Chabad funding questioned

To the editor:

Councilman Oliver Koppell recently gave $5,000 of taxpayer money to Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale and $5,000 to the Hebrew Institute to fund various programs. While it’s true that the activities at the Hebrew Institute are open to the non-Jewish community, this is definitely not the case with Chabad Lubavitch.

Chabad Lubavitch is a vile, racist, Jewish supremacist organization whose leaders regularly utter obscene, anti-gentile statements. 

One rabbi, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, said, “two types of soul exist. A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres while the Jewish soul stems from holiness.” He says that Gentiles were created to serve the Jews and that the difference between Jews and Gentiles is so great that they should be considered completely different species.

Another prominent Chabad rabbi, Yitzhak Ginsburgh, says, “Gentile souls are of a completely different and inferior order. They are totally evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. There is something infinitely more holy and unique about Jewish life than non-Jewish life.”

These beliefs are mainstream Lubavicher doctrine so by funding a youth library and after-school homework help, Mr. Koppell funds a vile and pernicious ideology of hate.

This is an inappropriate use of taxpayer money. Mr. Koppell needs to be reminded that Gentiles really are human and were not put on this earth to be beasts of burden.

Patty Goldstein