YOUNG
ISRAEL
Dr. Laura Has Her
Share of Admirers
By NINA BOXER
REAFFIRMING
her heritage as a truth revealed at Sinai, Dr. Laura Schlessinger
urged members of Young Israel to “deliver this message to our own
people who have sadly forgotten their heritage. We must deliver this
message to the world at large.”
She’s been doing that on
her controversial syndicated radio program. For taking a firm stand
against homosexual practices, for instance, Dr. Laura has been
vilified by many listeners and canceled by some radio outlets.
She was warned not to talk
Judaism, as there is much anti-Semitism. Yet she said the first
support she got was from Christian groups.
It’s not fun getting hate
mail, she said. At times it’s painful, “but definitely worth
it.”
For every letter
criticizing her for her “preaching and nagging” about a return
to a moral code of conduct, she received “hundreds more thanking
me for leading them to healthier, more meaningful lives.”
Schlessinger was inspired
to explore Judaism after a discussion with her son Derek
about the Holocaust. She was converted first at the University of
Judaism in Los Angeles and then by Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka of
Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa.
“As a convert, I don’t
miss cheeseburgers,” she said as she accepted a national heritage
award at the National Council of Young Israel 89th
anniversary dinner at the Sheraton New York.
Undaunted by personal
attacks in the media, Schlessinger called upon the dinner guests to
stand with her and “take your heritage public.”
“We are not involved in a
debate in which there exists the possibility of either side being
right, or whoever articulates their viewpoints with more clarity and
persuasion wins.”
She said her heritage
represents truth, and “the Torah instructs us as God’s chosen
people to deliver the truth.”
A surprise guest at the
National Council for Young Israel dinner was Jonathan Pollard’s
wife, Esther.
She said her husband was
deeply disappointed he was not among the 176 clemencies and pardons
granted by President Bill Clinton.
“The Jewish leadership
and the government of Israel lobbied more convincingly to obtain a
pardon for Marc Rich – a man who was not in prison or in
mortal danger – than they did for Jonathan Pollard.”
This was all the more
painful when one realizes that Pollard “did not spy against the
United States. Jonathan is a Jew who spied for Israel, America’s
closest ally. He warned Israel that Saddam Hussein was
planning to scorch the Jewish state.
“This
vital information was being withheld by her American ally. Because
of Jonathan, Israel was ready with gas masks and sealed rooms during
the Gulf War.”
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