Letters

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By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: OCTOBER 23, 2017 14:12
Letters to the editor (photo credit: JPOST STAFF)
Letters to the editor
(photo credit: JPOST STAFF)
Recognition due Sir, – As the parent of a Keshet graduate, I want to point out that no article about the Keshet School is complete without mentioning Ruti Lehavi, who first conceived the vision of a school that would address the divide in society between secular and religious communities (“Highlighting rather than hiding,” Cover, March 21). Her vision preceded Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, which occurred two months after the school opened.
Lehavi was awarded the 2005 Liebhaber Prize for the promotion of religious tolerance in Israel.
She nurtured the school as its principal for the first 12 years, prior to its relocation to the new purpose-built campus, after which she moved on to further educational endeavors, leaving a thriving educational model.
ELIZABETH TOPPER Jerusalem Heartbreaking story Sir, – Yishai Fleischer wrote a heartbreaking story about Jonathan Pollard (“The Pollard bloodstain,” Comment, March 21). What is to me even more heartbreaking is the “do nothing” attitude of American Jewry, which could influence President Barack Obama.
Recently, many generals, ex-heads of the CIA and other influential non-Jews have spoken out against the US administration’s policy of not releasing Pollard. I did not see the names of Treasury secretary Jack Lew, leading J Street politicos or senators like Charles Schumer among those who are speaking out now after 29 years. Their names appear nowhere.
Is everyone so petrified of Obama that no one can tell him to finally release Pollard? It seems to me that President Obama would garner a great deal of goodwill if he did this just now before Passover, as Passover symbolizes the universal need of freedom from slavery. Certainly, after 29 years, the release of Jonathan Pollard from prison would be heralded by one and all.
TOBY WILLIG Jerusalem Ourselves to blame Sir, – Daniel Gordis (“It’s OK to be depressed,” A Dose of Nuance, March 21) writes that like Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, with whom he had a debate in Atlanta, he would be happy to see a Palestinian state and would vote for significant territorial compromise if it would mean an end to the conflict. He goes on to say that the real divide for a peace deal is between those who can accept reality for what it is, with all the sadness thereunto appertaining, and those who cannot tolerate this bleakness and opt instead for delusion.
Gordis makes good points as to why he remains almost entirely certain that it is utterly impossible to reach a deal with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – unlike Ben-Ami, who thinks a deal can be made and is prepared for significant territorial compromise.
By now there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that were we to be confined to any smaller a piece of land than we already are, the destruction would not be long in following. It is the unhidden agenda of our enemies and, I believe, of a hypocritical and hostile world that never loses a chance to condemn us – and only us.
Gordis says it’s OK to be depressed, but in fact it is not because depression can lead to suicide – and this is exactly where we are heading.
We have only ourselves to blame.
MINDEL MARGOLIS Jerusalem