My letter to the Freeman -
I want to respond to the comment by Maish Freedman in your article on the Rhinebeck dueling protests of yesterday, May 5.
He says:
“Jews have given so much to this country as a people,” “We have been at the forefront and at the front lines of the civil rights movement, the LGBT movement, women’s rights.”
Yes. That is right. And that describes the Jews who were saying "Not in Our Name" and who were defending the owner of Le Petit Bistro. And they were not there just to support his First Amendment Rights. They were there to support his statement, which is their statement, that the destruction in Gaza is horrific, immoral and not worthy of the tenets of Judaism. Questioning the movement of Zionism, breaking out of the tight web of story built around Zionism, IS NOT ANTISEMITIC. It is not anti-Jewish. The kind of Jews that Freedman refers to above are davka Not self-hating Jews, but Jews who say "wait a minute! What kind of suffering has the State of Israel caused another people - a people who had nothing to do with the holocaust - for more that 75 years?" And when I say suffering - it's unimaginable, horrific suffering. Shame.
He says:
“Jews have given so much to this country as a people,” “We have been at the forefront and at the front lines of the civil rights movement, the LGBT movement, women’s rights.”
Yes. That is right. And that describes the Jews who were saying "Not in Our Name" and who were defending the owner of Le Petit Bistro. And they were not there just to support his First Amendment Rights. They were there to support his statement, which is their statement, that the destruction in Gaza is horrific, immoral and not worthy of the tenets of Judaism. Questioning the movement of Zionism, breaking out of the tight web of story built around Zionism, IS NOT ANTISEMITIC. It is not anti-Jewish. The kind of Jews that Freedman refers to above are davka Not self-hating Jews, but Jews who say "wait a minute! What kind of suffering has the State of Israel caused another people - a people who had nothing to do with the holocaust - for more that 75 years?" And when I say suffering - it's unimaginable, horrific suffering. Shame.
Maddy