Dear Editor
Dear Editor Social Security Andrew Mollison's article, "Big Government's Oldest Success" (NL, September 23), is a fine analysis of the positive impact Social Security has had on the elderly in...
...The resulting treaty will be used to downgrade Israel's legitimate claims and to undermine Israel's tenure...
...Since the Social Security concept is so widely accepted, such an approach might have greater success than anything that has been tried until now...
...The National Council of Senior Citizens vigorously agrees that Social Security is one of America's greatest success stories, and has vastly improved the standard of living of our nation's elders...
...She asked delegates why the UN has not stopped terrorism...
...Thus any anti-Zionist biases on my part—if they existed—would be irrelevant to my assessment...
...Mollison seems to have misinterpreted certain aspects of our response to the report made last February by President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers...
...West Chester, Pa...
...Let's not delude ourselves...
...As for the contention that we have manipulated figures to forcefully make the point that poverty is still among us, we refer you to Social Security Administration data which reflect the fact that only 18 per cent of elderly couples or individuals (households) have incomes above $20,000 a year, while more than half are under $10,000 a year...
...I have spent nearly half of the last six years living in and writing about Jerusalem and Israel...
...Is de Susan suggesting that it would suffice for our children to study the Arabic and Aramaic texts...
...Howard J. Gillespie Andrew Mollison raised some important points which attest to the success of the Social Security system...
...New York City Richard H. Shulman Heilman I was surprised by your choice of Samuel Heilman to review Charles Silberman's^4 Certain People...
...Or does he find that, say, English, French or Russian analogues of Maimonides and the Talmud do the job for those who speak only these languages...
...Theresa McKenna Director, Information Services National Council of Senior Citizens Andrew Mollison replies: I do not want to rob the old any more than Theresa McKenna does...
...As a subscriber to The New Leader for 45 years, let me add a historical footnote: Although popularly identified with the Democrats, before Social Security was adopted in 1935 it was a proposal of the Socialist Party...
...Over the years she has provided many telling insights about the World Organization, but her latest piece seems out of touch with reality...
...An example within his review is his contention that not knowing Hebrew removes American Jews "from the roots of their being, for language in general and Hebrew in particular is the source of Jewish culture...
...How can Jewish scholars who study these works in translation be regarded as separate from their roots...
...Nor, more important, do the American voters...
...Finally, what was it specifically that de Susan objected to in my review of Silberman's A Certain Peo-plet He never got around to mentioning it...
...His calling Arab-Israeli negotiations a "peace process," however, encourages false hope...
...Fortunate are we that such an immoral UN is not stronger...
...And Maimonides as well as the Talmud both have significant portions of their corpus written in Hebrew...
...First of all, although it refers to the relationship between American Jewry and Israel, A Certain People is definitely not about Zionism...
...In the face of corporate tax giveaways, billions spent on weapons systems that don't work, and a tax system tilted toward upper income levels, it is missing the point not to focus our attention on overall government policies that increasingly ignore the whole issue of poverty for all age segments...
...Without Judea-Samaria, Israel's West Bank border becomes indefensible...
...Hamden.Conn...
...The first was "Obstacles to a Mideast Peace" by Eliahu Salpeter, whose NL contributions usually display an uncommon command of the facts...
...UN agencies disseminate PLO propaganda by sponsoring terrorists as guest speakers...
...My point, therefore, was that some of the effort spent on fruitless appeals urging compassion for the nation's 33.7 million poor people (including the 3.3 million 65 or older and the 11.5 million under 15) be diverted to the task of advocating a Social Securitylike program for poor Americans who are too young to support themselves...
...I would like to set the record straight...
...That might be the opinion of religious ideologists but it certainly does not accord with the historical record...
...But everi supposing that my position on Zionism were, relevant to my review, it is apparent that de Susan is unfamiliar with my work or my views concerning Israel...
...In a recent national survey by Lieberman Research Inc., only 9 per cent backed "limit Social Security" as a way to reduce the Federal deficit...
...My original point was that if our children do not learn to read and understand our sacred texts in the language in which they were written, they will be torn from the fabric of their heritage...
