Update

Dear Editor:

Last week, I saw that the letter that I sent to you for the prior week was published. I originally wrote it before the pre-election issue and before the poles I mentioned were installed on Main Street. As we know, the QJL sometimes holds off on letters due to the high volume they receive and the need to be selective with each issue.

However, I first voiced concerns about this issue within the community, months ago, when the extension for Hayim Salomon Square was made, and again when the paint markings were laid down weeks before the poles went up. How our local elected officials claim they were unaware is baffling. Even if the DOT failed to notify them, the markings, per official planning guidelines, clearly indicated what was coming. Do they never check Main Street, especially near 73rd Avenue? Elected officials should frequently visit every part of their districts to stay informed about what’s happening. The fact that they missed this shows a major gap in our local representation, and we need to apply pressure for them to be more engaged.

Let’s keep up the pressure regarding these street changes: Call your elected officials. State offices have elections every two years, and next year is the city council’s turn. Community pressure holds power, because politicians are always thinking about the next election. Stay active on this issue, as well as on the KGH skyscraper and e-scooter rentals. If necessary, we may need to explore a lawsuit against the DOT over the poles and street changes to see real results. Let’s see if our elected officials can step up and address this effectively.

 Dovid Hirsch


 

Honoring and Remembering Rabbi Chaplain Colonel Jack Ostrovsky z”l

Dear Editor:

Our father was a 21-year Career Chaplain and Colonel in the United States Army. Throughout his Army service, and during his difficult and challenging year in Vietnam, he was a lifeline to thousands of soldiers. The soldiers’ well-being was helped spiritually, emotionally, and physically. He was a beacon of light in their darkest times. He had emunah and bitachon and always felt that Hashem was constantly with him, protecting and guiding him. Our father’s goal was always for the “greater good.”

Although he had possessed tireless devotion and dedication to his soldiers and Army families, we, as his family, always felt his warmth and deep love for us. We are so grateful to Hashem to have had the z’chus of calling him Dad. We thank him for all his life’s lessons. In our hearts and thoughts, our hero – on Veterans Day and always.

 Esther Mochan
Long Island, New York


 

Who’s Really in Charge?

Dear Editor:

We say in the Rosh HaShanah davening: “Ha’mamlich melachim v’lo ha’meluchah” – Hashem coronates kings but He is the only royalty. To be a person of faith, one must make hishtadlus to do what’s in the best interests of our people, but in the end realize that everything is in the hands of Hashem.

I have been writing for months, trashing Kamala Harris for being the unqualified, vacuous, DEI fraud that she is, and I am truly happy that Trump was elected this past week. But we need to keep in mind another part of davening: “Al tivtechu bi’nedivim” – Don’t put your faith in man. For the Donald Trump fans out there, yes that even applies to Trump. Hashem decided the outcome of this election and Trump will be President, but let’s not forget Who was King before Trump, Who will be King through Trump’s presidency, and Who will be King long after Trump has left the scene.

 Doniel Behar



Why Kamala Lost

Dear Editor:

Kamala Harris is a fraud. She is also not smart. If she were intelligent and had the ability to be truthful, she would have told Americans that she had no core beliefs but would instead use polling data to put forth consensus policy prescriptions that receive 60% approval among the electorate. Instead, she put forth phony policy proposals disguised as deep-seated beliefs that everyone knew were fraudulent because she proposed the opposite policy prescriptions the last time she ran for president – in 2020.

The disingenuity of Kamala Harris really cost her when she started doing interviews. If you looked at her facial expression in every interview, whenever she was hit with a question on policy, she looked like she was thinking about what she should say instead of what she believed. She was so concerned with finding the right thing to say to get herself elected, which of course stands in stark contrast to Trump, who always says what he believes (sometimes to his detriment).

Kamala even messed up the number one issue she ran on: abortion. For whatever reason, abortion is very popular in America, not just among Democrats. Abortion is an issue that likely has more than 60% approval. Yet she overplayed her hand by lying to Americans and insisting that Trump was going to implement a national abortion ban, long after he made clear that he would be doing no such thing, since he considers abortion to be a state issue, not a federal one.

Consider the contrast with Trump and his number one issue: the Democrats’ oppression and abandonment of the middle class. He hammered home the regressive tax that Democrats implemented in the form of 20% inflation and the Democrats’ wholesale destruction of the American Dream by making life unaffordable for so many people.

Barack Obama, berating working-class Black and Hispanic men to show up in support of their women and vote Kamala for the fake abortion issue, was no match for Trump telling these people to show up and vote for him on the real issue of Democrats turning their backs on them by opening up our borders and allowing inflation to get out of control.

Kamala had such a huge financial advantage over Trump, with her campaign spending over a billion dollars, or about five times what Trump spent. Her campaign team also consisted of seasoned political operatives with many years of campaign experience. Getting skunked by Trump the way she did in the election only highlights what a historically terrible candidate she was. Democrats will inevitably point to racism and sexism as excuses for this embarrassing defeat, which is ironic because the only two reasons Kamala was in this position in the first place was her race and her sex.

