Rabbi Kahane’s Contributions

In response to “Kahane: The Nightmare That Liberal Ideologues Could Not Imagine” (Opinion, Nov. 11):

Ehud Sprinzak is right in asserting that modern liberals should continue to have nightmares, but for the wrong reasons. Meir Kahane was indeed a great rabbi, scholar, historian, orator and political writer. His claim to fame was that he attempted to use modern political campaign methods in conjunction with very normative, mainstream Jewish thought. He was driven by the double-barreled fuels of love of his God and his Jewish people.

Contrary to the professor’s claim, Kahane very much respected the Arabs. He would often say: “Arabs are good Arabs, they cannot be bought by giving them new housing, water toilets or college degrees. They have too much self-respect.” He was chastising other Jewish leaders who thought they could make the Arabs happy in Israel. He believed that peace between Israel and its neighbors is possible if the peoples were separated.

Kahane’s major contribution in the practical sense is being the pioneer in fighting successfully for the liberation of Soviet Jews, in spite of being maligned for it by leaders of liberal institutions.

His major contribution politically was his clarification and solidification of religious Zionism, and the delineation of Jewish rights and duties to Israel based on traditional Jewish teachings of the Torah, Talmud and prophets. His body is now dead, but his ideas are alive and well.

BERNARD I. LINDNER, Beverly Hills