‘A great man’
I first met Marcel Marceau — who died late last month — in 1947 while I was a student in Geneva.
The school I attended was created, with American and Swiss support, to train counselors to live and work with the children of those who died in Hitler’s camps. While I was there, Marcel taught us pantomime, which we enthusiastically added to our theater classes.
In 1951, I returned to Switzerland to study to become a director of a home for those children orphaned by Hitler. While in Geneva this second time, I met and married an American medical student in Lausanne. When Marcel made an appearance in Lausanne, I took my husband backstage to meet him. Marcel took one look at my husband and immediately said, “Are you a doctor?”
Yes, Marcel could “read his audience.”
We met Marcel many more times through the years, the last time in San Francisco. And once, when illness prevented us from seeing him, he wrote me a long letter to make me feel better.
He was a great man, a great friend, a great humanitarian.
Arnoldine Berlin | Oakland
Gender irrelevant
Camille De Saviola’s comment in the Sept. 21 theater review of “Golda’s Balcony” is rather disturbing. She claims that “a man would have pushed the button,” referring to the late Prime Minister Golda Meir’s decision not to use nuclear weapons when Arab armies attacked the Jewish state on the holiest day of the year in 1973.
Gender had nothing to do with Meir’s decision. A male Jewish leader would have come to the same conclusion.
Saviola doesn’t understand how precious life is to the Jewish people, male or female. How many Jewish soldiers have died since 1948 because the use of heavy weapons would have hurt Arab civilians? The Israeli cemeteries are filled with them.
James Macdonald, the first Ambassador to Israel, quoted an Arab leader as saying that a million Palestinian deaths means nothing to him and his peers.
If these leaders care so little for their fellow Arabs, then they certainly would not bat an eyelash in killing 6 million Jews. Arab or Persian leaders would not hesitate to use such horrible weapons against Israel.
If that ever occurred, I expect whoever was leading Israel to push the buttons to save the survivors.
Howard Roth | South San Francisco
Jokes missed
I’m sorry to see that you have discontinued your page of jokes. After all the heavy news concerning Israel and anti-Semitism in the world, it would be nice to bring back the humor you used to have.
Saul Fenster | San Francisco
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because of heavy reader response to the elimination of the jokes column, j. plans to reinstate them on an every-other-week basis beginning with the next issue.
Always a laugh
I’m 12 years old. My dad has been getting j. for years now and my favorite part, by far, has been the jokes. I love learning about the Jewish community in the world and everything, but the highlight of it all was knowing the jokes would be there at the end. My dad and I always got a good laugh, or at least a good conversation out of them.
Now we don’t. I’m not sure why you discontinued the jokes, but I personally disagree with your decision. I think that it’s a disappointment to people when they are expecting the jokes and get “Celebrity Jews” instead. I would like you to consider reinstalling the jokes.
Miri Becker | Ben Lomond
Keep on boycotting
I encourage the Rainbow Grocery workers boycotting Israeli products to remain true to their values, and should they find themselves in need of hospitalization, refuse the many Israeli medical lifesaving advances as well.
Alan Barsky | Mill Valley
Petition-signer?
Regarding your Sept. 21 article about how Judaism and Islam intersect, and that the JCC of San Francisco approached David Giovacchini about teaching a class on the subject, perhaps the JCC folks who invited him were not aware that he, a man who says he is Jewish, signed the Divest From Israel petition put together by the Stanford Students Confronting Apartheid in Israel organization.
Would they have invited him had they known?
Would anybody care to ask him why he has singled out Israel for divestment when there are much worse governments out there oppressing their own people — Sudan, Saudi Arabia and China, for example?
Just wondering.
Sheree Roth | Palo Alt
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