Double header

March 17, 2010

Re “Week analogy,” March 3

In Kaplan’s Korner, NJJN’s sports blog, Ron Kaplan reports that Sandy Koufax, who did not pitch game one of the 1965 World Series because it was held on Yom Kippur, actually pitched on Yom Kippur on two other occasions.

Not only did Koufax occasionally pitch on the High Holy Days, but he did not necessarily attend synagogue when he took the day off. Neither did the other great Jewish baseball icon Hank Greenberg. Both were basically secular Jews.

On another subject, analogies are imperfect, so I would not call Israel an apartheid state (Editorial, “Week Analogy,” March 4), but anyone who fails to recognize that Palestinian citizens of Israel face rampant discrimination; that Palestinians in the West Bank are deprived by Israel of their basic human, civil, and national rights; and that Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to an inhuman economic blockade is blinded by Jewish nationalism, which is no prettier than any other kind.

Bennett Muraskin
Parsippany