|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 24, 2012 What a great article. I am US Christian gentile. This is such an eye opener and so full of insight. I totally enjoyed reading it for the enlightening which it brought forth to me. I am a total supporter of Israel and the Jewish people.
October 31, 2012
Rhonda You captured some great memories of Carol at Massad. I had the chance to see Carol at the Massad 60 reunion and am so saddened by the news.
She most definitely left her mark. Stephen Kushner
We don't outwardly identify ourselves with the conservative side for fear that our friends would act like we've taken leave of our senses. However, we know we are not alone and can honestly state that there are more of us than Roger Cohen and the Democrats want to acknowledge.
I asked a friend who is a life-long Democrat: "If the Democrats ran a yellow dog for president, would you vote for him?" The answer is he most certainly would. Many Jews have strong feelings for Israel but they are able to rationalize their non-support for Romney by citing social values as their primary allegiance.
Carole Faiman
Wed, 31 Oct 2012 My name is Josh Tapper; I'm a reporter at the Toronto Star. I'm wondering if you have a few minutes to talk about Nathan Jacobson, who I understand is a friend of yours. He's in a bit of legal trouble right now and it would be great if you could speak to his character and his philanthropy. My contact info is posted below. Can we talk today?
October 31, 2012 FREE BUT NOT FAIR
We had the opportunity to serve as international observers at last Sunday's elections to the legislature of Ukraine, specifically in two of the more troublesome regions of Ukraine: Kharkhiv and Donetsk. Also, we observed in Kyiv on the district level on the following two days. Our reactions were mixed, but mostly positive. It is our considered opinion that Ukraine made some significant progress since last year's local elections as well as the presidential tally of 2010. Perhaps, the reason for this generally positive review is that the electorate in Ukraine over the years has matured to a level of sophistication that exceeds many of the traditionally democratic societies. In fact, the maturation process has been arduous because of the numerous impediments set by the ruling and financial elite intent on acquiring or retaining power. The electorate includes not only the some thirty million voters, but the voter-officials who were charged with the duties of carrying out the process on the local precinct and district levels. In places witnessed by us, it seems those local officials have been trained and hardened by negative experiences to such an extent that they approached their latest duties with a strong will and remarkable dedication to prevent any hint of fraud. Furthermore, the wide party affiliation that comprised the local and district commission members bordering on the ridiculous—in one Kharkiv precinct a Women’s Solidarity Party representative served as secretary while in another, the Anarchist party representative chaired the local committee—ensured that myriad interests were represented. Commission members followed the law painstakingly even though sometime their understanding of the law was misapplied. In the past they were hostile to international observes. This time they welcomed them. Attempts to defraud, manipulate and influence are inevitable in any election where the prize is significant. In Ukraine, legislative membership, aside from altruism, carries much personal benefit including but not limited to immunity from criminal prosecution. Certainly Ukraine's latest round had its share of such attempts. However, the preponderance took place in the time up to the elections during the campaign phase. Unequal access to media is a common complaint in democratic societies and Ukraine was certainly worse than western democracies. After all the ruling party controls and influences the media in Ukraine through various channels not limited to financial control and intimidation. Abuse of administrative resources was another troublesome area. Officials in governmental control often lavished financial benefits upon their society which inured to their own personal welfare or that of their party colleagues. However, Election Day was not marred by egregious fraud. Sure there were attempts to stuff the ballot utilizing the “at home” ballot, but in most instances the precinct commissions caught on in advance. Some unregistered voters attempted to procure a ballot and vote, but were turned away in most instances. The polling precincts were sometimes a little too inconspicuous, with entrances on the side and no Ukrainian flag. Nevertheless, voter participation was a healthy 58%, not the typical 90% common to authoritarian societies, but more than the less than 50% which has become the norm in healthy, but lazy democracies. Who won and lost is not the issue. Certainly Yanukovich and his party together with their allies did not achieve what they had hoped. On the other hand, the democratic opposition can consider this election more than a moral victory. Still much depends on allegiances and the non-affiliated deputies whose favor will be the subject of improper and outrageous bidding. We all know how easily those are bought and sold in Ukraine. The big winner here is Ukrainian democracy and the Ukrainian people. Surprisingly, many of the other western observers assessed the process in uncertain terms, but falling short of the model. We suspect that for people from Chicago or even New York, like ourselves, the model is not without its own blemishes. Chicago, until very recently urged its electorate to vote early and often. In New York, the model was less outrageous—a mayor, who was termed out, simply changed the NYC Constitution without referendum and then proceeded to buy the electorate with overwhelming money. Campaign finance reform is a reasonable democratic safeguard needed not only in Ukraine. The international community needs to look at Ukraine objectively. Sure, Ukraine’s President is a thug. But at least in this one instance, he stepped back and allowed what Putin and the like would never permit. The democratic international community should continue to monitor Ukraine on human rights, and insist on the release of opposition leaders. However, failing to acknowledge that the most recent election in Ukraine was substantially free, although not entirely fair, compromises the West’s credibility. October 31, 2012Askold S. Lozynskyj
Adrian I. Dlaboha
The writers served as international election observers from the Ukrainian World Congress/Ukrainian Congress Committee of America mission.
