YOU CAN OFTEN GET A BETTER READ ON THINGS WHEN YOU DO READ

This is a brief story, as all ours are, of a journey and of perception. First, the journey which was taken by a Torah, which for now resides at the Central Synagogue, which is located at Lexington Avenue and Fifth Street. It’s the beginning of the scroll’s trip that is remarkable, which originated in the City of Oswiecim, Poland, later known as Auschwitz, where it was buried and thus hidden from the Germans. The men who did so perished in the concentration camp but word was passed on and over 60 years later, the Torah was discovered and is being restored. On April 30th, Holocaust Remembrance Day, The New York Times featured this remarkable narrative as the lead in its Metro Section. For those who naively believe the Times to be indifferent to Jewish issues, et al, it might help if you read the caringly written article of that day.
Another perception involves Barack Obama, and the increasingly annoying, and self-serving former minister of his, Jeremiah Wright. In the discussions I’ve had with folks about the sincerity of Mr. Obama’s “divorce” from his preacher, I’ve found no one who actually heard or read the entire text of his press conference this week. I hope this man (Mr. Wright) is in no way a swift reverend funded by the Senator’s opponents. Hopefully, those that judge will read, although a number of the news commentators judging by their comments, had not yet done so. And still, and this never ceases to amaze, so little attention given to two supporters of Senator John McCain, whose endorsement he did not and does not repudiate. Pastor John Hagee who has regularly denigrated Catholics and the late Jerry Falwell who until his dying day did the same regarding Jews. So just how do these men, Hagee and Falwell, both Caucasians, get a pass not given to the, as we said odiously annoying, and Black Mr. Wright; be there a different standard for the White stuff-it versus the Wright-stuff it.