While I was at the local post office, I noticed a newspaper laying on the counter along with other mail that snowbirds had left behind. I picked it up and noticed it was The Jewish Voice & Herald. Not wanting it to end up in the trash I took it along with me. Why? Because I love everything Jewish, although I was raised Catholic. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as the saying goes.

While Dr. Stanley Aronson correctly quotes the words of John Dryden, England’s first named poet laureate (March 29 issue of The Jewish Voice & Herald, “The emerging Jewish voice in American politics”), he completely misuses their context. The words “The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race …” are, in fact, found in Dryden’s epic allegorical satire “Absalom and Achitophel.” Aronson should not, however, have included them in his list of “pejorative” and “disparaging” anti-Semitic descriptors of Jews used “over the centuries.”

Thanks to the kindness and hospitality of Amy Olson and her staff at URI’s Hillel Center, my three history classes and I were able to tour Hillel’s Holocaust exhibit recently.

Israel’s 65th anniversary is a good time to read or reread Herman Wouk’s classic historical fiction, “The Hope: A Novel.” We certainly think about all of Israel’s accomplishments, but do we really remember the brave people that have made it all possible today?