I would like to add my voice to the constant stream of invective toward Trump that constantly appears in letters to The Chronicle. These writers are absolutely correct. Trump must be impeached and convicted, and the sooner the better. All one needs do is catalogue the terrible things he has done to this country:
1. The stock market and the economy are at record highs. Unemployment is at record lows. Wages are up, taxes are down. Get rid of him!
2. Five hundred thousand new manufacturing jobs have been created. Impeach him!
3. America has been made energy independent. That evil man must go!
4. He has renegotiated tariffs to America’s huge advantage. The nerve of the man!
5. He has fully funded the military so our tanks, planes and ships are no longer idle due to lack of money for maintenance. Unconscionable!
6. He has totally wiped out the ISIS caliphate. He is a war criminal!
7. He has compelled the NATO countries to pay their fair share of their own defense. What can he possibly be thinking?
8. He has secured the cooperation of Mexico in securing the southern border, choking off the flow of illegal aliens. Unspeakable!
9. He has reorganized the Veterans’ Administration, making it possible for veterans to receive timely, positive services. Just who does he think he is?
10. And Israel. He has moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. He has recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He has verified that Israel’s West Bank settlements are legal under international law. Convict him!
I could list dozens more of his atrocities, but you get the idea. I can hardly wait until next November gets here, when even if he is not impeached and convicted we will still be rid of him. On that blessed day we will wipe out every single one of these abominations and return to those glorious days when Obama was president.
The best way to support Israel is to help bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table. Once they recognize Israel’s right to exist, Israel should then remove Jerusalem as the capital city, give them an assurance that Israel will not build more settlements in the West Bank and will demolish those that exist, and give them the assurance there will be two states living securely and peacefully side by side. If we do that, there would be no need to withhold a portion of the military aid funding.
Unfortunately, there are many Orthodox Jews in Israel who are opposed to returning the West Bank to the Palestinians and up until now, those Jews have been necessary to form a coalition government. As you well know, it’s possible to be against the current Israeli government’s policies and still have a love for Israel. To characterize Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as being anti-Israel is ridiculous and just not true.
Shanny Morgernstern enjoyed having family attend The J annual meeting. Family members included (from left) Paul Rabinovitz, Jarrod Morgenstern, Jaime Morgenstern, Susan Rabinovitz, Eric Morgenstern, Shanny Morgenstern and her grandson Cy Morgenstern, Mark Rabinovitz, Avi Morgenstern, Joel Rabinovitz, Judy Deutch and Larry Deutch.
“How goodly are your tents oh Jacob, your dwelling places oh Israel.” These are the words that Jewish people from all over the world say to prepare to pray.
Balaam, a pagan prophet, said these words when he was hired to curse the Israelites. However, when he looked across at their encampment, he blessed them instead.
Balaam didn’t say that the dwellings were beautiful — he said that they were goodly — which is a very different and much more important description.
Beautiful is pleasing to the sight.
Goodly is pleasing to the soul.
When Balaam saw how the Israelites treated each other, he realized that they were a good people dedicated to making the world a better place for all of us.
When we focus on what is truly important — building personal connections and helping one another — we turn our dwellings from just being shelters to being goodly places.
In goodly places people gather to schmooze, learn, grow, study and connect with others. They are places where people gather to repair the world.
Just like The J.
I’m so proud to be associated with The J. We are making the world a better place every day.
Thousands of different people walk through The J’s doors each week. They are young and old and every age in between. They are Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists and many other faiths and beliefs. Newcomers to our community, and lifelong members. Republicans and Democrats. KU fans, K-State fans and Mizzou fans. Together we make The J a goodly place.
Our community has forged a strong, vibrant and inclusive community. We are building and expanding on the incredible foundation that our predecessors passed down to us.
Kol hakavod to everyone who has helped make our J one of the best in the country.
To some of you, The J is your home away from home. To others, The J is just one part of our broader Jewish community.
I want to hear from everyone in the community. Please let me know:
• What is The J doing well?
• What is The J doing not so well?
• What should The J be doing, that we currently aren’t?
I promise to listen to each one of you. We are stronger together. Please email me at or I would be happy to talk with you.
Send me your ideas, comments and, yes, especially your complaints. Really. Despite my size I can handle it. Thanks to my yoga classes at The J, I’m stronger than I appear.
The J is in great shape. The staff is filled with dedicated and caring people focused on bringing The J values to life. They do an exemplary job of managing the budget and delivering excellent programs. There are more members and participants than we have ever had before.
But we can always do better. We can help more people. We can do more good. Help us make the world a better place. This is the best way for all of us to fight back against those who hate.
Balaam’s words were high praise — but they were also a charge to each of us to build goodly communities.
At The J, we fulfill that charge by bringing The J values to life.
L’chaim!
Bringing the J Values to Life
When we are welcoming, inclusive and nurturing, we make the world a better place.
When we work to strengthen our community, we make the world a better place.
When we enrich people’s minds, bodies and souls, we make the world a better place.
When we celebrate and pass on Jewish values and culture, we make the world a better place.
When we treat everyone with respect, dignity and loving kindness, we make the world a better place.
Shanny Morgenstern is chair of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City (The J). This column is based on remarks she made at The J’s annual meeting and installation on Oct. 20.
