St. Louis story well told at AIPAC

I attended the 2018 AIPAC Policy Conference and was excited to see United Hebrew Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg address the General Assembly. Rabbi Rosenberg recounted the amazing story of the late United Hebrew Rabbi Samuel Thurman, who had a long-standing friendship with President Harry Truman. With the use of great pictures and letters between the two men, Rabbi Rosenberg explained how instrumental Rabbi Thurman was in persuading Truman to recognize the State of Israel in 1948. Rabbi Rosenberg did an incredible job telling this amazing story in front of 18,000-plus people.

Adam Loewy, Austin, Texas

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Tarnished legacy

Although the late Rev. Billy Graham was deeply loved and famous worldwide as a renowned spiritual and religious leader, he was also a hypocrite. As a Jewish-American, I can’t forget the disparaging remarks he made about Jews to former president, Richard Nixon. In audio tapes from the White House that were released in 2002, Graham could be heard referring to Jews as pornographers and agreeing with Nixon that the media was dominated by liberal Jews that could send the United States “down the drain.”    Also, in the tapes, Graham revealed that he had a lot of Jewish friends, who were friendly to him because they knew he was friendly to Israel. However, he went on to say that they didn’t know how he really felt about what they were doing to this country. 

In a book published in 1994 by H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s former chief-of-staff, years prior to the tapes being released, Haldeman had mentioned Graham’s remarks, which Graham first denied, but subsequently fessed up to when the tapes were made public.

Although Graham apologized profusely and begged forgiveness, I submit that he only did so only in order to save face because he had been “outed,” — hence, he lied about his true feelings.

Notwithstanding that his recent death has been mourned by millions and millions of his Christian followers, I suspect that the Jewish community has mixed feelings.

That said, for all the good Graham did for society and mankind, sadly, his legacy will be forever tainted. 

Gene Carton, Olivette