Letters to the Editor 10-30-09

Issue of October 30 2009/ 12 Cheshvan 5770

Fair shake for secular college

To the Editor:

As a father of two high school yeshiva girls I would like to point out something Rabbi Spolter missed in his column on sending our kids to secular colleges (The elephant in the room; Oct. 16, 2009). My family spent Chol Hamoed Sukkot looking at the colleges in the Boston area. We have friends in Sharon and since the girls were off from school it turned out to be the perfect opportunity to spend Sukkot with them and see the colleges during the week.

We went to Harvard, Boston University, and Brandeis. It was great to see the schools in session, and in addition to going on the tours and information session we were able to meet many frum students in the Sukkah. As you can imagine the best way to find out whether an observant girl would be comfortable on campus was to... actually talk to frum kids ON campus. We didn’t have to search them out since in addition to eating at the kosher dining hall, it was much more intimate in the Sukkah.

Yes college campuses are diverse and they are not for everyone. In my opinion my girls would be comfortable dressing modestly, davening with a minyan everyday, eating kosher and keeping shabbos at any of the above schools.  There were other schools we went to that did not have a big enough frum community for them (or me) to be comfortable  and able to spend 4 full years there.

We also visited Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania over the summer with similar positive results. One thing that struck me was the young men and women who run the orthodox component of these Hillel houses. Their respect and caring for the children (our children) and their yiddishkeit was truly heart warming. Some were paid and some were student volunteers but all had come to the job from various backgrounds and offered friendship, shiurim and hospitality. They really make the kids feel at home, away from home.

If Rabbi Spolter truly wants to explore the issue in a fair way he should visit these campuses with an open mind and will see the tremendous work these people do to make each college a community. He is certainly allowed to send his kids to any college he chooses and so am I.

Mike Sigal

North Bellmore

Even paranoids have enemies

To the Editor:

One TV talking head says they are “Jihadists,” while another calls them “insurgents.” Someone says “militants” while another calls them “fighters.” Why are all of them mincing words? We, the non-Muslims, are at war with militant Islam. Years ago, I interviewed a the head of a madrassa (a rosh yeshiva of Islam), who said, in an interview I conducted for The Jewish Week, “We are not used to being a majority and we can’t live that way.” In interviews with other Muslim leaders here on Long Island, I was told the Palestinians are at war with the Jews, not just the Israelis. One of the Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon was quoted in the press, some time ago, as saying, “First we get the Saturday people [Jews] and then we get the Sunday people [Christians].

Saladin, in his conquests in the Middle East, had a motto: “Muhammad or the sword.” Convert to Islam or be killed. Worldwide, militant Islam is at war with every other religion, every democracy and especially every Jew. Is it just me who says it? Am I paranoid? Even paranoids have enemies.

Leon Schwarzbaum

North Woodmere