Murder of Controversial Rabbi Kahane

I read Rabbi Dov Aharoni’s column (“Now, Greater Than Life,” Commentary, Nov. 7) as I listened to the morning news about the attack by Kahane’s supporters on a bus full of Palestinians. If this is what happens in the memory of martyrs, God save us from martyrs.

Rabbi Aharoni is correct in arguing that Kahane raised questions that others preferred to ignore, but he ignores the reasons that others ignored them. His questions, like his views, were racist and anti-democratic; the government of Israel recognized this when it barred Kahane’s party in 1988.

The irony of Kahane’s life and death is that he fell victim to the very despicable terrorism that his views inevitably lead to. I, too, mourn his death, not because he is a martyr, but because the way to repel abhorrent ideas is to expose them for what they are, not through murder and terrorism.

RABBI LAURA GELLER, Director, American Jewish Congress, Pacific Southwest Region