As her three-month campaign exposed, she possesses few other talents.

 Shlomo Dovid Benhaim


 

Trump Train Runs Over Kamala

Dear Editor:

The chickens finally came home to roost for Democrats. Abandonment of the working class, open borders, and inflation were likely too much for any candidate to overcome. Putting up an intellectually challenged San Francisco liberal whose sole qualification for the job was her race and skin color was just a bridge too far for a majority of Americans.

A few people have asked me when I felt comfortable that Trump was going to win. I pointed to what two big Kamala Harris supporters wrote about Harris in their final pieces before the election that appeared in the 10/31 edition of the QJL: absolutely nothing! Warren Hecht either could not come up with a single positive thing to say about Harris or alternatively chose not to insult the intelligence of his readers. And the former VP of the Rosedale Jewish Center, in another long, unhinged rant, neglected to mention anything about why we should vote for Harris other than his TDS-fueled, laundry list of reasons why he hates Trump.

Others have pointed out the irony of Kamala having her campaign essentially ended by her appearance on The View. The hens over there, who’s diverse political leanings range from hard Left to extremely hard Left, tried their mightiest to lob softballs for Kamala to hit out of the park. When Kamala could not think on her feet of one thing that she would have done differently than Joe Biden the last four years, it proved fatal to her chances. It showed she was too dumb and/or unprepared to answer an eminently predictable question. It also killed off her phony persona as the new, fresh face, as it reminded voters she was tied at the hip to Biden’s horrendous policy decisions.

While Biden/Harris’ policies tanking the economy surely was on the mind of voters, many polls have shown that the biggest issue for voters was democracy. Given the trouncing Trump gave Harris, this is a stunning revelation. What it means is voters did not buy anything Kamala was selling on Trump as an orange fascistic dictator reincarnated as Hitler 2.0. In truth, Kamala doesn’t believe it either. How do we know? Do you think she would congratulate Hitler on winning the Presidency in a post-election concession phone call? Me neither.

Many are blaming the Democrats’ loss on Joe Biden staying in the race too long, but does anyone really think that more exposure of Kamala Harris was a winning formula? Once she got past the media blackout portion that took up the first six weeks of her 12-week campaign, she started to do a few interviews with friendly media. She received predictable questions in these interviews and was frequently asked the same question, yet her pathetic (non-)answers never improved over time. For instance, the question that tripped her up on The View, again completely flummoxed her the next day when Late Night Democrat partisan hack and former comedian Stephen Colbert asked her how she would distinguish herself from Biden. Again, she had nothing. For anyone doubting her lack of qualifications or intellect, this conclusively proved she had neither.

Lastly, it’s worth noting how giddy President Biden looked in his post-election press conference. He loves the fact that his replacement who knifed him in the back after he plucked her from the dustbin of irrelevancy got trounced by Trump. There may be no love lost between Biden and Trump, but Biden relishes being the only one to be able to stop the Trump Train, a feat he “accomplished” in 2020 with a little assistance from mainstream media, election rule changes, Big Tech censorship, the corrupt intelligence community, and a questionable overnight surge of ballots.

Regardless of whether or not you voted for Trump, you will no longer be living in a country run by “America Last” policymakers. It’s likely we’ve seen the end of illegal immigrants being flown into the country, given hotel rooms, a cell phone, and loaded debit cards for food, all at taxpayers’ expense. What happens with the 30 million illegals here Biden/Harris let in? I don’t know, but I’m glad we finally have someone putting the interests of legal citizens ahead of criminal invaders making the decisions now.

 Jason Stark


 

Nervous Nelly

Dear Editor:

I’ve been asked if I was nervous about going to Israel. Basically, I’m nervous about everything and anything. I’m nervous that I packed the wrong clothes for Yom Tov. I’m nervous if I don’t hear the motor in my fridge go on every couple of minutes. I’m nervous if I miss the Paramus sign on my way to Teaneck. I’m nervous that my air conditioner went off even though it was 60 degrees in the house. I’m nervous that hurricanes in Florida will work their way up to New York. I’m nervous when my gas tank is 3/4 full, and I have to drive to New Jersey. But, no, I’m not nervous about going to Israel.

Like any red-blooded Jew (get it?), I was uber-nervous about the presidential election. Therefore, I decided to do something to calm my nerves. I don’t drink, smoke, or run marathons. I said T’hilim, but I needed an extra boost. Yes, in my case, that meant shopping, and this time it was to Costco on Rockaway Turnpike. You might ask why I don’t go to the Costco five minutes away on Queens Boulevard. In my family tradition, it’s more important to spend $5 on gas than $1 or $2 on parking.

Yes, just like Route 4 in New Jersey, I have trouble figuring out how to get to Nassau Expressway. I’m so nervous about ending up at Kennedy Airport that I ended up someplace else in Queens. No problem. I turned on Waze, confident in her ability to direct me to Costco. No sooner had Waze gone on, that I hear an unfamiliar voice speaking in Hebrew. After another moment of panic, I calmed down and realized that my having paid attention to my Hebrew teachers in HANC and Central paid off. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at my destination, but don’t ask about the ride back. Do you think Waze was telling me to make aliyah?

