Message from R’ Schonfeld: R’ Yoel Schonfeld

Last week, I received a text message from someone I know asking for a friend if I knew of a major organization that fights anti-Semitism. This person claims he and his business were victims of a hit piece by a publication that was allegedly laced with thinly disguised anti-Semitic tropes. They had an agenda and they stuck with it, despite some obvious misrepresentations.

I have this habit of listening to old radio. There is nothing like the mysteries and cop shows from the 1930s through the 1940s. I have an SiriusXM app, and I find myself falling asleep when I need to nap to their classic radio channel (I never find out who the murderer was). The Whistler, Sherlock Holmes, Johnny Dollar, and Dragnet are up there with my favorites. I can’t get over the fine acting, the sound effects, and the wholesomeness, even in some of the gangster shows. The worst of them would not even think of maintaining a man-woman relationship without getting married.

Warren Hecht called me last week and asked me if he could come by my house and have a picture taken of the two of us. Although he did not tell me that it was for an article he was going to write about us, I suspected it was for that reason, and was glad to oblige.

About 15 years ago, the OU gave the hashgachah to the executive dining room of a very elegant bank in Manhattan. Everything about the room, the service, and the food was top notch, real class. But it was not a simple hashgachah, as the management was very demanding on many issues. This included their source of food and coping with very particular chefs.

I would like to begin this article with an apology. In last week’s article, “Where Is Our Al Sharpton?” I concluded with a short list of organizations that can be relied upon to speak up about issues facing Jews in the United States and Israel. I received several communications asking why I did not mention the Zionist Organization of America, led by Mort Klein.

The story was told by the great Magid of Yerushalayim, Rav Shalom Schwadron z”l, of his finding a child standing alone in an alleyway and crying to himself.