How did a delegation from Chabad-Lubavitch get to be invited to the Oval Office to receive a citation from President Barack Obama honoring the life of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson (“White House Honors Lubavitcher,” May 1)? The delegation presented a menorah with an inscription that read, “Mr. President, you represent … dedication and service to others at the greater good, carrying the dreams and aspirations of an entire nation upon your shoulders.”
Is the delegation aware that the president dislikes Israel? Under his administration, we have had the Iranian nuclear situation, ISIS, turmoil in the Middle East and the murder of Christians and nonbelievers.
I should like to remind the delegation that in his first months in office, the president returned a bust of Winston Churchill to the British Embassy. Instead of a menorah, the delegation should have placed a mezuzah on the White House door, which the president may find difficult to remove before he returns it to the Israeli Embassy.
Mr. Trost upbraids Chabad-Lubavitch for meeting with President Obama, whom he asserts “dislikes Israel.” As Rachmiel Gottlieb has documented in these pages (JT (July 2, 2014, “Upon Further Review,” and parallel in the Washington Jewish Week, “Data Omitted,” July 31)), the Rebbe himself was no big fan of the State of Israel, even forbidding his followers from singing the Israeli national anthem; and unlike many observant Jews, he is not buried on its holy soil. It is also telling that among the numerous photographs accompanying the cover story about Baltimore’s Cheder- Chabad (“Continuing the Legacy”) neither a flag nor map nor any other tangible signifier of the existence of the modern State of Israel is anywhere in sight.