You and some other Democrats vying to become the party’s candidate for president have made statements about using leverage of U.S. military aid to Israel. Why? Are all of you so ill informed about the continuing past and current strife between Palestinians and Israelis? You, Sen. Warren, and Sen. Bernie Sanders are quick to criticize Israel for “overreacting” to terrorist activities and threats that face Israel daily. You have not criticized Palestinians who have rejected all peace proposals that began with non-acceptance of a divided Palestine and continue to this day.
Funds given to Gaza have been used to enrich a few prominent Palestinians and to dig tunnels that were built to terrorize. Terrorists that have killed Israelis are being awarded with monthly payments for life. If you really feel for the Gazans, help them relinquish acts of terror and destruction and come to the negotiating table. Please remember the Israelis vacated Gaza and in return Gaza sends missiles and incendiary balloons into Israeli territory.
Have you not noticed that the onus is always on Israel? You need not be reminded that Israel is threatened in a hostile environment and by those seeking its destruction. Israel needs your continuing support. And we need Israel!
Prediction: The impeachment process will be defeated in the U.S. Senate, Donald Trump will lose the 2020 election and will be prosecuted as a private citizen for tax evasion, as was Al Capone, and will be on his way to prison unless he is pardoned by the next Democratic president.
For the last few weeks, I have been reading the left wing liberal letters that have been written to The Chronicle about our President Donald Trump. I have tried to stay out of this argument because there are no winners, and the real losers are the American people. After the Oct. 17 edition, I can no longer stand the hypocrisy. The left wants to blame President Trump regardless of which side of the issue he is on.
They blame the president for the situation in Syria. His choice was to go to war against a NATO ally, or remove American troops from harm’s way. The president was elected to protect America and its troops, not Syria. They blame the president for using the term “lynching,” but yet there is ample video evidence that Joe Biden and a half a dozen other Democrats used that same term during the attempted Clinton impeachment, no one complained. As a side note, the connotation of this word came about because southern Democrats were hanging innocent African Americans, as well as white Republications who were trying to help them. The hypocritical liberals also want to impeach President Trump because of his phone call with Ukrainian’s president in which he supposedly threatened to withhold aid if Ukraine did not investigate Hunter Biden. Yet the left completely ignores the video tape where Joe Biden stated with great pride and joy that he told the then Ukrainian president that if they did not fire the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden, then he would withhold a $1 billion loan.
Finally we get to the State of Israel. The president is criticized because doing more than any president since Harry Truman is not enough. We are told that we all love Israel. However, loving Israel is not enough. Israel is an insurance policy to protect Jews all over the world. If there had been an Israel in 1939, maybe my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, as well as tens of thousands of other Jews may have not been murdered by the Nazis. We need to support any president who helps strengthen the State of Israel. The liberal left has no problem calling President Trump a Nazi, and his administration the Gestapo. It is obvious to me that these people have no understanding who or what the Nazis were.
My cousin Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg is being heavily criticized by people who do not know him or anything about him. Rabbi Rosenberg grew up here in Kansas City. Both of his parents were survivors of Auschwitz Birkenau, and I would venture a guess that he has done more good in the world than all of the left wing hypocrites who wish to defame him.
The members of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City are heartsick to have to write yet another statement in response to baseless hate and violence inflicted on individuals with the intent to harm our fellow Jews in Halle, Germany, while observing the Yom Kippur holiday. Amidst our mourning for the loss of life of two precious souls and our on-going prayers for the those who were injured, we stand committed to fighting against the hatred against our Jewish community, and any and all acts of hatred and religious persecution. We offer support and comfort and respond with a unified voice for religious freedom and a zealous pursuit of peace and love for all. It is that commitment that has and will continue to sustain Jews throughout centuries of persecution.
I am greatly disturbed that you accepted, with glee, the endorsements the “squad” in your bid to become the Democratic nominee for president. You must be aware that this group is hostile to Israel, an ally of the U.S.A. I am aware that you are an outspoken critic of Israel, particularly when that country acts to defend itself.
I do not understand your pleasure at obtaining the support of Israel’s sworn enemies, knowing how the Jewish people are constantly attacked, both before and after World War II.
“Thou Shalt Innovate” by Avi Jorisch, Gefen Publishing House, 2018.
Avi Jorisch, who will be speaking at the Jewish Community Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, is the author of a page-turner book about the incredible number of ways in which Israeli Individuals have created better methods for improving the world.
To be specific, he examines 15 of the 50 innovations he lists that have made the world a better place. They include a method for getting caregivers to the scenes of emergencies in record time and drip irrigation which assists farmers in arid regions in keeping their crops watered with a minimum of water. He informs readers about Israel’s creation of the “Iron Dome,” which protects civilians from missile attacks.
My favorite chapter in the book is about how Michael Revel discovered a method to fight multiple sclerosis using a protein called interferon. It is a rare protein found largely in the foreskins of penises. Fortunately Revel had an assistant related to the Lubavitcher Rabbi Schneerson who persuaded the rabbi to donate foreskins from circumcisions to the research. Thus began the search for a cure that today helps thousands of individuals suffering from multiple sclerosis.
Every chapter in this book is another tale of a fascinating innovation from Israel. It is well worth reading.
Donald Trump’s main adversary in the upcoming 2020 presidential election is not any of the Democratic candidates, including Kamala Harris whose husband is Jewish, but rather: The Truth. And the truth will always win out.
