 140-year history; and (in August), neo-Nazis and Klansmen marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, shouting “Jews will not replace us!” and threatening the town’s only synagogue.
