I believe that in order to be qualified to render a credible opinion on the “Arab-Israeli conflict,” it is critical to have one’s feet on Israeli soil. Otherwise, we render ourselves armchair politicians.

That is quite a naive & ill-informed opinion which I utterly reject. Kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh. We are all interconnected. I care about Israel therefore I will write about it.

Clearly, Rabbi Schwartz treated you with utmost kindness & truly observed the mitzvah of showing gmilut chesed to you. I don’t doubt the fine good deeds he has performed on behalf of you & others. But would he have done so if the sufferer’s name was Tatsuo Nakata? Of course not. And why not? Which goes to the issue of why Rabbi Schwartz & his community seem to believe that Mr. Nakata’s life is worse less than their own Jewish lives. Why should the rabbi receive special treatment merely because he is dedicated to helping Jews? Think how many people Mr. Nakata could have helped had he lived. Why should I give more weight to the former than the latter?

No one can know how he or she would react were they in Schwartz’s shoes, but I think if it were I, I would think that I had a proper punishment coming to me & I would try to accept it rather than organizing an entire community to prevent my receiving a proper punishment. I don’t know why Judge Hollifield decided to let Schwartz off so lightly, but clearly he was deeply impacted by the campaign on Schwartz’s behalf. And this campaign helped Schwartz but hurt both the Nakata family & the impression of the Jewish community in the greater Seattle community. We look like a group that only looks out for its own & cares little for the damage our members inflict on non-Jews.

I came to this conclusion in November, 2005 while touring Israel with a solidarity mission from the Seattle Kollel, where I was a student. The leader of our mission trip: Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz.

Now: I would like to applaud the comment above that quotes, “There but for the grace of G-d go I.” I shudder to think how many near-misses happen every minute on our streets and highways.

And: I think I am better qualified to comment on this matter than many, since I am a survivor of a near-fatal bicycle-versus-automobile accident. I still have epileptic seizures as a result of the brain injury I suffered in that accident over 40 years ago.

In fact, it was Rabbi Schwartz and his family who took me into their home during a time when I was very sick from my seizure disorder and without housing. Along with my seizure detection dog, a large and harmless German Shepherd, of whom the Schwartz children were so frightened they would not come downstairs. Because I was in need, I was taken care of. By Rabbi Schwartz and his family. They sacrificed half of their house for over a month so that I could have a warm dry place where I was welcome and treated like a valued human being.

As a direct result of that care and kindness, I was able to get my life back on track. To get the medical help I needed. To get healthy again. To make Aliyah to Israel. To live my principles in real life.

No, Rabbi Schwartz’s many, many acts of kindness will not bring back the man he accidentally killed with his vehicle. And I’m certainly not trying to minimize the seriousness of the crime, or make any comment whatsoever on the process of justice in the case. I’m not trying to minimize his previous driving record, or pass judgement on whether he should or should not be allowed to drive.

I’m not a judge. Not even an armchair lawyer.

I am, however, a life that Rabbi Schwartz has directly helped to save with his goodness and kindness. If that counts for anything.

And by the way–there are many others whose lives have been literally salvaged by Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz. Some of them are among the other 99 people who wrote letters on his behalf.

L’Chayim,

Liebe Faiga
Jerusalem, Israel

I’m staying out of the whole ‘he’s a rabbi so he got off’ controversy. Just had to pipe up about phoning and driving. Pull over if the call is that damned important.

Andy has written, “(and maybe it’s that way in other countries as well.)” I only know a bit of one other country’s vehicular laws, France, where I worked for several years. One of my colleagues was a lovely young lady, highly intelligent, educated, upstanding. Driving home at dusk one time at slow speed during a steady drizzle, she struck and killed an elderly man who had stepped off the curb in the middle of a block right into the path of her car. In accordance with standard judicial practice in such a case, she was guilty until proven otherwise. She went through unmitigated hell, and many testimonies, witnesses, and legal arguments later, she was finally exonerated of her “crime”. In France, at least at that time, the pedestrian reigned supreme. This is of course only one limited example, but I completely agree with Richard Silverstein’s observation that “Schwartz got out of jail time BECAUSE he took advantage of his rabbinical title to claim to the judge that he played an indispensable leadership role in his Orthodox community.” Inconvenient though it may be, Tatsuo Nakata is still dead through the indifference or recklessness or carelessness of a repeat-offender driver - period.