Remembering Rabbi Kahane on 29th Yahrzeit
Dear Editor:
I’m an American teenager and I’m a Kahanist. I’m growing up in suburbia so why am I a Kahanist? I have read almost all of Rabbi Kahane’s books, I bring them to school every day. The logic he brings in his books is just stunning. I was born 15 years after he was assassinated. You can bet El Sayid Nossair and the people that assisted him with the Rabbi’s assassination would have never dreamed a 14 year old boy 29 years after the assassination would be continuing to believe in Rabbi Kahane’s ideas.
This month is Rabbi Kahane’s 29th yahrzeit. He was murdered in on the 18th of Heshvan, by El Sayid Nosair. The Rabbi was giving a speech in New York about how Jews should return to Israel. Two years before he was murdered his party was banned from the Israeli Knesset, parliament. His party was the first party ever banned from the Israeli parliament. In my opinion the banning of his party is completely undemocratic. If Israel is a democracy then everyone should be allowed to run for parliament.
At my age Rabbi Kahane joined a youth Zionist movement, Betar. Betar taught him how to shoot, he also attended protests and demonstrations with Betar. One of the Betar protests that the Tabbi attended was in New York on April 17, 1947, protesting the British Royal Navy. Betar also gave him many leadership values that should be replicated today because of the recent attacks on synagogues. The lack of Zionist leadership in America is mostly because great organizations like Betar stopped operating in America.
In 1968 Rabbi Kahane started the Jewish Defense League. The Jewish Defense League focused on combating anti-Semitism and the alienation of the Jewish youth. Rabbi Kahane realized Jewish youth like myself were not being taught self-defense and Jewish pride. The Jewish Defense League protested and demonstrated for Soviet Jews to be released from Soviet Russia.
“We must define our youth; we must tell them who they are. We must answer their questions: what and why is a Jew? What and why am I?” wrote Rabbi Kahane (Our Challenge, 1974). The youth are scared, the youth just wants to fit in with its gentile neighbors. Many kids nowadays want to go to public school and want to marry the girl next door and wants to forget what it means to be a Jew. And their parents are so proud of them for marrying for love. The American Jewish youth are going through a Holocaust. Not a physical one but a spiritual one. They are losing what it means to be a Jew.
Rabbi Kahane realized the betrayal by the left’s Jewish leaders was disastrous. Even now they are convincing the young that tragedies like the rockets fired at Israel this week by Islamic terrorists in Gaza are somehow Israel’s fault. The complete lack of caring for Jewish self-defense by most Jewish leaders is outright disgusting especially after all of the terrible attacks on synagogues and lately on Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. A lot of my friends are being deprived of the ability to learn self-defense because the Jewish Defense League was disassembled and over the last 20 years or more since JDL’s decline tens of thousands of other young Jews were deprived of the basic right of self-defense. Self-defense was one of Rabbi Kahane’s main principals, he knew there would be a day where the Jewish community would not be safe and today might be the day.
Sincerely
Joe Ben Malin
Not Happy with Chuck Schumer
Dear Editor:
Taxpayers have nothing to celebrate with Senator Charles Schumer. He continues to raise millions of dollars from trial lawyers, Wall Street and other special interest “Pay for Play” friends in his quest to elect more Democratic Senators, so he can become Senate Majority Leader after the 2020 election.. He proudly boasts of billions in financial assistance “treats” from Washington brought back to NY but never tells voters where the money to pay for this came from.
Since 1981, under Schumer’s watch as both a Congress member and Senator, the national debt went up by $19 trillion. It increased from $1 trillion in 1981 to $22 trillion today. Schumer never talks about this at his standard Sunday news conferences or campaign reelection commercials. It is nothing to be proud of.
What is really scary is the trillions more in national debt that he continues to support as Democratic United States Senate Minority leader. Imagine how much worse it would grow if he becomes Democratic United States Senate Majority leader.
Remember in 2016 like the cowardly lion from the Land of Oz, Schumer came out at the 11th hour against the proposed treaty with Iran but with a wink and nod to President Obama, he refused to lobby his fellow Senators in joining him to oppose the treaty. Many Jewish and non-Jewish friends of Israel will never forget or forgive his abdication of leadership on this issue.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Legality of Settlements Will Lead to Peace
Dear Editor:
The American Jewish Congress greets yesterday’s historic announcement by the Trump Administration on the legality of settlements as a step in the direction of moving both sides towards a meaningful resolution. We reject the concept that policy changes that benefit Israel are zero-sum and will harm the stalled non-existent peace process.
The status quo is unacceptable. The nearly forty-year-old policy recognizing settlements as illegal has not brought Israelis or Palestinians closer to lasting peace. The history of the peace process informs us that some settlements will be in Israel and some in Palestine. Both parties must be prepared to engage in direct, bilateral negotiations. We believe the United States can play an important role in facilitating the talks, but ultimately both parties must dictate the terms of peace.
This action by the Trump Administration will create pressure on the Palestinians to return to the table and negotiate. As such, this decision in no way prejudges the eventual resolution and the final status of settlements with the Palestinian territories–leaving the two-state solution on the table.
Sincerely,
Jack Rosen
President
American Jewish Congress
