Letters To The Editor

Featured News

Written by 5TJT Readers

Thursday, 30 December 2010 12:40

Brachâ€™s To the Rescue!

Dear Mr. Brach, as the executive director of the Hasbara Fellowships program of Aish HaTorah, I want to send a tremendous thank you to Brachâ€™s Five Towns Supermarket for their tremendous chesed and ahavas Yisrael.

Hasbara Fellowships had 70 students and staff stuck at JFK airport due to the terrible weather conditions. Our students and staff were supposed to leave on a 6:00 p.m. flight to Israel on Sunday evening (Dec. 26) and as of Monday evening, they had still not left the airport!

After having heard about the situation, Brachâ€™s 5 Towns Supermarket sent food, drinks, snacks, etc. to the group as there was no kosher food available in the airport.

This is a tremendous chesed, especially in light that these students are going to Israel to learn more about their Jewish identity and connection. What a kiddush Hashem to start their trip with this amazing act of ahavas Yisrael!

Thank you to Brachâ€™s and everyone else who helped make this happen.

Sincerely,
Elliot Mathias

Dear Mr. Brach, Hasbara Fellowships greatly appreciated the food that you brought to us today. It was a great mitzvah that sets an amazing example for the rest of our community.

Thank You,
Netanella Refael
New York Campus Coordinator
Hasbara Fellowships

Hi and thank you to the wonderful New York community, thank you for taking the time and the effort to take care of our young adults at the airport. I am a parent in Chicago, definitely used to travel and used to snowâ€”but not as much snow as you have witnessed in the last day or so. My family is grateful to the bond our Jewish people have and grateful to all you have done for our college students.

The tears were rolling through my cell phone from my daughter. She has never experienced such a travel dilemma. The food and the treats definitely helped cure the tears.

Thank you for all that you have done. They have arrived safely in Tel Aviv this morning so all is well.

Best Regards
Helaine Katz-Ratskoff

Hi Jack, Just wanted you to know that my daughter called me, totally astonished and hysterical, when her lasagna was delivered to her last night! Thank you, thank you again.

Allison

Dear Mr. Brach, please accept my sincere todah rabbah for your generous offerings of food and refreshments for the students who were stuck at JFK. May Hashem return upon you the many kindnesses you have demonstrated to stranded strangers.

Stan Reichgott
Brookline, Massachusetts

Dear Mr. Brach,

Thank you so much for your extreme kindness today! You made us a lot happier in this uneasy time!

Thanks,
Erica Feldman

Dear Mr. Brach, thanks so much for your amazing generosity! Your community made a bad situation into an enjoyable time with food and conversation! Thanks so much :)

Sarah Neubauer

Jack Brach and everyone involved who sent food for our families, earlier our daughter told us that the Five Towns Jewish Community had sent food for delayed passengers at the El Al terminal. It brought tears to my eyes. She is one of the campus leaders traveling with the Hasbara Fellowship Program. Each of those students has parents somewhere across the U.S. or Canada worrying and waiting for their safe trip to Israel and back. As we sit here helpless in Arizona, it is so wonderful to know that others cared enough to provide food for our children. It certainly was the highlight of their day. You are very special in our eyes. Thank you for being there for us.

Sincerely,
Irene and Leonard Magerman

Dear Mr. Brach, my daughter Gaby was so excited to receive so much food from you and your friends yesterday. She had been in the airport for so long, and although we had packed her two bagels, that did not last very long. She really appreciated the food. Please accept our sincerest gratitude.

Best wishes,
Paula Gantz

Hi, I am one of the Hasbara fellows stuck in JFK and I just wanted to say thank you again so much for all of your help in feeding us! You made us all feel at home away from home; your kindness was really a blessing.

Thanks again,
Karen Reichgott

Dear Friends, I canâ€™t thank you enough for your generosity and fast action in delivering all these goods to the children at JFK. It warms our hearts to know that they are being taken care of and getting all the goods you have delivered.

Thanks so much
Liatâ€™s parents (Berkeley, CA)

Dear Editor, Please acknowledge Mr. Brach of Brachâ€™s 5 Towns for his wonderful kindness in supplying cartloads of food to the El Al passengers stranded at Kennedy Airport.

