I happen to be Caucasian of Jewish descent and by faith an atheist. However, I know enough about foreign, national, state, and local policies toward blacks and Jews to see that what the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is saying rings a whole lot of truth.

Jews have suffered under the oppressive boots of a German government that went about murdering them with impunity. Similarly, the United States carried on a massive slave trade until people had enough of it. Yet while Jews in this country have thrived, blacks in this country have not fared very well. Why? Because blacks — and women — have not been given a fair chance. In the real world, blacks and women with the same educational background as white males will be denied the job, the apartment, the house, because of pervasive racist attitudes. Please do not tell me it is not so, because it is still practiced. How many black families live in the West Englewood section of Teaneck? So when this reverend talks about the racists in white America, I agree wholeheartedly.

The reality of racist America and governmental policies was revealed for world scrutiny during and the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. Would I have imagined so much poverty existed in a city that yearly embraces a pagan ritual, a country so wealthy that it can invade another through misguided and defective intelligence? Please do not tell me that New Orleans was an aberration or a fluke and that this racism does not occur elsewhere in America. Racism trickles down from the top, and we all saw how our government handled that. We all witnessed EPA telling the people that the air is healthy.

I know nothing about the so-called African-American Church, yet what I understand is that this pastor’s words, as much as people dislike his style, are meant to be decisive; the economic pie needs to be better distributed.

If you feel this reverend is offensive or dangerous, rebut his testimony, his teachings, but don’t shoot the messenger. I have yet to read anywhere that Rev. Wright’s comments are inaccurate. If you don’t like what he says, challenge his position. However, as the Bill Moyer’s interview demonstrated Rev. Wright is not very wrong.

Let’s face it — the financial situation in the United States isn’t as good as it used to be. The sub-prime mortgage crisis, the collapse of Bear Stearns, and the poor value of the dollar have left their mark on the American economy. But they have left their mark on the Israeli economy as well.

Last year, on April 4, at the beginning of the holiday of Passover, the dollar closed at 4.135 NIS, whereas this year – the dollar closed at 3.452. So what does that mean? It translates into the fact that for a $2 million Passover Program, there is a difference of a whopping 1,366,000 NIS. Ouch. That amount of money in itself covers the cost of Passover packages for more than 3,000 families.

The low dollar-shekel exchange rate hits all the organizations in Israel that are largely dependent upon contributions from the United States. A 50 cent drop means a significant depletion of financial resources to fund welfare programs all over the country of Israel.

Untimely, at best. Devastating is more accurate.

This week is the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. Maybe we could have gotten it together a little better by now, but the reality is that the municipal welfare organizations themselves, throughout the whole country, are referring their clients to the private charities because of the lack of resources. Whether it’s right or wrong of the Israeli government and affluent citizens not to bear the fiscal responsibility for their indigent brethren isn’t the issue right now. This is the way that it is here now, and we (try to) grin and bear it.

But it’s harder to bear than ever while the cost of food is skyrocketing and the value of the overseas donations is plummeting. "There hasn’t been a crisis like this since the expansion of civil society in recent years," says Benjamin Gidron, the director of the Israeli Center for Third Sector Research at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva.

Let’s all hope the dollar will stop dragging its feet doing the meringue, and step up to the cha-cha. Or even better, the hora!

With dismay and heartache, I read the May 2 letter of another subscriber to The Jewish Standard. She thought it was "an event to remember and so touching" that the pope presented a New York rabbi "with a replica of a medieval Jewish manuscript from the Vatican library."

A legal principle common to all civilized systems states that one cannot transfer title to another if one’s title was not legally acquired. Non-owners cannot bestow what they do not legally own. The Church ransacked, looted, and burned synagogues throughout Europe for more than 15 centuries. Scholars in Israel have been imploring and pleading with several popes to gain access to the Vatican library, as there are many works of the Jewish people contained in the Vatican, but we have no copy.

I would think it more appropriate for the moral and religious leader of more than a billion faithful to return the original to the descendants of the authors and to keep the replicas for his own study.

Growing up in Central Jersey, I remember learning about the Holocaust quite intensively throughout my childhood. My most striking memory was the large banner that read "Never Again" at my Reform synagogue. "Never Again" has always seemed the appropriate response no matter what label of Judaism I followed. Never again victims, never again powerless, never again dependent on the whims and charity of others. To do otherwise seemed an affront to all the Jews who have died not only in the Holocaust, but in all the centuries before and all the years after.

Yom HaShoah has passed, but the situation in the world this year alone unfortunately makes "Never Again" an urgent and daily lesson for us all. Jews are beaten in the streets in France; Jewish cemeteries are defaced throughout Europe and even in New Jersey; the nations of Iran and Syria actively seek nuclear weapons to incinerate Israel; and the Jews of Sderot and nearby are bombed near-daily. The Israelis are justifiably proud that so few Jews died of suicide bombings this year; however, the fact that any died is the problem. Israel bows to American pressure and world opinion, the same exact world that let Jews die trapped in Europe those 60 years ago.

The lesson I have learned as an answer to the Holocaust is a simple one: Jewish pride, Jewish dignity, and Jewish strength. We need to be proud of our heritage and strong enough in our resolve to do what we think is right, not what may be dictated to us. We have an ethical and religious foundation older than any in the world and should not succumb to the morals and pressures of others. We as a people need to have the dignity to confront the self-hating Jews in our midst that sap our energy and embolden our enemies. And the Jewish people here and in Israel need to be strong enough to rely on ourselves first and foremost. Judaism teaches that when a Jew is harmed because he is a Jew it is a desecration of the name of God. We need to respond accordingly and consistently to each and every outrage; complacency is never an option. A world in which people think twice before harming a Jew is the world in which we should live. We have certainly failed at getting the world to love us by bowing and scraping after 2,000 years in exile. This is the lesson I teach my children; this is the lesson we all need to learn.

Re: the May 2 FYI, "What to do with leftover matzah?"

Try donating it to any food bank or pantry such as Center for Food Action. Its use to help feed the hungry would be a greater mitzvah than eyeglasses, hamster cage liners, or a matzah doghouse.