SOUNDS OF SILENCE

A rabbi once explained that the famous sin of the Golden Calf had only about 3,000 participants, but God nonetheless punished all the people of Israel. The reason? The large majority of them stayed silent and refused to condemn the act. They were judged to be guilty because of their silence.

In “What’s that, Dr. Zuroff?” ( Grumpy Old Man, August 25), Lawrence Rifkin condemns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not speaking up immediately to correct US President Donald Trump’s outrageous statement supporting white supremacist racists. Just as Prime Minister Netanyahu spent time and effort lecturing former president Barack Obama, he should have given President Trump a history lesson in a civil, respectful manner by pointing out the terrible damage his lack of sensitivity and knowledge was causing.

I believe President Trump would accept criticism if it is done in a respectful manner. Netanyahu displayed weakness, and he will pay for this weakness down the road if and when we start the peace process with the Palestinians.

When you act like a wimp, you will be treated like a wimp. P. YONAH Shoham

Lawrence Rifkin is very grumpy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because he did not lash out at US President Donald Trump about what happened in Virginia.

President Trump issued a very strong statement, although maybe it did not go far enough in condemning antisemitism. But I don’t recall seeing the average member of Parliament or the mayor of London condemning antisemitism in England. Mr. Rifkin did not call Prime Minister Netanyahu to account for not criticizing antisemitism in British high circles.

There is much hatred for President Trump throughout the United States and we don’t need to air our voices about it for no good reason. Prime Minister Netanyahu has enough to do in his own country. TOBY WILLIG Jerusalem

Benjamin Netanyahu has long been numbing us with ugly statements about Arabs, left- wingers and others he sees as the detritus of Israeli society. Maybe this is why Nazi- hunter Efraim Zuroff was asleep at the wheel when his prime minister failed to call out US President Donald Trump for having said there were some “very fine” people marching with the neo- Nazis in Charlottesville.

Bibi never thought twice about calling out Barack Obama for some of the dumb things he did ( and Obama definitely did some dumb things). But there are clear hints that Trump’s words were not based on ignorance. In fact, it seems far more likely that they were a well calculated shout- out to his most central political base, where it’s no stretch to imagine that the majority harbor feelings of ill will toward numerous minorities – including Jews.

When you have so many bigots and you actually cultivate their bigotry – which is exactly what Trump is doing – there is no excuse for any of us to remain silent, especially when our own leader remains silent. Of all people, Dr. Zuroff should know that all it takes is silence for nighttime marches by torchlight to turn into things far more sinister. ARI BEN-SENDER

Jerusalem

Of all people, Dr. Zuroff should know that all it takes is silence for nighttime marches by torchlight to turn into things far more sinister