I deeply abhor the slander to good people aware of the suffering of others who work, give, and suffer hardships to help. Attacking viciously with name calling is the weapon of those of bad faith. Reading this in last weekís times really made my Jewish blood, whatever that is,† boil. † The people who gave their time and lives for our people during Nazism,† Sophie Scholl, the guillotine, Bonhoeffer, the noose,† Marlene Dietrich ostracized and spit at on return to Germany, our departed and beloved neighbor Jotje Vos, from Amsterdam, whose housed 23 Jews in her small house and had to deal with her own cramped family, and Samuel Beckett, bicycling around France with resistance messages, these people† had hearts in their body, along with brains. While† the number of these people were proportionately miniscule among the† brain washed Anti-Semite mobs and finks of Europe,† they attested to the truth.† This is not so in the case of the Port Ewen† Ben and Batya, who dare to call my friends Anti-Semites, just as they would have spat at Marlene Dietrich had they been German.† I myself do not do roulette. And I make it a point not present my credentials, so that the same dirty epithet will† not be hurled at me,† for I do not prove anything.† Like the Jewish whore burned in the Spanish Inquisition who refused to have her neck ìmercifullyî broken by kissing the cross† and from the flames called out ìShmah Israel, Adonoi Eloheinu!î† (See film ìSanto Officioî† by Arturo Ripstein) † I will not state† my faith, nor the ways I believe in the true values of solidarity with the downtrodden which in the course of thousands of years our religion evolved to and at best calls for, nor how† my grandmother, Esther,† had a very sad face, thinking of the letters that stopped coming from Lithuania, during WWII, a face I mistakenly thought was that of all grandmothers.
The fact of the matter is that the people in Gaza ARE hungry and starving. They are mostly under 16 years of age. Gaza is blockaded in a way called WAR OF ATTRITION, a situation the food and medicines carried by our slandered neighbors attempted to alleviate in a small way. As we are told,† to ìTo save one life is to save the world.î† If people, like myself, are disgusted by the lies of B & B and past writers to the Times who may believe they have the truth, I suggest that:
1 They pray for enlightenment. 2 Stop flag worship and† remember God. 3 Cease from violating† the commandment† THOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS,
attempting to besmirching† the names of those† who would FEED THE HUNGRY as our prophets exhorted. 1 And. finally,† that they and we all† kindly remember† ìEmpty barrels make the most noise.î
Sincerely,
Roberta Gould
West Hurley, NY