I read with sadness of the passing of Marion Pritchard, one of the last of the Holocaust “Rescuers.” When I was teaching eighth-graders at The Waits River Valley School, she came to the school and told us her story. Together with Dr. Susie Learmonth, who left Europe when she was 11-years-old and never saw many of her classmates again, Marion provided a first-person history lesson that I have never forgotten. Today, when so much is bluster, with no real action, Marion was a shining light of action for the right cause. All who were privileged to see and hear her will never forget this unique woman.
Mary BurnhamNewbury, Vt.
Your word limit of 350 words is more than enough words to express outrage, but nowhere near enough words to delve into important issues such as the existence of the Jewish homeland, Israel. It is easy to suggest atrocities and make baseless accusations (“Injustice in the West Bank,” Forum, Dec. 5). It is easy to toss around words like “genocide” and “apartheid” while sobbing for “martyrs” who receive stipends from the Palestinian Authority for committing acts of terror against the indigenous people of the land of Israel and who train their children, in preschool and at summer camp, to slay Jews.
To the reader who is not yet decided on the issue, I challenge you to do your own research. Dwell not on feelings, but on the facts on the ground. The facts do not lie, but they do point to an inescapable conclusion: West Bank Palestinians have freedom of speech, the right to free enterprise, the right to worship freely and to elect their leaders (although the Palestinian Authority has refused to hold elections for more than a decade).
Question why the word “genocide” is used when the Palestinian Arab population has doubled in 20 years. Wonder how some can argue that a democratic state can practice apartheid (a political system that legally separates people of different races, according to the Cambridge Dictionary) when: (1) many Jews are descendants of refugees from Iran, Morocco and Iraq who fled violent religious persecution in their homelands and (2) Muslims sit on the Supreme Court, in parliament (Knesset), and on the board of directors of every state-run company in Israel.
Try to figure out how linking public funding of a university to an academic boycott of students, faculty, and academic work from the only Jewish state in the world would not be discriminatory and anti-Semitic (“False Claims of Anti-Semitism,” Dec. 18). Do your own research.
Hilary RyderWest Lebanon