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Thursday January 26, 2006

Letters

Pushing away hope

Regarding the local view expressed by Rabbi Lawrence Raphael in the Jan. 20 j., the Reform movement is embarrassing interfaith couples. Push them away and we’ll push any hope of future generations away.

It’s that simple.

Molly Miller-Davidson | Los Angeles

Honor thy elders

The Conservative rabbis’ discussion in the Jan. 20 j. fascinated me, particularly the words of Rabbi Mimi Weisel: “tradition, community, education to caring about each other.”

I grew up in Antwerp, where rabbis knew each constituent and helped them keep “body and soul together” with utmost attention.

Perhaps now that we have seen the success of three new synagogues in Berkeley all rabbis could turn their attention to the fastest local growing Jewish constituency: our Jewish elders.

How? Rabbis could speak out from their bimahs about “honor thy father and mother” by suggesting full total community effort to create Jewish day care and Jewish assisted living, and in this way attract to membership many baby boomers who are now too busy and stressed, caught between the needs of their children and their aged parents.

Arnoldine Berlin | Oakland

‘Munich’ and myth

Where are the People of the Book? If we had lived a history of reading our book at the level of plain meaning, of pshat, most of the Jews who have been honored as Nobel laureates never would have made it.

And where are our religious leaders trained to read for meaning above and beyond the usual, who require a footnote to give their statements authority?

If the Jewish mentality is to be measured by the inane statements of our “literary critics” and by the egregious willingness of our community to boycott “Munich” because the critics have given it such a negative reputation — if that is our mentality, then we deserve to relinquish the title People of the Book to those who have the literacy to appreciate art when they see it, to suspend disbelief in the presence of myth, to believe, and to muster the courage to confront reality.

Shame on us.

Bernard A. Goldberg | Sacramento

‘Wonderful mitzvah’

Your Jan. 6 cover story “Twin love — times two” about two lesbian mothers was very nice and interesting. So, let’s talk a little bit about it.

In my opinion, we have to support LGBT people because they are nice people. They are working hard for our community and for Israel.

Shelley Friedman and Tania Lowenthal had four kids together. Isn’t that a wonderful mitzvah?

After reading the article, I’m sure that they are very good parents. They will educate their kids well in the Jewish tradition, I hope.

I’m glad that the Reform and Conservative movements support the LGBT community.

Paul Shkuratov | San Francisco

Insensitive joke?

I found the “Life’s little problems” joke (Jan. 20 j.) to be extremely offensive, and hardly a “joke.”

The material is replete with blatantly offensive stereotypes regarding intermarriage, teenage pregnancy, marijuana use and AIDS. And the comic tag line — “there are worse things in life than denting your Lexus” — reinforces a harmful stereotype of crass materialism in the Jewish community.

I find this “joke” to be far from funny. Rather, I believe it is insensitive to many diverse groups, and reinforces stereotypes harmful to us all.

Richard Sinkoff | San Francisco

‘Bumbling hypocrisy’

In yet another show of bumbling hypocrisy, the U.N. Security Council has refused to issue a condemnation of the recent terror attack in Netanya promulgated by Islamic Jihad because, in the words of Algeria, “innocent Palestinians were also frequently during the intifada, and the UNSC should not focus on one side’s casualties over the others.”

How ludicrous does it get? An attack claimed by one organization that is unquestionably a terror organization, one that is tarred with reprehensible and cowardly operations that target civilian populations — this does not deserve condemnation?

The civilized nations of the world should be ashamed of their deafening silence, particularly when Israel has been the subject of more hostile resolutions on the part of the United Nations than the rest of the nations of the world combined.

Steve Lipman | Foster City

Letters policy

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