Letters to The Editor: August 9, 2019

Letter to the editor: Regarding: Atlanta Scores Big at Maccabi 2019

Eighteen years ago, I was part of the MJCCA’s professional team that welcomed the Maccabi Games to Atlanta. This week, upon the return of Maccabi to our city, we were honored to play a very small role in what should be recorded as one of our most successful community events. As volunteers we observed: a dream-team of Maccabi leadership – volunteers and professionals alike. We marveled at how the volunteers were recruited and trained, the strategic programmatic choices, and of course, the logistical nightmare that looked from the outside like a well-oiled and experienced process.

Here are three highlights of our Maccabi experience. Most significant was the sense of community and teamwork that we felt. As a community we strive for the “high” that we know comes from being a part of something greater than ourselves. The Games delivered! Maccabi is truly so much more than sports. We had the chance to hand out a Midot Medal (values/ good deed) to a teen from Cleveland. In addition to winning in sports, Maccabi recognizes acts of kindness and Jewish values. We saw the teen show off his medal and we know that he will never forget receiving that recognition. Finally, we observed a commissioner of a sport speaking with a coach who was “out of line” in how he was directing his players. The commissioner, like we, was a volunteer and the stand he took to redirect the coach toward fair play was truly a beautiful thing to watch.

Thank you to all of the players, volunteers, donors and professionals who made the 2019 Maccabi Games in Atlanta such a success. We have no doubt of the lasting effect the Games will have on our sense of community, readiness to volunteer, and interest in investing as donors in the wellbeing of our Jewish community.

Beth and Richard Gluck, Atlanta

Letter to the editor:

I wanted to tell you about my recent experience while buying kosher meat at Costco. I bought a London broil. It looked like a nice thick piece of meat, which is what a London broil should be. I got it home, defrosted it and found, to my absolute horror, that it is not one piece of thick meat, but four or five very thin pieces of meat that were stacked on top of each other.

Teva [Foods] packaging is incredibly deceptive, and it was absolutely not what they advertised it to be. It was not mislabeled by Costco. I have tried to contact Teva Foods, but they have no website. Costco corporate is equally difficult to pin down.

I thought deceptive packaging and advertising for kosher food might be of interest to your readers.

Julie Jacobson, Atlanta

Letter to the editor: Regarding: John Lewis

Shame on you John Lewis! You have fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. Yes, H.R. 496 appears to support our freedoms, but it also paves the way for the anti-Israel BDS supporters to claim their efforts are backed by Congress and the courts. A sophisticated politician should not be suckered by this kind of language trick. What sounds innocent at first reading can be easily manipulated to Israel’s detriment. Reps. Omar and Tlaib are not Israel’s friend. You say you are Israel’s friend, but your sponsorship of this resolution brings that support into question.

George Nathan, Sandy Springs

Letter to the editor:

The Trump administration and the Israeli government haven’t retreated from a Two State solution; they’ve simply realized that the Palestinian idea of Two States differs radically from the Israeli and American vision of a Palestinian state coexisting, peacefully, with Israel. Unfortunately, the Palestinian leaders seek a Palestinian state from which all Jews have been banished and an Israel which has been converted into a Muslim-majority state. They seek to accomplish this by having Israel overrun by 5,400,000 Palestine refugees. (United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, designation).

Between 400,000 and 700,000 Arabs fled Palestine in the late 1940s. The Arab League, abetted by the U.N., decreed that they and their descendants would remain in refugee limbo until Israel gave them the homes they claim their forebears lost. The leaders proceeded to feed the refugees a steady diet of anti-Jewish invective, while honoring and rewarding people for murdering Jews. Yet, the leaders reason that democratic Israel will surely do what Arab leaders have refused to do, grant citizenship to the refugees. The new citizens would then be able to vote to remove any vestige of Judaism from Israel’s legal system.

In contrast, Israel didn’t trap 800,000 Jewish refugees from Middle Eastern and North African countries in transit camps, waiting for Muslim countries to compensate them for their lost homes. Israel absorbed and uplifted the Mizrachi Jews, whose descendants now comprise the majority of Israel’s citizenry. Israel integrated the Mizrachi Jews while also rehabilitating Holocaust survivors as well as recovering from war damages caused by Arab forces, and dealing with terrorist incursions from land illegally occupied by Egypt and Jordan. Surely, the Arab nations should’ve welcomed the Palestine refugees, who shared language, religion and culture with their own citizens, but the Arab leaders chose to use the Palestine refugees as pawns in their efforts to destroy the nation-state of the Jews.

Toby F. Block, Atlanta

Letter to the Editor:

I am a reasonably well-informed citizen and resident of Rep. John Lewis’ congressional district and have been unaware of any substantive acts of friendship that he has performed for Israel. After reading Rabbi Berg’s and Rabbi Lesser’s column in the Aug. 2 AJT, “Congressman Lewis is a Friend to Israel,” I remain unaware of those acts. Their column asserts that he is a friend without providing any support or examples.

In fact, if we were to agree that being a friend to Israel is simply doing things considered friendly by the citizens of Israel itself (as opposed to what some living in the U.S. might consider in their best interests), Congressman Lewis has not been a particular friend of the State. At times he has been positively unfriendly. Readers of the AJT are well aware of Rep. Lewis’s votes for the Iranian nuclear deal; he refused to even attend the Israeli prime minister’s speech to Congress on the topic. Congressman Lewis refused to condemn the Obama administration’s December 2016 decision to abstain from a viciously anti-Israeli resolution in the U.N. and he voted against a House bill which criticized the administration for the abstention. More recently, Representative Lewis voted for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s thinly veiled pro-BDS bill. All of these actions are at odds with the wishes of a majority of Israelis as indicated by their elected representatives. I am unaware of any statement from Rep. John Lewis supporting the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem, something that is wildly popular in Israel and would certainly be supported by a friend.

I think most Israelis would say about John Lewis: with friends like that, who needs enemies!

John Markson, Atlanta, Ga.