Letter: Haverhill could celebrate its Jewish history

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July 1, 2009

Haverhill has rich Jewish history

To the editor:

As a person with an interest in local history, I have been following the fortunes of Haverhill for some time. The former mill town holds promise. Haverhill's star will rise again if the city is packaged right and presented in an appealing way. So how do you lure visitors and capital from Boston? How would you make Haverhill a destination?

The Merrimack River is a natural attraction, clean and running with fish. Boardwalks and docks are being built. Haverhill also uses its colonial and Revolutionary Era history, but can it compete with Boston's Freedom Trail and Historic Deerfield? Historians have urged a focus on the historic figure Hannah Duston. While a strong female figure, her hatchet-wielding seems similar to that of Lizzie Borden. How much has the memory of Borden helped Fall River?

Haverhill would be wiser to celebrate its later history, its industrial boomtown heyday, its immigrant history, and its ties to Jewish groups who came to work and run the shoe factories. Haverhill was once home to six synagogues. Two are still standing on Main Street. Emanu-El, which is undergoing renovations, but Anshe Sholom is waning.

Why not turn the latter into a museum celebrating the arrival of our Jewish brethren to the melting pot experiment known as America? We've seen the darkness of the Jewish experience in the home countries through excellent museums in New York and Washington. Why not a museum that celebrates their triumphs here?

The Anshe Sholom building should be moved from its postage stamp-sized lot down to the old library lot next to the "new" library. Or to where the old City Hall once stood.

Those two grand edifices should never have been razed. The re-use of Anshe Sholom would be compensation. More importantly, it would allow Haverhill to celebrate America's heyday after opening its doors to people of all creeds and colors.

State Rep. Steven Lindsey

Keene, N.H.

Seniors on the hook for bad driving

To the editor:

Once again senior citizens are on the hook for their supposedly bad driving.

Yet if we look at this fairly, they're better drivers than those in their teens and young adults. Why? First, they obey the speed limit. Second, they're more courteous and third, they're more responsible.

Teenagers and young adults are responsible for road rage. They have no respect for other drivers. They get in more accidents — and that's why they pay three times as much for their car insurance. Check it out. Taking a senior citizen's license away is taking their independence away, making them rely on someone to get their groceries, take them to the doctor, take them to church and all the other things seniors do in their daily lives.

Let us remember they earned the right to drive by serving in World War II, keeping our country free and safe. Had it not been for them, we'd be goose-stepping over to the hamburger joint and bowing for a cup of coffee.

Let's not forget those who gave their lives so their children could live free. We owe them. Now, it's payback time.

Arthur Catton

Haverhill