This is the time of the year that I like to remind the Congregation of the tremendous gift that they have received from the officers chosen the previous year. We take it for granted that the Congregation, (thank G-d), is doing well, its religious services are established, its educational programs are working and its financial matters are being managed. We do this without the recognition that things don't happen by themselves though all of us know that in our private and public lives nothing occurs by itself. Usually, I describe the tasks of each officer and the extraordinary effort that each one volunteers. I shall not do that this year since we are all familiar with the ongoing tasks that have to be done and the creative effort required to do them. I do want, however, to mention the names of our volunteer officers to remind you that they are the bonds that tie the Congregation together.

V.P. School & Education - Philip Prale
V.P.s. House - Ady Rodman & Michael Henner
V.P.s. Building Fund - Arnold Sklar & Alan Lapping
V.P. Ways & Means - Keith Esses
V.P. Worship - Dr. Joseph Silberman
V.P.s Membership - Louis Reiff & Joshua Zavelovich
V.P. -Adult Education -Dr. Itzhak Hoffman
V.P. Good & Welfare - Helaine Ellenby
Public Relations - Charles Ungar
Corresponding Secretary - Sam Block
Recording Secretary - Jocelyn Verson
Financial Secretary - Harvey Redfern
Treasurer - Jeffrey Light
Sergeant-at-Arms - Jack Marshak

However, a special thanks goes out to our President, Martin
Scharaga. His good humor and his down to earth sensible way of dealing with the
problems that regularly occur, endear him to all who work with him, ably
assisted by the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Mitchell Dayan and his staff. They hold the structure that binds the Congregation together.

This year, on June 13th at its annual Tribute Dinner, the Congregation is
honoring its veterans. It is a noteworthy event and deserves all our support. I think it was Tom Brokaw who said that the last just war were the events
that culminated in the destruction of Hitler's minions. Certainly, it was the last war that was fought in which all Americans felt that they had a stake in
the destruction of the despotic tyranny that threatened all the values we hold
dear. We sent off in great numbers, our sons and our daughters, our husbands
and our wives, to ensure that democracy would prevail. True, we made a pact with the devil, Joseph Stalin & the comrades of the U.S.S.R., that changed
the maps of the world we knew and lived with the results of that pact for the next 40 years. But there was no doubt in our minds that what was done was just. With the entrance of the battlefield into our living rooms through the lens
of the television camera (though this may not have been the only reason),
Americans began to see war from a different perspective. The carnage of battle,
the pain inflicted upon loved ones, was a sight to which no one can remain
untouched.

It would be nice to think that all wars are simple instances of the struggle between what is just and right vs. what is evil and wrong. But war and the
evil spirits it unleashes, do not play out the way we would like to think they do. Let us take the Iraqi issue as an example. Saddam Hussein is an evil man. He has perpetrated horrors on his own population as well as members of his own family. He is the example of what Arab despots are and may very well represent the brutality that marks the Arab culture of death (Daniel Perl, Nicholas Berg, mentally handicapped or social outcast homicide bombers, et al). Yet
questions are prevalent today that were not part of our discourse in
the dark days of WWII.

Do we have an obligation to rid the world of its tyrannical rulers, when they do not threaten our interests? Do we have the right to go to battle against rulers who we think are preparing to wage battle against us, though they have not yet done so? After all, there are many America haters out there, can we joust with all of them? I'm not privy to the reports that came to the President and to his advisors. I do not believe that they fabricated the issue of the WMD's. There is too much evidence of their use in Iraq by the megalomanic, Hussein, to discount the possibility. There is a ring of truth in the President's statements about the Axis of Evil. The latest reports place Osama Bin Laden in Iran. Today, the terrifying weapons available to rogue states cause everyone to fear. But do we have the national will and resoluteness to destroy the evil of our day, beset by the undiminished eye of a television camera? The war against terrorism will last for years and how resolute will we be in the pursuit of those who have killed and maimed and continue to do so. In the name of this fearful view of Islam as promulgated and paid for by the Wahabi thieves of Saudi Arabia. America being what it is (thank G-d), and democracies being what they are (thank G-d), it is difficult to maintain resolve in an election year with the images we receive.

As an American, I am not unhappy that the threat from the east to Israel
has been greatly diminished. I am not fearful that the terror of our enemies
will diminish Israel's resolve to defend itself. I realize all the more now how
right Meir Kahane was and how wrong the sycophantic liberal community that
posits universal love is. Rabbi Kahane never suggested terrorizing the
Palestinians or killing them. He did suggest transferring them and that may still remain an option for those Arabs who reside within the State of Israel and who opt to throw their lot in with the Palestinian cause. It would be nice to return to the days of yesteryear when things were simple and well understood. When the
Nazi terror was the defined enemy and all could join in an active effort to
defeat it. But we can't bring the past back. We can however, honor its heroes.
So as I write this article, on the eve of Memorial Day, 2004, why don't you
come and join us on the 13th of June in honoring our fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts and our brothers and our sisters at the Congregation's
13th Tribute Dinner.