Elaine Herskowitz

Dear Mr. Brach [and others who helped feed our kids at JFK], Our son is one of the students stranded (en route to Israel) at JFK during this snowstorm. He woke up yesterday morning at 4:00 a.m. in order to try to get on a flight from Boston that would leave earlier than the one on which he was scheduled because of the impending storm. He has been traveling and stranded since then.

Before he left, I was able to talk him into taking some food with him . . . just in case. He had a couple of bags of trail mix, instant soup, and oatmeal. You can imagine how upset I was when I discovered later that he forgot the sandwiches, fruit, and cheese we prepared in the fridge. This morning he trolled the terminal only to find coffee, kosher pretzels, and hummus.

My husband and I are touched beyond words at your generosity. While extremely sleep-deprived, our son and his group have been well fed and are so appreciative of the outpouring of your community. Please let us know if there is a tzedakah to which we can contribute in your honor.

Really, words cannot thank you enough for taking care of these kids. You not only fed them, but you set an amazing example of what a community is for!

Kol hakavod and many thanks.

Susan Fuld

Dear Mr. Brach, On behalf of my daughter and all the stranded passengers at the El Al Terminal I would like to thank you for your most generous delivery of food during the recent storm. As residents of NJ we were in a state of emergency and unable to travel yet you were able to deliver kosher hot food to the many passengers who had nothing with them. Thank you for thinking of Klal Yisrael at this time.

Aviva and David Horowitz
Teaneck, New Jersey

Dear Editor, My daughter is part of the Hasbara fellowship group that was stranded at JFK airport due to yesterdayâ€™s storm. Many thanks to Mr. Brach of Brachâ€™s (Five Towns) for the chesed that was shown to our children, delivering delicious varied wonderful kosher food and treats. As the parent of a stranded child I appreciate it. And thanks for the timely response.

Ms. Lawless

A Dialogue Regarding Halachic Organ Donation

Dear Editor, the article about brain death and organ donation written by Dr. Leon Zacharowicz [â€œThe Truth About Organ Transplants,â€ December 17] gives the wrong impression about a number of facts. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu accepted brain death as death and supported organ donation, as does Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg. Period. Full stop. Their responsa and articles quoting them can be found on the website of the Halachic Organ Donor Society (www.hods.org). There, one can also find a video of Rabbi Tzvi Flaum publicly saying that it is problematic for Jews who reject brain death to accept organs from a person who is brain dead. The hypocrisy of doing so is clear. Why Rabbi Flaumâ€™s opinion was not even mentioned in the RCA paper that he himself is a signatory to is problematic and calls for an explanation. The yarchei kallah conference that Dr. Zacharowicz touts as a great learning opportunity might benefit from inviting speakers such as talmidei chachachamim Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, Rabbi Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, and Dr. Rabbi Avraham Steinbergâ€”all who disagree with Dr. Zacharowicz.

Robby Berman
Founder and Director

Halachic Organ Donor Society

Dear Mr. Berman, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, ztâ€™l, has explained that in 1986, when he approved brain death determination using electrophysiology and other methods (methods no longer employed by neurologists), he relied solely on the information provided to him by two physiciansâ€”information that has since been shown to be incorrect.

Rabbi Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, with whom I spoke this past summer, has not approved Bermanâ€™s mistaken representation of his nuanced view. I speak to him frequently, as he has in fact presented a shiur virtually every summer at our Jerusalem yarchei kallah. Dr. Avraham Steinberg, too, has spoken at our Jerusalem yarchei kallah. Rabbi Dovid Feinstein has been invited as well to give a shiur at our New York yarchei kallah.

As to Rabbi Moshe Sternbuchâ€™s position, in his Teshuvot vâ€™Hanhagot (Volume 5, Chapter 399, page 589), he states: â€œRecently, the government here in Eretz Yisrael has passed a law that a person is considered dead when the activity of the brain stem has ceased and it is permitted to remove organs from him. This contradicts the opinion of all the great halachic authorities who have agreed that since the heart is still alive at the time of [removal for] transplant, the person is therefore considered alive and he who removes organs from him is considered as killing his soul.â€

The halachic definition of death is a complex issue and not one with regard to which laymen should be â€œpicking favoriteâ€ approaches, advocating one position or another, or publicly questioning the integrity and wisdom of our rabbinic leaders. Every observant Jew should consult in such matters with his or her rabbinic authority.

Leon Zacharowicz, MD, MA