Just as Mr. Adam Haber’s stomach turned when he read “reports of the violence and suffering in war-torn Syria,” my stomach turned when I read the story about his very selective humanitarian concerns in the Dec. 22 issue of The Port Washington Times (“Haber, synagogue seeks to help Syrian refugees”), especially since those very selective concerns appear to be shared by the clergy and congregants of his Reconstructionist (faux Jewish) Synagogue.
The Times story relates that “in response to the violence and suffering, he (Mr. Haber) began an extensive research in(to) what he could do to help refugees from a civil war in Syria that as of last year, was estimated to have claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people.”
When I read that, I asked myself why had Mr. Haber, a Jew, focused so selectively on the suffering and deaths of mostly Sunni Arabs in Syria and why was he not also focusing on the suffering and deaths of the thousands, upon thousands of people in war torn places like Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kurdistan, Yazidiland, Yemen, the Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Mali, Niger, Myanmar, Armenia and in the Ukraine?
The Times story goes on to tell us that Mr. Haber and his fellow synagogue congregants are making efforts to resettle some Syrian refugee families in the U.S. and in Canada, and to raise funds, mostly from Jews, for such resettlement efforts.
All very noble, humanitarian efforts, to be sure, but why, I also asked myself, Syrian Arabs and not Jews?
There are thousands, upon thousands of Jews in Israel, in the U.S. and around the world, especially the remnants of Jews still living in Iran and other Muslim countries, who are in dire need, for one reason or another, or who are under siege.
Why not focus on them Mr. Haber and why not financially support the various Jewish organizations that have been formed to help those Jews in desperate circumstances? And lastly, Mr. Haber, I think that you’ve overlooked the obvious.
What you’ve overlooked, Mr. Haber, are the spacious, oil rich, Sunni Arab countries of the Middle East, populated with the co-religionist brothers, sisters and cousins of the Syrian Arabs that you’re so concerned about.
Have you gone to the embassies, or the consulates, or the U.N. offices of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, The Emirates and others, demanding that they financially support the Syrian refugees and resettle them?
If not, why not? Why is the Syrian refugee problem a Jewish concern and not also an Arab concern? You might also pound on the doors of other Sunni Arab countries like Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, demanding humanitarian relief for the Syrians.
I believe that either consciously, or unconsciously, you are trying a stratagem, Mr. Haber, that other Jews have tried for at least the past 100 years, always without success.
That stratagem is to show great kindness and compassion to the Jew hater, in the hopes that the Jew hater will then respond by changing his murderous attitudes towards Jews. That just doesn’t happen, Mr. Haber, it just doesn’t happen.
For the past 70 years now, Israeli hospitals have been quietly treating seriously ill Palestinian Arab men, women and children, who could not receive necessary life saving treatments in their own Arab hospitals.
The only thanks that Israel has ever received for those humanitarian efforts are more Jihadist bombers and killers, and more rockets fired at Israel by Hamas in Gaza.
Israel has often sent highly trained rescue teams, including doctors and medical staff, to countries devastated by earthquakes, typhoons, or tsunamis and the only thanks that Israel has ever received for those great humanitarian efforts, are more Jihadist bombers and killers, and more rockets fired at Israel by Hamas in Gaza.
So, my advice to you, Mr. Haber, and to your fellow synagogue congregants, is this.
Take care of your fellow Jews first. Take care of your fellow Jews second. Take care of your fellow Jews third.
Take care of the murderous Jew haters last and If you do attempt to take care of the murderous Jew haters before last, do not expect them to be less anxious to murder Jews.
Joel Katz
Port Washington