...What is most important now is that, instead of debating which group is most impoverished, we take action to reduce poverty in America for all groups...
...Let's face it: this Administration has been doing anything and everything it can to undermine programs designed to help the elderly...
...The bottom line is that poverty still exists for millions of older people, and that increasingly it exists for other age segments of the population as well...
...Diego de Susan Samuel Heilman replies: I must admit to being mystified by Diego de Susan's comments...
...When the much sought international conference on the Middle East convenes, everyone will pressure Israel to make all the risky concessions...
...Jordan, Egypt and Morocco seek through negotiations to advance their goal of detaching Judea-Samaria from Israel—it is part of their long campaign of conquest, not reconciliation...
...The blunt truth is, the UN has become a major organ of terrorism...
...A large number of the basic books of Judaism, including the Talmud, are written in Aramaic...
...Peace and Terrorism Two articles in the October 7 issue, in my view, missed their mark...
...Moreover, had de Susan troubled to read my last book, The Gate Behind the Wall, or a recent article in A mit, the magazine of the American Mizrachi Women's Organization, he would have discovered that on the contrary, I am one of those Jews who believes that Zionism and Israel offer what may be the last best hope for the continued survival of the Jews as a people...
...Indeed, almost 5 million older Americans survive on less than $5,000 a year, which hardly represents the banishment of poverty...
...To be sure, Maimonides wrote in Arabic and the Talmud is written in Aramaic, but both these texts assumed and could count on their readers' comprehension of the Bible in its original...
...He expresses surprise at my being asked to review Silberman's book because of my purported lack of sympathy for Zionism...
...The New Leader has always been sympathetic to Zionism...
...The Soviets, Arabs and their lackeys turn half the political and supposedly nonpolitical sessions into pro-terrorist forums...
...But we must be cautious of those who imply that poverty among the elderly has been solved...
...I said, and continue to maintain, that without a knowledge of Hebrew, the Jews cannot hope to remain tied to their heritage...
...Maimoni-des, whose 800th anniversary we celebrate this year, wrote many of his most important religious works in Arabic...
...The second article that I found not up to its author's standards was "The UN Yawns at 40" by Gertrude Samuels...
...I don't...
...We fear an Administration that reasons that if poverty is the lowest it has ever been among the elderly, then it is all right to let it rise again in order to balance the budget...
...The proposed negotiations are a "war process...
...That was underscored when Democratic leaders revealed that their own polls showed their party is damaged, rather than helped, by the widespread perception that its call for "fairness" is a codeword for aiding the disadvantaged...
...Washington, D.C...
...The June-July issue of Jewish Frontier offers the best analysis of Heilman's biases...
...In spite of expressed commitments to the contrary, the President has repeatedly tried to cut Social Security...
...Mohammed himself set the precedent for breaking treaties with infidels where this was advantageous to renewing war...
...Unfortunately, however, most Americans do not want to tax themselves to expand assistance to the poor of any age...
...UN troops have assisted PLO terrorist actions...
...Arab terrorists dispense UNRWA funds for their activities and to supporters...
...Surely he is not so nai've as to suppose that those who study the Arabic and Aramaic texts do not also require a knowledge of Hebrew...
...If there was any doubt that the Council's report was timed for release just prior to proposals to eliminate the Social Security cola, it has long since been erased...
...Note Egypt's treaty violations, too, upon acquiring the Sinai...
...Overly diplomatic, she let them blame UN disunity...
...She also offers the obsolete excuse of impotence...
...De Susan's misunderstanding of my point about the importance of language for Jewish culture also deserves to be cleared up...
...In fact, a report released November 27 by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the poverty rate has reached "a plateau that is higher than poverty levels have been in this country in 20 years...
...In addition, Medicare has suffered cuts of over $20 billion and there have been deep cuts in many other programs benefiting the elderly...
...Dear Editor Social Security Andrew Mollison's article, "Big Government's Oldest Success" (NL, September 23), is a fine analysis of the positive impact Social Security has had on the elderly in this country...
...Yet Heilman in his writings about Jews has consistently undercut the basic premises of Zionism and interpreted Judaism in the most narrow Orthodox religious manner...
Vol. 68 • November 1985 • No. 15
