After reading the Sept. 26 letter to the editor authored by Henry Blum in regard to Rabbi Avraham Bernstein and what he “is attempting to do” (“Resident Supports Attempt to Gather Evidence”), I became overwhelmingly compelled to respond.
Mr. Blum, in essence, is “appalled” by the actions of the rabbi, namely that he is “building on his property” and that he “believes he is above the law.” He even goes so far as to suggest that the rabbi is “using the religion card to get his own way over this quite friendly neighborhood.” While this kind of “talk” may be a lot of things, I can say with relative certainty that it is sad and disturbing that anyone, Jewish or not, could proffer such an ignorant, narrow minded and outright biased set of opinions concerning something he obviously knows little, or perhaps nothing at all, about. So much for a “quite friendly neighborhood.”
I am also a member of the community. I am not Jewish. I have no problem whatsoever with whatever it is the rabbi is doing – it appears that he is well within his rights to do that which he is.
I am wondering how Mr. Blum would feel if someone put a camera on his house and watched his every move? I wonder how he would feel if the neighborhood zeroed in on him for remodeling his home, for questioning whether he obtained permits, for scrutinizing his guest “traffic”?
Perhaps Mr. Blum is unaware of our Constitutional rights … and perhaps he doesn’t realize that by pushing the envelope here, he may well be helping to put himself and the rest of his community in a seriously precarious position. Or perhaps Mr. Blum is merely an associate of the troublemakers who have initiated this attack on the Bernstein family and is trying to foster their cause in an attempt to be a good, “friendly” neighbor.
Whatever the case, it is blatantly obvious that Mr. Blum needs to get his facts straight … and perhaps a change of attitude, too.
The bottom line here is that there is an elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge; there is in fact a reason that people are on the attack over Rabbi Bernstein’s actions: he is a Jew. But not just a Jew, an Orthodox Jew.
If this man was almost anything else, including a secular Jew, it is extremely likely not a word would have been muttered, not a neighbor’s feathers ruffled. But because he is a “religious” Jew, some members of the community have found it their business to get in this man’s face – to attempt to pull the rug out from under his peaceful world.
If this is not flat out anti-Semitism, I don’t know what is! It is truly a disgrace. Mr. Blum and others of his ilk need to learn to mind their business. And, of course, if they find the rabbi’s existence in the neighborhood to be such an insurmountable obstacle to their “peace and quiet,” they can always live elsewhere.
Bertha Baldwin Freehold Township

