Organization expresses support for Israel-UAE peace agreement

On behalf of St. Louis Friends of Israel (SLFI), a non-profit, bi-partisan, St. Louis-based organization, we would like to express our support for the historic peace agreement signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and applaud the United States administration for its role in brokering the deal.

The agreement will allow the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE for the first time since Israel’s establishment and paves the way for economic cooperation and similar breakthroughs with other Arab countries. As part of the deal, Israel will suspend its plan for extending sovereignty over areas of the West Bank, a.k.a. Judea and Samaria.

St. Louis Friends of Israel calls on the entire St. Louis community to recognize and support this momentous achievement as a positive step toward peace in the entire region.

Galit Lev-Harir and Traci Goldstein

Co-Presidents, St. Louis Friends of Israel

Teachers we will not forget

Regarding Robert A. Cohn’s Aug. 12 commentary “We will not forget to remember them,” I, too, wanted to mention three teachers of mine who passed away in the past month. Rachel Haspiel was my first violin teacher at Green Trails Elementary. She taught me from third to sixth grade, instilling in me a love of the instrument, which I then carried through to college. I was happy to still be able to pick up my violin and play with my daughters over the past few years.

Jeff Spector was a teacher at Parkway Central High School and was the swim and water polo coach there. I was a student of his for the lifeguarding class he taught and later went on to work for him one summer at the Parkway Central pool, teaching swim lessons to campers. Lifeguarding was something I went on to do in college as a second job.

And finally, Rabbi Joseph Rosenbloom taught a Jewish history class I took my freshman year at Washington University. He had an incredible way of making learning about the topic interesting. Years later, I was working in our Jewish community here and I met with Rabbi Joe at Temple Emanuel. I re-introduced myself and said I was in his Jewish history class in 1992. He then got out an old-fashioned grade book from that year, looked me up, and told me what my grade was (luckily, I did OK).

These teachers all taught me life skills, and I am so grateful for each of them. To their families, thank you for sharing them with me and the countless other students they touched — may their memory be a blessing.  

Michelle Landau Brooks

Ellisville

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