Mr. Hautmann’s claim that “everything the Nazis did to them (the Jews) is being hypocritically done to the Palestinians” is simply false, regardless of one’s views of the current Middle East conflict. By no stretch of the imagination can the Israelis be accused of annihilating the Palestinian people. “Final solution” denotes the murder of an entire target population, not the “eradication” of people from their land, regardless of how “their land” is defined and how true, or false, this allegation may be.

Likewise there is no validity to Mr. Hautmann’s claim that “Orthodox Jews are taught from the Talmud and Halakhah that non-Jews are unworthy to live and are no better than animals (Goyim).” The Talmud and Halakhah are not sources of evil teaching. They are, rather, two among many of humankind’s sources of religious inspiration and guidance. Jews have always accepted other religions and have lived amicably with non-Jews for millennia. “Goyim” is a nonpejorative word denoting individuals who are not Jewish. In no way does it refer to animals.

Mr. Hautmann is either utterly confused about Judaism, the Holocaust, and the Middle East or he is a Holocaust apologist, who enjoys writing abusive anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli diatribes.

The Journal-World owes its readers an explanation of what it means by its “(no) name calling and libelous language” policy.

Jane and Lou Frydman,

Lawrence