Credit due Sarah Stern for spearheading legislation
In a letter published March 3 (“EMET takes the credit at the expense of ZOA,” WJW), Dr. Michael Goldblatt, chairman of the board, Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), wrote that I “falsely” claimed that Sarah Stern, the founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), “spearheaded the passage of the Koby Mandell Act.” I stand by my statement that Sarah Stern did, indeed, spearhead the passage of this act.
Stern was working for the ZOA when she led the initiative for the Koby Mandell Act, and she continued working on the passage of the bill during her employment at the American Jewish Congress.
Sherri Mandell, whose son, Koby, in whose memory the act was named, wrote in an Op-Ed on April 3, 2012 in The Jerusalem Post, “My family was happy when we heard about the Koby Mandell Act being spearheaded by Sarah Stern, currently president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth.”
JENNIFER DEKEL
Director of research and communications
Endowment for Middle East Truth
Why are feds funding aid to Holocaust survivors?
Regarding “Local agency among recipients of $2.8 million in federal grants for Holocaust survivors” (March 10, WJW): however superlatively worthy these recipients undoubtedly are, the fact that the U.S. government is awarding $2.8 million to aid Holocaust survivors is embarrassing and an outrage.
Why is this horrendous situation being remedied at American taxpayers’ expense, especially at a time of a mushrooming national debt?
Traditionally, the Jewish people have always prided themselves in taking care of their own; $2.8 million is chump change for American billionaire businessmen-philanthropists such as Michael Bloomberg, Paul Singer and especially Sheldon Adelson, each of whom has expended far larger amounts on partisan and divisive political campaigns, whether single-issue or individual candidate races.
(Indeed, 11 of the 50 richest people in the world are Jewish, according to the 30th annual Forbes billionaires list released March 1. Five Jews are in the top 15 and seven in the top 25.)
Why the need for a federal government handout?
MARA D. ATRASH
College Park
Sad that J Street represented Jewish Democrats
I read the front page article “J Street lands in NJDA’s usual spot” (WJW, March 3) with much disappointment. It is truly unfortunate that the Jewish Democrats have permitted themselves to be represented by the ultra-left, consistently staunchly anti-Israel J Street. Certainly the pro-Israel Jewish Democrats I know have always been ashamed that the likes of J Street has the audacity to refer to itself as pro-Israel. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) should be ashamed.
ROBERT BERMAN
Vienna
