Drug Addiction and the Damage Done

Your opioid epidemic article did not tell us anything we don鈥檛 already know (鈥�,鈥� Aug. 18). We are losing our children daily to substance abuse. It was not a solution-based article.

I鈥檝e been sober 11-plus years because of a higher power and a daily regimen focused on recovery. And still, there is no guarantee I will remain sober. Scary, right? But it鈥檚 the truth. I relapsed after 10-plus years of sobriety.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, there are no concrete solutions to the drug problem, but our schools need to be more aware of what鈥檚 going on and become more involved in helping, instead of doing nothing.

Stuart Feldman聽via email

Why Some Jews Still Support Trump

I remember being told in cheder in Newark, N.J., by teachers who had numbers tattooed on their arms that some Jews had supported Hitler.

I had the same sense of 鈥淲hat were they thinking?鈥� that I do now when I read about Jews still supporting Trump (鈥�,鈥� Aug. 25).

How can any rational Jew support a political leader who fails to condemn (and don鈥檛 tell me that he did condemn them, when his spontaneous remarks showed his true feelings, which his later prepared comments tried to hide) neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan?

Daniel Fink, Beverly Hills

Ben-Gurion Was Right About Reparations

Shmuel Rosner wrote that 鈥淒avid Ben-Gurion cast aside morality as prime minister when he decided to accept reparations from Germany. 鈥� To his fierce opponent Menachem Begin, this was the beginning of absolution for the Germans鈥� (鈥�,鈥� Aug. 25).

History has vindicated Ben-Gurion. Germany has rejoined the family of nations, denounced its Nazi past, raised two generations with democratic and humanistic values, supported Israel and its own growing 91传媒 community. And if the first reparations were the beginning of absolution, 65 years later we can be certain Germany has sought no such absolution 鈥� it is committed to remembering the Holocaust, including denouncing Nazis and neo-Nazis 鈥� but it has demonstrated the power and possibility of repentance.

Ben-Gurion鈥檚 decision was not only pragmatic, nor even desperate, but visionary and brilliant 鈥� the truest form of morality.

Rosner owes Ben-Gurion鈥檚 memory an apology. As he often did, Begin fiercely expressed 91传媒 anger but offered no way forward.

As to the rest of his argument, if I understand Rosner correctly, the morally courageous prime minister of Israel is right to remain closed-mouth in the face of neo-Nazism as long as it is good for Israel.聽

So much for Zionism being a bulwark against anti-Semitism. 聽

I await the prime minister鈥檚 new campaign ad for Donald Trump: He鈥檚 bad for Jews, but he鈥檚 good for Israel.

Michael Berenbaum,聽Director of Sigi Ziering Institute,聽American 91传媒 University

Constitutional Rights Cover Us All

I agree with President Donald Trump that there was wrong on both sides and, as much as some hate the beliefs of the far right and, I equally, the far left, both sides have the right in this great country to march and express their views without being attacked.聽As the Supreme Court has ruled over and over: Hate speech is protected speech. Unfortunately, it seems to me the Journal has forgotten that the laws that allow it to print its brand of 鈥渇ake鈥� news also protect Nazis and the KKK. If we infringe on one group鈥檚 rights, we eventually infringe on all.聽

David Mayer,聽Los Angeles

One group to the left of me. The other group on the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle: a Jew.

Kati Baltimore聽via email