Letters to the editor January 2

Letters to the editor January 2

A meaningful 20 minutes

Thanks to the Tuckfelt family, and the other donors, for their support of the new Holocaust memorial on the campus of Community Day School. For those of you who have not had the chance to walk the grounds of the memorial, take 20 minutes to see it; it will be a meaningful 20 minutes of your day.

Yes, we should always remember the Holocaust. To me, the great value of the outdoor public Holocaust memorial is as a daily reminder.

It took the students of CDS 15 years to collect the 6 million bottle caps and it took the Nazis six years to exterminate 6 million Jews.

During Kristallnacht, over 1,000 synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed in two days. Had the same thing happened in Pittsburgh, all the Jewish businesses on Forbes and Murray avenues and all the synagogues and Jewish day schools in Squirrel Hill would have been burned to the ground in a matter of hours.

The memorial is so subtle, with no pictures and no posters of explanation, leaving the visitors to their own thoughts and interpretations.

Built as a broken Jewish star, walking the configuration can only be seen as a whole and complete from heaven.

Ed Kramer

Pittsburgh

Ayatollah calls the shots

It is no secret to knowledgeable members of the Jewish community that the leaders of Iran have traditionally held members of our faith and residents of Israel in contempt.

One recognizes the breadth of Iran’s anti-Semitism in examining the recent incendiary and hateful remarks of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered to the Basij paramilitary organization on Nov. 20. He referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “rabid dog” and attacked European leaders for supporting Israel. They are “cringing before this creature which is not worthy of the name of a human being, before these leaders of the Zionist regime, who look like beasts and who cannot be called human,” as The Wall Street Journal reported.

It is interesting to note that the ayatollah’s condemnation comes at the height of Western negotiations with Iran over its nuclear capability, talks which would appear at first glance to be under the leadership of a more reasonable, diplomatic president, Hassan Rouhani.  One would think that those that speak for Iran would be on their best behavior at this critical point in negotiations. Even if President Rouhani wishes to reform Iran and open the door to good relations with the West, something that is far from certain, we must remember that the ayatollah calls the shots.  

Beloved late President Ronald Reagan said regarding the then-Soviet Union, “Trust, but verify.” In the case of Iran, we cannot even trust, as a dangerous man is its de facto leader.  May the world not be fooled by what may in reality be only window dressing.

Oren Spiegler

Upper St. Clair

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