New York Congressman Gary Ackerman is upset with Jimmy Carter for meeting with Hamas, calling him moronic. He says that if Carter came to his seder, he’d call him "the simple son."
Ackerman’s mixing up Passover and policy too much. He just sent out a Passover letter to Jewish constituents that removes all separation of church and state. Printed on stationery of the Congress of the United States, Committee on Financial Services, Committee on Foreign Affairs, the letter says:
"To the four questions you ask this year, I’d like to ask two more.
"First,
who but the Jews would celebrate their birth as a people and the end of
their enslavement with the words, This is the bread of affliction.
Answer; None…
"There are countless reasons for us to eat matza at Pesach, and one need not choose among them."
Seven more paragraphs about Passover. And a reference to the "Holocaust survivors who are now dying off" and to the "awful hunger of the Darfuri refugee." It closes, "I wish you, your family, and the entire community a Pesach sameach!" (Happy Passover!)
I.e., this letter was all religion, no public policy. I wonder how many Ackerman sent out on the congressional frank, at 41 cents a pop. We never cut the Christian right a break on this kind of abuse, let’s apply the same standard to the Jewish right…
