Agony felt
Thank you for Joe Eskenazi’s very sensitive Jan. 12 cover story on Homewood Terrace. Randie Bencanann said it best: Homewood Terrace was a “really fine institution that served the Jewish community well.”
Shutting down Homewood Terrace and transferring resources to build the more comprehensive and family centered Children’s Services required by the community was a necessity which required action sooner than later.
This fact in no way diminishes the agony felt by the 37 emotionally troubled teenagers and by the dedicated staff who worked with them when Homewood Terrace was closed in 1984.
Closing Homewood Terrace was indeed a difficult and emotionally charged decision.
Werner Gottlieb | Walnut Creek
former executive director of JFCS
Mischaracterized?
Your Jan. 19 article grossly mischaracterizes the reality regarding our documentary, “Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century,” and Sacramento Public TV Station KVIE’s refusal to air it based on their opinion of the film.
You state that 18 of the top 50 PBS markets did not air it at its scheduled time, if at all. In fact, the film aired in 99 of the top 100 PBS markets, the sole exception being KVIE.
And while some stations did change the date or time of broadcast, you didn’t clarify it is entirely routine for stations to shift schedules for local needs.
You also failed to mention the film’s countless outstanding reviews across the United States. The N.J. Star Ledger: “eye opening, disturbing and excellent.” The Hartford Courant: “[an] important, well-told report.” Hollywood Reporter: “[it] performed a real service.” The Jewish Week: “balanced.” Philadelphia Jewish Exponent: “[a] gold-standard of a film.”
Even your paper described it as “assiduously neutral in its presentation.”
It has been praised by the American Jewish Committee, and has been licensed to broadcast in numerous foreign countries, including Australia and Sweden. It is an important piece of journalism on an important topic. And we stand behind it.
Andrew Goldberg | New York City
executive producer, Two Cats Productions
Dave Davis | executive producer, Oregon Public Broadcasting
Help still needed
As a senior at Brandeis University, I recently traveled to New Orleans to rebuild the city following Hurricane Katrina. My experience changed me in a way that no other travel experience has, and, being someone who has been to more countries than I have states, this is saying a lot.
Upon my return, I felt empowered. I quickly submitted something for publication but, to my dismay, editors rejected it, saying they already had printed enough about Hurricane Katrina.
That reaction is exactly what the people of New Orleans face on a daily basis. Despite the hurricane and flooding having occurred nearly a year and a half ago in New Orleans, it looks as though it happened just last week.
To the people of New Orleans, the horror and aftermath is still fresh. So, despite there being “a lot of stories” about people like me who have returned bearing witness to this modern-day national disaster, I still hope to get the point across — synagogues and youth groups are still needed in the Gulf Coast to help the Jewish and non-Jewish communities rebuild their lives.
Rachel Hillman | Fremont
‘Powerful reminder’
It wasn’t the kind of concert that leaves an audience exuberant. In fact, it probably left many wilted and a bit heartbroken. That’s what happens when fine musicians like the Bridge Players perform “Trios from Terezin,” music written by young Jewish composers who were murdered by Nazis.
Who can imagine what other musical bequests the world might have received from prodigies like Gideon Klein and Zikmund Schul, whose lives were extinguished at the age of 26. Or Hans Krasa, the writer of Brundibar, whose life was snuffed out at age 45.
The performance — one I can’t forget — was even more than just music, as Randall Weiss, violinist, told the little that is known about the three composers. One wonders whether the murdered musicians could have even dreamed that one day other musicians like Weiss, violist Natalia Vershilova and cellist Victoria Ehrlich would revive what the composers surely must have thought was lost forever.
The BJE Jewish Community Library and the Holocaust Center of Northern California sponsored the recent free concert-with-commentary, a powerful reminder that we must not forget what Hitler did.
June Brott | Oakland
Personal queries
Rachel Sarah met a wonderful, caring Israeli man of 45 whom her daughter adores, and he adores her daughter (Jan. 19 j.). He has no children of his own. How could she not know he’d want children?
While it is sometimes uncomfortable to ask personal questions early on, basics eliminate the situation she now finds herself in. She should reconsider another child with Yossi or move on.
Jill Maleson | Fremont
Self-image problem?
Interesting reading Rachel Sarah’s Jan. 19 column. If her boyfriend thinks he is “old” at 45, what’s he going to think at 60 (is there a self-image problem there that may never go away)?
If, after dating for five months he’s talking (or demanding) babies, who is he really thinking about? Himself or her?
Five months is not long enough to really get to know who the other person really is, and what about respect for her wishes? A girl should (and does, in my world) have at least 50 percent of the “say-so” in a relationship.
Call me crazy, but if he put those kind of demands on her so soon, and so profound, he’s just not into her. It’s all about himself.
As nice a guy as I am sure he is, he’s not 45 in “mindset” — he has an immature attitude and very much like a lot of European men (from what my ladyfriends tell me), demanding and self-indulgent (European women, on the other hand are quite the opposite).
Jerry Macktinger | Tiburon
Advice to columnist
Columnist Rachel Sarah might pass her boyfriend this note: If you want a child, grow up and find a nice, younger single girl. Otherwise, forget it.
To the columnist: Find an older man to be your daddy, one who will be able to indulge you.
Herbert Ratet | Palo Alto
Multiple Judaism
There has never been one Judaism. In the days of the Second Temple, there were sharp divisions between Sadducees and Pharisees, and groups like the Essenes withdrew from Jerusalem and created their own calendar and canon.
We have two Talmuds, and communities as widely separated as Ethiopia, India, and China evolved their own traditions.
There was a time when Karaite Jews seemed to be in the ascendancy, turning their backs on Talmud interpretations of Torah.
Why do we think that there is only one way to be a Jew?
The recent Conservative rulings around gay inclusion have been carefully considered, and follow similar prior decisions by the Reconstructionist and Reform Movements.
It’s time for us to recognize that there are differing paths to HaShem, and multiple halachahs, all rooted in our shared sacred texts. I celebrate the widening shelter of peace our communities are creating. They reveal a strength in our tree of life that all Jews should welcome.
Andrew Ramer | San Francisco
Gaining credence
“Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” by former President Jimmy Carter, is gaining outspoken derision among Jewish leaders. Hoping to make a lasting contribution to the final treaty, Carter has done what few Americans — certainly few American Jews — are willing to do: open Palestinian and Israeli doors to compassionate, rational give and take using his experience in the field of conciliation to speak not only on one hand but also on the other hand.
In short, by publishing this slanted screed, he is qualifying himself to bring the two stubborn antagonists to the table, each with some hope that its case will have a fair hearing.
Ironically, though Carter will be remembered in history as the Great Peacemaker, those who are so insecure in their own convictions that they see him as threatening Israel’s existence simply by the title of his book will be remembered in their communities as also serving.
Mine is not to discourage such diatribes, for each time a Jew excoriates the president for his opinionated description of Palestinian suffering, the author gains credence elsewhere as a trustworthy confidant.
Bernard A. Goldberg | Sacramento
Atoning for past?
Carter’s new book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” is one which, according to Abe Foxman of the ADL, you can judge by its cover.
Carter’s anti-Israel bias is long-standing. During his presidency he blamed Menachem Begin for failing to make sufficient concessions to the Palestinians, and told Begin he was “sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust.”
Later, in 1991, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Carter wrote that “the whole war” could be avoided if only Israel would withdraw from the West Bank.
In 2001 he blamed Ariel Sharon for “the popularity” of the suicide bombers. Carter has called for aid to Israel to be cut off.
Ian Zimmerman | San Francisco
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California