Insurance Commissioner

Douglas Hallett (Commentary, July 6) reviews the significant errors of judgment that led to the resignation of Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush.

However, the allegation that Quackenbush for political reasons “disrupted the careful international effort to extract from recalcitrant European insurers what is due” from pre-WWII accounts is unfair and misleading. On the issue of unpaid Nazi-era insurance policies, Quackenbush acted at the behest of Holocaust survivors and a bipartisan consortium of human rights groups. He was the only member of the International Holocaust Insurance Commission to have the courage to consistently lobby for the rights of the tens of thousands of the forgotten and forsaken families whose trust in the insurance companies was trampled on.

Quackenbush’s entire effort on behalf of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust was based on regular meetings, open dialogue, trust and the very sense of accountability that Hallett and other critics have shown was too often lacking in other areas.

RABBI ABRAHAM COOPER

Simon Wiesenthal Center

Los Angeles

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* As Gov. Gray Davis considers a replacement for the now-resigned insurance commissioner, he must realize that there is but one person who can restore confidence in the office and make it truly a watchdog whose only interest is the welfare of the public. We don’t need a business-as-usual appointment--i.e, a term-limited legislator, a reshuffled Cabinet member, a rising political star. We need the guy who convinced us we needed an elected commissioner in the first place: Harvey Rosenfield.

RALPH SHAFFER

Covina