We were appalled by David Harris’ irresponsible invocation of the Soviet practice of “airbrushing” in his letter to the editor (July 20).
For a Jewish leader of Harris’ stature to compare the omission of his American Jewish Committee from a Jewish Week story to the Soviet regime’s deliberate expunging of its opponents from the historical record — often in the wake of their torture and murder — demonstrates how easily vanity spirals into moral myopia.
We Jews are rightly concerned by inappropriate analogies with the Holocaust; that should make us extra sensitive to the cavalier use, as a literary device, of the horrors of Soviet oppression, especially in light of the USSR’s historic mission to annihilate Jewish culture and identity.
If Harris is, as he claims, a student of Russian and Soviet history, perhaps he might consider a refresher course.
Bart Rudnick Bedford, N.Y.
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
