Every time a bomb goes off in Jerusalem, the leader of al-Qaida is killed or the leader of Hamas has indigestion, my inbox is flooded with emails from countless well-meaning American Jewish groups duly issuing their statements of condemnation.
I have a method for dealing with press releases of this kind: the trash can.
Do we really need to guess the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s position on the killing of Osama bin Laden? How about the American Jewish Committee’s position on the bus bombing in Jerusalem in March?
No, we don’t. So please, please, please stop sending them.
Today, even the office of the chief psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center sent a release on bin Laden’s death. In case you were wondering:
Dr. Alan Hilfer, Chief Psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center in New York… says New Yorkers will rise to the occasion — if we see something, we will say something. We will, of course, remain vigilant.
And so our optimism will be curbed slightly by a heightened sense of wariness.
In terms of the ongoing war on terrorism, nothing has changed.
Dr. Hilfer can be reached via beeper throughout the day today.
Beep away.
