ED KOCH Calls on Board of Rabbis in NY & NJ to denounce Rabbi Issac Dwek

Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 11:27 AM
To: Tomato@eggsalad.com
Subject: ED KOCH Calls on Board of Rabbis in NY & NJ to denounce Rabbi Issac Dwek






The news story that incensed me the most in many years involved the alleged corruption of 44 people in New Jersey, about 15 of whom are identifiable as Jewish. A majority of those arrested were not Jewish. They are accused of various crimes, including money laundering, the selling of body parts, i.e., a kidney for $160,000 while paying the donor $10,000, and other crimes. Three mayors of New Jersey towns were arrested and two have since resigned, but still proclaim their innocence.

Those who will immediately point to our well known maxim of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, should know that in no way relates to the court of public opinion. We are entitled to have our own opinions on innocence or guilt before the trial based on what we conclude from the media reports on the government charges. The maxim of presumption of innocence relates to the burden of the government to prove its allegations in court beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden of proof is not on the defendant to prove his innocence.

We all know that mistakes are made and that innocent people are on occasion found guilty and criminals occasionally go free. The best example of the public disagreeing with a criminal case outcome would be the O.J. Simpson verdict of not guilty in the case involving the murders of his wife and a young man. So let me say up front that I believe the government will succeed in proving its case against most, if not all, of the defendants.

The Jewish defendants are members of the Syrian-Jewish community living along the Jersey seashore. They were turned in by one of their own members, Solomon Dwek, who cooperated with the police after having been convicted in a different matter.

That is the background for the incident which followed. Dwek's father, Rabbi Issac Dwek, a prominent member of the Syrian-Jewish community, is reported in the media as having stood up in his synagogue and declared his son to be dead for having denounced a fellow Jew to the police. I was outraged by his actions which were reported in the New York Post as follows:

"Issac Dwek plans to sit shiva for his son because he is so disgusted with his turning on other Jews. The father citing 'the Talmudic Law of Moser that prohibits a Jew from informing on another Jew to a non-Jew' renounced his son from the pulpit at his synagogue in Deal, NJ, on Saturday."

I am familiar with the religious reasoning. Indeed, I believe the killer of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made the same outrageous defense of his dastardly deed, claiming Rabin was betraying the Jewish nation to the Arabs.

In countries where the government engages in anti-Semitism, the best illustration would be Czarist Russia, I have no doubt that Jews reluctantly ever helped the Czarist government to punish a fellow Jew and send him to Siberia. I have no doubt that African-Americans in this country during the days of Jim Crow rarely would help the white society injuring them every day to help convict a fellow black. I doubt that many Chechens are cooperating with Russia or its Quisling government against fellow Chechens.

I understand such actions and sympathize with the victims of prejudice and hostility directed at them by the government. But that cannot be a defense in a country like ours where the rights of all of our citizens without regard to race, ethnicity or religion are guaranteed. I call upon the prestigious Board of Rabbis in New York and the Board of Rabbis in New Jersey to denounce Rabbi Issac Dwek for his statement. Those boards, made up of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis, have an obligation to make clear that it would be unacceptable for a Christian not to cooperate with the police in bringing a Christian who committed a criminal act to justice and that the same rule of law applies to Jews.

We are an ethnic society and, while we are not our brother's keepers, we do rejoice in their successes and are embarrassed by their crimes. That applies whether we are black, Irish, Jewish, Italian, etc. The law of the land is the law.