I just got word that Jimmy Breslin, renowned journalist and author, just came out with a book called “The Good Rat” about Burt Kaplan. Now I have not yet read the book although I am certain it is written very well and is quite fascinating, however the title off the bat irks me. To me Burt Kaplan is the man who hired those cops to kill my father. He is the man who took my father’s life and deemed it worthless. He is the man who thought nothing of getting rid of him, who could care less that we the family had no clue what happened to him. He is the heartless, evil man who lived his life selfishly. He is my father’s true murderer. To describe him as “good”, to put the word “good” in the same sentence as his name, to refer to this man in any positive way is a huge slap in the face to my father and to my family. I don’t care if the title just means that he ratted well….which we all know he did. I just don’t want this man portrayed in any heroic light just because he decided to testify (for his own gain.)
In one of the reviews I saw Breslin quoted Kaplan as saying: “Stand-up is what I used to be. When someone has a problem, they take their punishment and go to jail, they don’t give up anybody. They take — they take responsibility for the crime.”
Oh really? So how do you explain giving up my father’s life out of your own fear of going to jail? Or are you trying to say it is a greater sin to rat than to obliterate someones life (whom you never even met) and destroy a family?
Here is a letter I wrote September 2006 to Kaplan that I never sent out for various reasons.
Mr. Kaplan,
I am the eldest daughter of Israel Greenwald, the Orthodox Jewish Jeweler you had killed 20 years ago. I know that you never met my father, nor did you know anything about him. You simply took it in your own hands to get rid of him, as you would a roach or insect, because you were afraid that if he cooperated with the FEDS, it would somehow lead to you and you’d go to jail. In the end your despicable actions led you to the one place you tried so desperately to avoid. Life is ironic.
My father was a devoted husband and incredible father, only 34 years old, just starting his life. He was a God fearing man; an honest and respected businessman, used by someone he thought was a friend. He never heard of you, nor would he have associated with you.
While you were living the high life of gambling and crime, my father was praying three times a day and supporting his community and those in need. You were dreaming up new ways to steal while my father was thinking of new ways to make the world better. You both came from the same heritage, and both of you were above average in intelligence and driven to succeed, but you chose to live a lawless immoral life while my father chose to live a G-d fearing moral life.
My father’s one fatal mistake, by trusting his friend and business associate, caused your paths to cross and you nominated yourself as “Angel of death” and ordered his execution.
I will not get into all the pain and heartache, the nightmarish existence you caused in our lives by brutally taking him away from us. It is not far fetched for you to imagine the effect this would have had on your own daughter if it were you who were murdered and your body hidden.
It is interesting to note that we are now in the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, otherwise known as “The Days of Repentance”. We learn in Judaism that while God decides on Rosh Hashanah man’s fate (ie. whether he lives or dies, how he will live or die etc.), he seals it on Yom Kippur and our actions during these days can alter God’s decree. And one of the actions that have the power to alter God’s decree is repentance.
It is true that you wholeheartedly admitted to your crimes, which in Judaism is considered part of repentance. By doing that my family and I could finally have closure and for that we are grateful. You could have taken this despicable deed to your grave with you, but for whatever reason, regardless of your motive, you did the right thing and ended our 19 year long nightmare.
However, if you think that this is enough to be considered “repentance” you are missing the most important and final step. Simply put, without an apology your admittance is clearly unremorseful and therefore not counted.
And although forgiving you for what you did to me and my family feels like the furthest thing from my heart and mind since I consider you the sole man responsible for such unimaginable pain, I do feel that if you were a man with any dignity, a man that cares about the legacy you will leave behind, you would show true remorse and apologize.
We want an apology from you for murdering our father and for changing our lives forever. We want an apology for the nightmare you caused and the ocean of tears you helped create. We want you to apologize for what we lost and what we will never have. If you ever get a chance to play with your grandchild in freedom one day, we want you to always remember that you took away our children’s grandfather and we want you to apologize for that. We want you to apologize to my dead grandparents who died of a broken heart. Apologize to my mother who at the young age of 32 was left alone with no answers and two children who had many questions. And most of all, we want you to apologize to us for hiding his body all these years and for taking away our basic right to have a grave. That cruel and evil action alone deserves an apology by itself.
An apology will not erase what was done, but at least when you stand before the final judge- God – who determines your eternal future; you can say that you tried to repent. At least you can one day look into your grandchild’s innocent eyes, eyes that hopefully will never see and experience the evils you subjected us to, and you can say “Hey, I may have been bad, really really bad, but I tried in the end to make it better.”
Without an apology you prove to the world and more importantly to your family that you are nothing but a selfish, cold blooded killer who shows no remorse for the crimes you committed against humankind and God.
I challenge you to apologize, whether you mean it or not, because despite what you did to us, I still believe that everyone, no matter how much evil they committed and how low they have sunk, has the potential to turn their lives around.
Signed,
Michal (Eldest daughter of Israel Greenwald)
on behalf of my mother Leah Greenwald, sister Yael Greenwald
and my Grandparents (Dov and Sarah Greenwald-may they rest in peace)