 Debbie Horowitz


 

Dear Editor:

This past Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reiterated her support during a post-election press conference for the $7.7 billion MTA NYC Transit Second Avenue Subway Phase 2. She stated, “He (President-elect Trump) needs to support the Second Avenue subway,” and, “I’ll work with him on those efforts to benefit New York.”

What Hochul neglected to mention is that the Federal Transit Administration in October 2023 previously offered – and the MTA accepted – a Capital Investment New Starts Full Funding Grant Agreement for Second Avenue Subway Phase 2. It included $3.4 billion in federal funding. The grant was approved based upon the legal requirement that MTA put up $4.3 billion in matching local funding. MTA’s source for its commitment was based upon implementation of Congestion Pricing, which was supposed to raise $15 billion. Hochul previously placed Congestion Pricing on pause months ago. She has said it will resume some time between January 2025 and when the new state budget is adopted on April 1, 2025.

Hochul, not Trump, is placing the MTA’s $4.3 billion local share in limbo. This could result in the future loss of FTA’s FFGA and accompanying $3.4 billion in federal dollars. Hochul should put her own fiscal house in order when it comes to financing the $7.7 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 before lobbying Trump for federal funding that, unlike the MTA, has never been placed on “pause.”

 Sincerely,
Larry Penner 

Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian, and writer who previously served as a Director for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office of Operations and Program Management. This included the development, review, approval, and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for NJ Transit, MTA, NYC Transit bus, subway, and Staten Island Railway, Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads, MTA Bus, NYCDOT Staten Island Ferry, along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ.


 

Dear Editor:

This election was a complete repudiation of everything the Democratic Party stands for, and I couldn’t be prouder of my fellow Americans for saving this country. No Supreme Court stuffing with lefty whacko judges. No DC and Puerto Rico statehood (although Puerto Rico just voted in a Republican governor, so that might not be a foregone conclusion that the two Senators would be Democrats). No killing the filibuster in the Senate.

Trump performed better in New York and California than Harris did in Florida! Mr. Hecht, all the political hit jobs go away, as the “convicted felon” takes office on January 20, 2025. Mr. Pecoraro, that mezuzah you so desperately wanted on the White House door post will not be going up.

The media doesn’t get to choose candidates and ram them down our throats. I don’t hear the Hitler and fascist rhetoric anymore. Gee, I wonder why. What I do hear on CNN and MSNBC is that 74 million of us are racists and misogynists. Clueless that the Democratic candidate was vapid and just awful.

Yasher koach to Michael Watley and Lara Trump who, as co-chairs of the RNC, made sure that lawsuits were brought in locales that were problematic. They were much more organized and ready than Ronna McDaniel ever was. The only question that remains is if Obama couldn’t break 70 million votes and Harris only got 71 million votes, how did Joe Biden get 81 million votes in 2020?

Just an aside: The New York Times is terribly anti-Semitic. The article they ran last Shabbos about the attack on Jews in Amsterdam was outrageous. I urge all Jews to cancel their subscriptions to a paper that hid the horrors of the Holocaust, curried favor with Stalin, and now has lost all journalistic ethics.

 Shalom Markowitz


 

Democracy Was Most Definitely on the Ballot

Dear Editor:

Democrats campaigned for months, reminding us all that “democracy was on the ballot” this election. Democrats habitually lie about many things, especially during election cycles, but they were correct about our democracy being on the brink of extinction. Except it wasn’t Trump who was the threat; it was Kamala Harris.

As our country is currently constituted under the Electoral College system, the seven or so swing states decide who will be our next President. Often, Presidential elections are decided in these states by a few thousand votes. Because Democrats are always hellbent on retaining power at any cost, they purposely transported millions of illegal immigrants into the swing states. There are likely at least ten times more illegal immigrants currently in these locations than the electoral difference in most of the recent Presidential elections. Had Kamala Harris been elected President, these illegals would have undoubtedly been granted amnesty and citizenship to our country. There would be no more swing states that would have ended any competition between the two major political parties, rendering the United States a borderless country with one party rule, likely until the coming of Mashiach.

Trump’s election scuttled these nefarious and destructive plans. Regardless of your political affiliation, if you enjoy living in this country, the freedom it provides and the democratic process we have to elect our political leaders, you should be very thankful today that Trump was elected President.

 Jonathan Goldgrab


 

Bye-Bye!!

Dear Editor:

The United States had an employee that we hired almost four years ago. She was given tasks but completed none of them. She had a performance review that she failed, so she backstabbed her elderly supervisor. She demanded a promotion but refused to interview for the new position for months. Upon interviewing, she revealed what an unqualified and lazy employee she was.

She did, however, promise that if she got the promotion, she would do all the tasks she failed to do before. But she wouldn’t do them in her current position in order to force us to give her the promotion. This past week, the United States correctly decided to fire this underwhelming and grossly incompetent employee.

Good riddance!

 Avi Goldberg