Another way to see Trump
Coming off of a three-day bipartisan Jewish pep-rally at AIPAC, I was disappointed and offended to read Halie Sofer’s Voices piece, “Trump’s weaponization of anti-Semitism,” which attacks President Donald Trump and Republican Jews.Sofer accused the president of “dishonest and dangerous politicking” and said he is “trafficking anti-Semitic tropes.” It is offensive that Sofer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, believes that her way is the only way to see Trump — as she stated, “To see it any other way is to deny the truth.”
VALERIE GREENFIELD
Rockville
Jewish kin don’t make him a philo-semite
In his letter in the March 28 issue (“Author can’t handle the truth”), attacking “Trump’s weaponization of
anti-Semitism,” Ira Reese states: “Usually in bashing the president as anti-Semitic, the press fails to state the fact that the president has a Jewish daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.”
I do not know if the president is anti-Semitic, although his failure to forthrightly condemn those who are makes one wonder. The fact that his daughter married a Jew and converted to Judaism is really irrelevant. It is like the person who says “I can’t be a racist, my best friend is black.”
There may be some cognitive dissonance involved in loving the member of a group that one hates, but there are plenty of examples out there of an expressed homophobe who nonetheless loves their gay child.
So enough of, “He can’t be anti-Semitic because….”
BILL LANDAU
Potomac
Pelosi has Jewish kin, too
Ira Reese (“Author can’t handle the truth,” March 28) criticizes the mainstream media for not highlighting the fact that President Trump has a Jewish daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. At the same time, he deplores House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “total cave to the progressive wing” [of the Democratic Party]. In point of fact, one of her children married a Jew, which means that she also has a Jewish son-in-law; further, she is the first speaker of the House to have Jewish grandchildren.
The difference is that the father of the president’s Jewish son-in-law is a convicted felon, while Pelosi’s is anything but.
BARRY HASHEM
Stevenson, Md.
Israel’s Golan connection goes way back
Despite international condemnation, mainly from Arab nations, the Golan Heights should remain part of Israel. This both from the standpoint of the religious and historical past as well as from the current moral and strategic importance to Israel, now made even more telling by the presence of Hezbollah, a surrogate of Iran on that border.
What is generally overlooked about the current presence of Israel on the Golan Heights is the religious and
historical connection of the state of modern Israel to its ancient origins. As described in the Bible, the Golan Heights was an integral part of Israel from ancient times and now as well by present possession.
Only a series of negotiations between Great Britain and France led to a redrawing of boundaries that placed the Golan Heights in Syria. The acquisition of the Golan Heights by Israel in a series of defensive wars has resulted in its return to its rightful owners.
NELSON MARANS
New York
Support for Israel isn’t enough
It was distressing to read “An Orthodox organization’s gala dinner is mostly a tribute to Donald Trump” (April 4). Those who support Trump are “in bed” with white supremacists, Nazis and other hate groups — are the same who chanted, “the Jews will not replace us. To support a racist bigot is not in keeping with
Jewish values. Truly a shame and blemish on Judaism.
When one considers the terrible lack of proper response to the suffering in Puerto Rico following Hurricane
Michael, the disgraceful separation of children from their families at the border, we have to wonder are these the actions of which the Orthodox approve? Wonderful to support Israel but let’s be first concerned about what is occurring where we live, the United States of America.
DAVID MENDELSOHN
Ashburn, Va.
