In praise of falafel
Congratulations to Taim, which had a successful opening in Georgetown, and thank you to the WJW for highlighting this new addition to the array of kosher options in the DMV area (“Kosher falafel restaurant opens in Georgetown,” Sept. 5). Taim isn’t just another falafel shop — it’s different and well worth going to. I hope Jacqueline Hyman’s story piques
interest so that this kosher option remains and hopefully will expand. Gaithersburg
perhaps?
MARK BILSKY
Gaithersburg
What justice demands
Regarding “Justice demands the death penalty for Pittsburgh synagogue shooter” (Voices Sept. 5):Although I agree with Jonathan Tobin’s view that Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh shooter, deserves the death penalty, he deserves it for a different reason. This was an act of domestic terrorism which, according to federal law, “appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.” In other words, Bowers was not intending to harm an individual who just happened to be Jewish.
However while this white supremacist deserves the death penalty, President Donald Trump, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric about George Soros incited Bowers to attack Jewish worshippers at this synagogue, deserves to be charged with aiding and abetting this crime.
BARRY DWORK
Alexandria
Execute killers to ensure sentences cannot be changed
Jonathan Tobin seemingly concluded reluctantly that justice demands the death penalty for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter (Voices, Sept. 5). He explained that support for the death penalty has waned significantly among Americans — down from 80 percent to 56 percent since the 1990s, he cited the possibility of judicial mistakes and that race was in many cases a determining factor as reasons for the change in public opinion.
While agreeing with Tobin’s conclusion that seeking the death penalty for this hideous crime is appropriate, it is worth questioning why the American Jewish community as a whole is so opposed to the death penalty. A poll taken five years ago revealed that 57 percent of Jews opposed the ultimate penalty, indicating that among my co-religionists there appears to be more sympathy for the perpetrator of the crime than for the relatives of those killed. Those relatives deserve the assurance that such killers will never be released back into civilized society. Sadly we cannot be assured that sentences passed now may not be modified by future administrations.
The death penalty should not be used as a deterrent against future killers but as a means of cleansing society from those who brazenly kill police officers and the mass slaughter of innocent law-abiding citizens. Such individuals have surrendered their right even to spend the rest of their miserable lives in jail.
STANLEY ORMAN
Rockville
Israeli filmmakers are anti-Semites
I disagree with your editorial “Still Our Boys” (Sept. 5). Blood is not blood. Certainly, the Allies didn’t care about the Japanese and German civilians killed in World War II by saturation bombing and two nuclear bombs. Certainly, the Palestinians, the filmmakers and most of the world, don’t care about Israeli Jewish blood.
The introspection should be by the Palestinians for creating a society of death and no less evil to Jews as the Nazis. The introspection should be by all people who condone or rationalize these Palestinian acts of terror as others condoned or rationalized the murder of Jews by Christians and Muslims over the last 1,000 years.
“Our Boys” is saying, “Who gives a damn about Jewish blood?” Find one bad
Israeli Jew and condemn all Israeli Jews as somehow complicit, but the Palestinian society built on hate and death is exonerated under the guise of victimhood allowing them to forever kill Israeli Jews.
The movie is propaganda. The agenda is to demonize Israel for political and
personal gain and the self-reflection of egos that say look at me I am the good Jew and those others are the bad Jews. Fictionalized stories about the bad Jew sells as it has for 1,000 years. True stories about the bad Palestinian is condemned as anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic. Sadly, too many Jews and Israelis are complicit in this anti-Semitic
storytelling.
MEL FARBER
Silver Spring
