Letter: Writer has anti-Semitism down pat

Writer has anti-Semitism down pat

This is an attempt to respond to Sean Elias’ letter of Sept. 20 (“Breeding anti-Semitism,” The Aspen Times),which referred to a column by Rabbi David Segal (“On anti-Semitism, from Aspen,” Commentary, Sept. 6). I say “attempt” because it is honestly difficult to know where to begin. Mr. Elias obviously has taken an anti-Semitism 101 course and passed with flying colors.

He begins with an inoffensive sentence agreeing with Rabbi Segal’s call to work against bigotry, etc., but from then on, it is pure anti-Semitism. He begins his diatribe by questioning the rabbi’s views about critics of Israel. The problem, of course, is that the rabbi didn’t even mention that, but it gives Mr. Elias an opportunity to describe Israel in his own terms, all negative, of course.

He goes on to defend a group of campers using hate terms because the Jews were “reserving nature,” and “how does one reserve nature.” I’ll tell you how, Mr. Elias: You pick up the phone or go online to contact the state or national park involved and make a reservation. That “sense of entitlement” that Mr. Elias talks about can be had by almost anyone who follows the rules.

He ends by discussing Jews being the “chosen people” as alluded to in the Bible. He, of course, to make his point, considers it a form of endowing Jews with a feeling of supremacy and enhanced self-worth. By contrast, most Jewish teachers and theologians recognize it as God’s choosing the Jews as the people to make God known to the world.

Throughout Mr. Elias’ letter he enumerates all kind of ways to breed anti-Semitism; I don’t know which ones worked with him (I suspect that he had a head start) but whatever it was, it worked pretty well.

Buster Feldman

Aspen