Tribute to Béliveau
I wanted to say how much I enjoyed Paul Lungen’s tribute to Jean Béliveau (“Hockey legend Jean Béliveau was my idol growing up,” Dec. 25).
Although I’ve been a lifelong Leafs supporter, I’ve always been a great admirer of Béliveau. He was the only player who had the potential to sway my loyalty. I watched the entire funeral service and tried to think of any player, past or present, who would garner the type of attention and accolades that were so much a part of Béliveau.
Béliveau made hockey the game that it was meant to be, played for love of the sport, not for the dollar.
Ellen Weiser
Toronto
Carlebach and Cosby
It is hard to find a more perfect example of character assassination and lashon hara than Asher Lovy’s comparison of Bill Cosby and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (“Carlebach and Cosby: can we separate art and artist?” Dec. 18.)
The actor and comedian Bill Cosby is accused by numerous women of drugging and raping them while they were unconscious – a truly criminal act.
Rabbi Carlebach was part of the 1960s free love movement and did break the Orthodox taboo of negiah (forbidden touching) by hugging his holy brothers and holy sisters, and many women sought him out precisely to feel the warm embrace of this charismatic and gifted rabbi.
There have been innuendoes over the years that his loving hugs of some women may have crossed the line into impropriety, but that is hardly in the same category as Cosby, and sadly, Rabbi Carlebach is not alive to defend himself.
In fact, the only thing Cosby and Rabbi Carlebach have in common is that their last names start with a C.
Ezra Franken
Montreal
Premier doesn’t merit award
I am profoundly troubled that the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) would honour Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne with the Words and Deeds Leadership Award, given the position previously and aggressively adopted by her when she opposed the public funding of our Jewish day schools.
Wynne was utterly disrespectful of our views and opinions when she attacked those who would argue in favour of equity in the public funding of our children’s schools. We were treated like second-class citizens then, and she continues to treat us as such.
Honouring Wynne demonstrates a serious lack of judgment on CIJA’s part. CIJA is clearly out of touch with the thousands of parents who continue to suffer the debilitating financial burden of sending their children to Jewish schools.
Perhaps Wynne will respond to CIJA’s efforts to aggrandize her by contributing more funds to build large and expensive edifices, which our community leaders believe we so desperately need. Buildings alone, however, will not generate a new generation of Jewish children who are supportive of Jewish and Zionist values.
Joseph Adler
Toronto
Rescue versus collaboration
I have been following the argument of whether Reszo Kastner was a collaborator or a rescuer (“When rescue is not collaboration,” Dec. 4).
One very important comment is missing. Those people he was able to save paid a ransom (Swiss bank accounts, gold, silver, diamonds, etc.). It is well known that only rich families were able to do that.
I survived the Holocaust in Budapest. I was a forced labourer, digging trenches beside the Danube River, and then liberated from the ghetto.
Frances Blau
Toronto
The impossibility of peace
Yossi Klein Halevi says, “The [Israeli] right was correct about the impossibility of reaching an agreement with the Palestinian national movement that denies our legitimacy in any borders,” (Dec. 11). He ignores the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative endorsed by every Arab state at the Arab League summit in Beirut, and re-endorsed at their 2007 meeting. It is a significant denial of that “impossibility.”
Bernard Katz
Toronto
