July 17, 2009
The Real Revelations Of the AIPAC Case
How truly sad the circumstances to which Larry Franklin has now been reduced (“Once Labeled An AIPAC Spy, Larry Franklin Tells His Story,” July 10).
He, and especially AIPAC staffers Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, have been victims of completely unwarranted, and unprecedented, prosecution. Antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiments clearly were behind it.
In the aftermath of the indictments, the supposedly all-powerful AIPAC quickly and cravenly capitulated; the organized Jewish community largely stood aloof, as well. While these men’s ordeal is now thankfully over, this deeply disturbing incident surely has told us a lot, not only about continuing unfriendly forces in high places, but about us.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, N.Y.
What Would Mordecai Kaplan Do?
As a member of a Reconstructionist synagogue (Bet Am Shalom in White Plains, N.Y.), I was embarrassed to read the defense of obscene salaries for Jewish communal executives in the July 3 letter to the editor by Rabbi Richard Hirsh of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.
He should be reminded that when Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, started the movement’s first congregation, he refused to take a salary. Hirsh’s discussion of privacy has nothing to do with the issue, nor does his assertion that the CEOs listed in your original news article could earn more in the private sector.
When I served as dean of Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work, we often told our students who were preparing for Jewish communal work that if they wanted to earn a lot of money, they belonged in the corporate sector rather than in service to the Jewish people.
Executives of Jewish nonprofit organizations should not be expected to take vows of poverty. I do not advocate that professionals in the Jewish community follow Rabbi Kaplan’s example. However, I propose that no salary should exceed that of the president of the United States — $400,000 a year. But — unlike the president, who receives housing, an expense allowance and other perquisites — the maximum income for nonprofit executives should be limited to a total of $400,000. Moreover, the number of executives who are paid this much should be very small.
Jewish communal organizations were created to meet the needs of the community. Their existence depends on voluntary contributions, and they are responsible for careful and transparent stewardship of those dollars. A ceiling on executive compensation is a proper and appropriate use of our community’s tzedakah.
Morton I. Teicher
Miami, Fla.
Netanyahu Should Look to Sadat
Leonard Fein’s June 26 column “The Netanyahu Speech: A Primer” is absolutely right. If Netanyahu’s speech had been one sentence long, saying, “We welcome the Saudi proposal, and are ready to begin negotiations around it tomorrow morning,” he would have been the Sadat of Israel, and the Arab states would have reacted positively.
It should be remembered that Sadat spoke before the Egyptian parliament and declared his readiness to visit Jerusalem for the sake of peace. He was welcomed by Begin, and peace followed between Egypt and Israel. We need bold and sincere peace proposals by both sides to bring this conflict to an end and have true, lasting peace.
Odeh Aburdene
Washington D.C.
The writer served on the board of Seeds of Peace from 2003 to 2008.
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