26 Oct 2012 Hon. Irwin Cotler (Mount Royal, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in a landmark ceremony, the City of Montreal bestowed honorary citizenship on Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish non-Jew who save more Hungarian Jews in four months than any single government and whom the United Nations has called the greatest humanitarian of the 20th century. The incredible heroism of Canada's first honorary citizen, recognized also at the inauguration of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre's Education Week, included: issuing Schutzpasses, diplomatic passes conferring immunity on their recipients and which saved some 20,000 Jews alone; establishing protected safe houses, which saved 30,000; and, in his most memorable rescue, causing Nazi generals to desist from blowing up the Budapest ghetto, saving 70,000 Jews in this act of heroism alone, and showing that one person can make a difference, that one person can confront evil, prevail and transform history. It was an honour to join Mayor Tremblay, city councillors and Holocaust survivors, such as Agnes Kent, herself saved by Wallenberg, as we note another important moment in Hungarian history, the 56th anniversary of the uprising against Soviet totalitarianism. Raoul Wallenberg combined the courage to care with the commitment to act, inspiring us all in the struggle for justice, peace and human rights. May we honour his humanitarian legacy.
October 26 2012 Letter to the Editor:
I just read your article about Roger Cohen's blunders regarding Iran. He seems to belong to those journalists who live by the proverb: whose bread I eat his song I sing. I know Cohen from his days as an American Jewish correspondent abroad lauding the new Germany. When I wrote to him in October 1999 in response to his gushing reports from Berlin to tell him about my personal experiences in the former Nazi state and those of many other Jews who lived there, he sent me an inappropriately cranky e-mail. Cohen clearly does not report factually and has his personal opportunistic interests and agenda at heart rather than the pursuit of journalistic ethics and truth in reporting. Aliana Brodmann
26 Oct 2012 Hi Rhonda,
I hope all is well. I have been asked to write an article on a very tight deadline for the Toronto-based Jewish Tribune newspaper concerning the resurfaced posters that are allegedly anti-Semitic (i.e. http://www.
I need to write up and submit the story by tomorrow (Thurs, Oct 18) and really need a fresh perspective for it. Can you please e-mail me your thoughts (or, if preferable, let me know what time is good to call you and at what phone number, for you to tell m your thoughts over the phone) about this story (i.e. do you see it as anti-Semitic; do you see it moving toward legal action and/what do you feel needs to be done about it; are you concerned about the safety of those named in the poster; has anything new happened since you received the anti-Semitic e-mail; and/whatever other thoughts you might have on the subject)? Please let me know either way ASAP. Thank you and best regards, -Rebeca Kuropatwa Editor's response: Sorry-didn't see this until after the dedline.
October 17, 2012 Hello Rhonda Spivak, I am a reporter for CBC French news in Winnipeg. I would like to speak with you about this email you received that looks antisemitic.
Would you be available for an interview this morning? You can call me back on my cell phone Thanks!
Karine Morin
October 15, 2012 You may know my work as an author since I wrote most of Children of the Holocaust in Canada and interviewed people from Winnipeg but I am now also an epublisher! Plunkett Lake Press (www.plunkettlakepress.com) is devoted to retrieving and making available online the best of books by and about Central European Jews.
They're priced for students and can be bought by readers all over the world on Kindle or Nook. We have so far published much of Stefan Zweig's non-fiction, Egon Erwin Kisch, and Eva Hoffman, as well as my own books and the wartime radio broadcasts of Jan Masaryk (with a preface by Madeleine Albright) , the biography of Franz Werfel and Tony Heilbut's Exiled in Paradise, about the generation of writersand artists who fled Nazi Germany and wound up in Los Angeles in the 1940s. Here's an article (in English) that was written about us for a Praguewebsite: http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/
We hope to hear from you and would be happy to being interviewed by email,
All best
Helen Epstein
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© 2010 Winnipeg Jewish Review. All Rights Reserved. Home | Features | Local | Israel | Next Generation | Arts/Op-Eds | Editorial/Letters | Links | Torah Tidbits Archives | Contact Us | Privacy Statement | Sitemap |
