​​Still Falling for It
​by Rabbi Daniel Greer - Right of Response - Hamodia [NY] - January 13, 2015
http://hamodia.com/letters/still-falling/

I beg to differ with Yochonon Donn’s op-ed piece,“Yes, I Was at the White
House” (Dec 24).

Davening Minchah [the afternoon prayers] in the Red Room at the White House
following the Chanukah party is nice, but substantively unimpressive. This
is pure form, or “optics” as Obama likes to put it. The president’s
articulating the words “pidyon shevuyim” [the redemption of a captive] is
mere pandering and clever political grandstanding. And yet we fall for it.

Had we his ear, and if Obama really cared about our concern for pidyon
shevuyim, this would have been the perfect forum for him to, at long last,
announce his pardoning of Jonathan Pollard after some 30 years of U.S.
incarceration. After all, here we have a chief executive who unhesitatingly
“uses his pen” to issue executive orders when he so desires, even when his
directives actually, or arguably, contravene the U.S. Constitution. How
difficult would it have been for Obama to sign Pollard’s release, or even
that of Mordechai Rubashkin, at that White House Chanukah reception! But why
bother, since we Jews fall so easily for trappings of importance and
willingly delude ourselves about the president’s friendship just by having
“free reign in the East Wing.”

Indeed, it would have behooved one or more of the attendees at that party to
politely point out to the president after his trenchant remarks about pidyon
shevuyim that American Jews are most troubled by our own two shevuyim
[captives] who sit in American jails. While we are pleased by Alan Gross’s
release from Cuba, we care deeply and ask the president to free Pollard
and/or Rubashkin. That would have been a meaningful way to test whether we
have “Obama’s ear.” Unfortunately, the well-known passuk [verse] from the
Navi Yeshayahu [the Prophet Isaiah] comes to mind: “meishiv chachamim
achor…" [which suggests that the "wisdom" of the leaders has been "turned
backwards" and is patently foolish.]

And, we will leave aside the quite overt ongoing hostility this president
has shown to Israel in its struggles for survival, and to its prime minister
during the past six years — hardly the treatment one would expect from a
friendly head of state. So much for Obama’s attentiveness and “ear” to
Jewish concerns!

No, folks — to employ one of Obama’s favorite expressions — there is no
indication that this president would have lifted a finger to do more than
did FDR in helping Jews during the Holocaust. The only difference is that
Obama is willing to engage in “smoke and mirrors” and Madison Avenue
tactics — all post-FDR political developments.

It is about time that we Orthodox Jews learn to accurately and maturely
assess political realities and forego being naively farglutzt, bedazzled, by
“show and tell.” Regrettably, Mr. Donn’s reaction to the White House
reception demonstrates that we have yet very far to go as a community.

The writer, Rabbi Daniel Greer, is Menahel [Principal] of Yeshiva of New
Haven.

Please note: Clarifying notes and translations in the text above which
appear in [square brackets] were inserted by J4JP

See Also:

​Op-Ed: Obama's Tin Ear - by Kenneth Lassonhttp://www.jpost.com/landedpages/printarticle.aspx?id=384995

Editorial: Prisoner of Zion in the US
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Prisoner-of-Zion-in-the-US-383577

"Yes I was at the White House" by Yochonon Donn (copy follows below)
http://hamodia.com/2014/12/23/yes-white-house/​=====

​Yes, I Was at the White House
By Yochonon Donn - Hamodia [NY] - December 23, 2014

http://hamodia.com/2014/12/23/yes-white-house/

“You’re going to see the president?”

The words, spoken in a slow trill as if I had just discovered the cure, were
uttered by a colleague of mine, no fan of Barack Obama but someone who grew
up in the shadow of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

I wasn’t so keen about taking a day off — on Chanukah, at that — for a visit
to Washington. But the way my friend reacted to news of my invitation
convinced me otherwise.

Yes, I went to see the president, a man whose belief system and politics are
contrary to everything I consider prudent. But he is the president, holder
of the office which symbolizes America as much as the flag and the anthem
do. And he lives in the White House, the most singular symbol of power the
world will have.

The trip, my first ever to the White House, was an experience for the ages.
Just walking in the footsteps of the founding fathers, standing in the famed
Blue Room where John Adams received foreign diplomats, squatting at the
fireplace where Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his legendary fireside chats,
seeing the china used by Jefferson as he hosted who-knows-whom, was for the
history buff in me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Riding the train to DC, I sat next to a husky fellow, whose demeanor,
clothes and confidence bespoke wealth and influence. Indeed, his business
card identified him as an investment researcher.

In between his tales of trips to the Far East, his brother’s close
relationship with Henry Kissinger and his Jewish friend was a telling story
of an African-American friend of his whom he once brought to the White
House. The gentleman was overawed.

“My great-grandparents were slaves,” he said. “And to think that I’m now
standing in the White House!”

It was that sentiment shared over and over again at Obama’s annual Chanukah
party.

I stood near the president as he attempted to announce that he had just done
the “mitzvah” of “pidyom shevuyim” with the release of Alan Gross from Cuban
incarceration. But the heroes of Holocaust Hatzalah would have given years
of their lives to get a former president’s ear and whisper into it the value
of pidyon shevuyim in any language.

The reception was the stately one you would expect from the people’s
mansion. Waiters milled around with glasses of beverages, offering to refill
any glass that clinked close to empty. Scrumptious buffets of glatt kosher
food abounded as the White House threw open its doors to its Jewish
citizens. It was easy to forget that this was the iconic State Dining Room
where this was taking place. Or that the foyer to enter it was the fabled
East Room. Or that guests wanting to talk could retire to the celebrated
Green Room, where a huge painting of John Adams stared down at the
intruders.

“Minchah [afternoon prayers ]in the Red Room at 4:40,” someone tells me.

Minchah in the Red Room, where at least one president was sworn into office?
What’s next, a Daf Yomi shiur [a Talmud lesson] in the Oval Office?

The hundreds of years of history and layers of tradition I witnessed during
my visit were truly mind-blowing. It once again emphasizes the medinah shel
chessed [Country of Loving Kindness] that America has become since 1945.

The White House welcome for George Washington’s “Sons of Abraham” serves as
a moment to ponder how far we have come since those bleak days when Europe’s
Kingdom of Darkness threw its shadow across the Atlantic.

We will never know the answer to “what if?”

However, as Mrs. Ruth Lichtenstein, Hamodia’s publisher noted, some 400
Rabbis stood on those steps 70 years ago seeking to tell the president of
the horrific murders going on in Europe — and were denied entry.

Mrs. Lichtenstein, who attended the White House reception, has spent many
years bearing witness to the history of the Holocaust, including the U.S.’s
failure to save Europe’s Jews, as head of Project Witness. To be given three
hours of free rein in the East Wing, she says, is symbolic of how far we
have come as a community.