The soil was still freshly dug on the victims’ graves, but already there were those with an ax to grind and using their deaths to advance an agenda. Your editorial “Time for Israel to Recognize All Jews” (Nov.9) cites the murder of 11 Jews as a reason for Israel to import the liberal denominations that meannothing to most Israelis.
Israeli MK Michael Oren is quoted as saying “liberal Jews are Jewish enough to be murdered but their stream is not Jewish enough to be recognized by the Jewish state.” Oren is an accomplished historian and undoubtedly knows that this is nonsense. The Nazis murdered Jews who practiced their Judaism, Jews who did not, Jews who had converted to Christianity and Jews whose political ideology made them antireligious. That all were “Jewish enough to be murdered” has no bearing on whether their religious beliefs and practices were authentic Judaism.
Your editorial takes the usual swipe at Israel’s Orthodox and charedi establishment. But it fails to note the statements of their chief rabbis after the Pittsburgh massacre, which fully affirmed the Jewishness of the victims.
We should have enough respect for the dead not to enlist them in our political and social campaigns.
Far Rockaway, Queens
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