Misleading error
Thank you for publishing a positive article about the “Illuminating Dialogues” series at U.C. Santa Cruz (Nov. 30). Many here believe bringing reasoned debate on Israel and Palestine to the campus and the chancellor’s support for this community initiative are important steps forward. The article is especially welcome because it balances criticism from hard-liners in the local community.
However, I must correct a misleading error in the first paragraph. The March 2006 Norman Finkelstein talk your reporter meant to describe was sponsored by the Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV), not the university nor its students, and took place in the town, not on the campus.
Your reporter could not have made a worse mistake, casting the university in this light. Your readers need to know that U.C. Santa Cruz makes many valuable contributions to the Jewish community, both locally and beyond. It would be a shame for your readers’ first and perhaps lasting impression to be so misleading.
Lee Jaffe | Santa Cruz
Take a trip
Thank you for your article about the Israel @ 60 Mission (Nov. 30) sponsored by the Israel Center of the SF-based Jewish Community Federation. We are looking forward to traveling with the community and experiencing a historic and memorable time as we celebrate the country’s 60th anniversary.
I want to clarify the registration deadlines: While the early registration special expires Dec. 13, the final deadline to register is Jan. 25. For those interested, financial assistance covering up to 50 percent of the trip’s cost is available. More details as well as online registration can be found at www.sfjcf.org. Thank you.
Neal Levy | San Francisco
Israel Center director
Laying down the lawn
I just read the Nov. 16 cooking article online called “Survivors’ stories add depth to old-world standbys,” by Louise Fiszer. In it she mentioned a recipe for Grammy’s Paprikash Potatoes, by Regina Weisz Wolovits, from Hungary, sent to Bergen-Belsen, now living in Fairlawn, N.J.
I always find disappointment at finding my hometown name misspelled. Fair Lawn, N.J. is spelled as I did previously. The only Fairlawn in the U.S. is that suburb of Akron, Ohio. Fair Lawn, N.J. is named for the beautiful lawn of early town resident David Ackerman. Thank you for letting me share.
Howard Bulos | Lafayette
Intent vs. consequence
Although no one called the slaughter of Armenians a genocide because the word was not coined until 20 years later, the word “holocaust” has been widely used since the 17th century. Before World War II, the word “holocaust” was used by Winston Churchill and others to describe the Armenian genocide.
Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent, created the word “genocide” to describe what had happened to the Armenians. Lemkin explained that the Turks acted on genocide with intent to exterminate. The 1948 U.N. convention on prevention of genocides cites the Armenian genocide as an example.
The Anti-Defamation League describes the Armenian genocide as “consequence” of WWI and “tantamount to genocide.” This contravenes the U.N. definition of genocide, which uses the word “intent” not “consequence.”
The world doesn’t take seriously what an Israeli leader or an American Jewish leader has to say about the six million, not when it sees those same Jewish leaders defiantly deny and shush everyone over the murders of 1.5 million other innocents.
Rabbi Hillel said it best: “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”
Berge Jololian | Cambridge, Mass.
Uninformed on history
Wow. According to David Rocha’s Nov. 23 letter, Jews are involved in ethnic cleansing while dwelling in the land stolen from Arabs. What a lowly, misguided and twisted knowledge of facts and history David possesses. Poor David.
I, for one, have a rachmones for you.
Arthur Amchipolovsky | San Francisco
Life after Talmud?
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz asked if there is a life after Talmud (Nov. 2). As a religious person and a Conservative Jew, I do believe in life after Talmud. For the Jews who believe in a mitzvah, there is a good life after Talmud. And, as a religious person I believe when I die, I will go to heaven because I do a lot of good things on the Earth.
That is what Talmud and Torah teach us.
To do good things and believe in mitzvot is important. And, Rabbi Steinsaltz made a good point about it in his article. He is trying to translate his multivolume bestseller into Russian, Spanish and English. This is a smart thing to do.
Paul Shkuratov | San Francisco
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