Mar-a-Lago and the Charity Circuit

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/opinion/mar-a-lago-and-the-charity-circuit.html

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To the Editor:

Re “More Charities Drop Galas at Mar-a-Lago” (news article, Aug. 21):

Sorry, but I cannot muster congratulations for those charities that canceled planned Mar-a-Lago fund-raisers in the wake of President Trump’s Charlottesville remarks. Why, one has to ask, did they book Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., in the first place, given a president who has flouted every political and constitutional norm governing financial conflicts of interest?

It’s a nice place (I’m told), but there are a lot of nice places that some of our most prominent charities might have chosen to hold their events without improperly lining the president’s pockets.

JAMES H. STARK, HARTFORD

To the Editor:

Practically daily we hear of another charity that has decided to cancel a fund-raiser at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. It is a sad commentary on American society that it took Mr. Trump’s comments on the violence in Charlottesville for real change to occur.

Some have commented that the loss of revenue for Mr. Trump is negligible. The brave statement that these charities are making is not. Charities and for-profit companies have a powerful voice. Each cancellation is meaningful on its own. Cumulatively, they are a deafening reminder that Americans are divided in their politics, but overwhelmingly abhor violence, hatred and bigotry.

Over the last several years, I have attended numerous fund-raisers at Mar-a-Lago. Unless Mr. Trump revises his policies and rhetoric on white supremacists (as well as immigration and L.G.B.T. issues), I do not foresee myself ever setting foot in Mar-a-Lago again.

RUTI K. BELL, BOCA RATON, FLA.

The writer is a civil rights and immigration lawyer.

To the Editor:

Re “Rabbi Groups Shun President in Sharp Terms” (front page, Aug. 24):

As a member of one of the rabbinical organizations that have collectively and publicly refused to receive the annual presidential call on the High Holy Days from President Trump, I offer the president my personal apology.

Although I do not agree with everything the president has done or said (and that would be true of every president over the years), I feel that the rejection to receive this largely courtesy call was a gesture contrary to the spirit of Judaism and the tenor of this holy time of the year.

There is a deeply held principle of derech eretz, or common courtesy and good behavior. Sadly, I believe that this shows a lack of derech eretz not in keeping with the best in our Jewish tradition.

JAMES MIREL, SEATTLE