Why pick on Hagee?
Well, they’re at it again. A so-called “dovish pro-Israel lobby,” aka J Street, and the leader of the Reform movement, Eric Yoffie, want U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman to cut ties with the Rev. John Hagee.
I’m wondering why those two entities do not call for a Jewish boycott of mainstream Christian denominations, and British academics, which call for a boycott of Israel, and Israeli academics?
Why pick on Hagee and Christian evangelicals, who are true friends of Israel? Hagee’s movement, “Christians United for Israel,” promotes Israel financially and politically.
Hagee is a supporter of the Jewish people, and urges his movement to unite with the Jews to prevent a second genocide. He gave the keynote address at AIPAC’s policy conference last year, and his followers are held in esteem by the Israeli government.
His commitment to Israel and to the Jewish people is biblically based, and stronger than the lobby and Yoffie’s urgings to silence him.
The evangelicals would never boycott Israel, and the lobby and Yoffie should understand and appreciate this fact. Joe Lieberman, who is an Orthodox Jew, will continue with his loyalty to Hagee and with the evangelicals.
Stan Heimowitz | Castro Valley
Call for ’67 stories
I am compiling memoirs and stories for a book about volunteers to Israel who traveled there in June 1967 to help. Many served as nurses, mechanics, farm and kibbutz workers, drivers, etc. Time is passing, and the record of the stories must be compiled before it is lost.
If you are one who went to help, or have information about anyone who did so, please contact me or put the volunteer in touch with me: VolunteerIsrael1967@gmail.com.
Alan B. Joseph | Chicago
Treat animals better
Shavuot commemorates God giving the Torah to the Jewish people. There is increased Torah study on this important holiday, and many religious Jews stay up all night engaged in Torah study. Hence, this may provide a good occasion to respectfully raise some questions, such as:
Since the Torah mandates the avoidance of tsa’ar ba’alei chaim (causing unnecessary pain to animals), why isn’t there far greater concern about the horrible treatment of animals (10 billion annually in the U.S. alone) on factory farms?
Since the Torah mandates that we should very diligently guard our health, why don’t Jewish leaders speak out about the many negative health effects of animal-based diets?
Since the Torah mandates that we are to be shomrei adamah (guardians of the earth — Genesis 2:15), why are the many current severe environmental threats (all of which are significantly worsened by animal-based agriculture) not being adequately addressed by the Jewish community?
Since the Torah mandates that we are not to waste resources (bal tashchit — Deuteronomy 20:19-20), why isn’t the Jewish community addressing the fact that animal-based agriculture requires far more land, water, energy, and other agricultural resources than plant-based agriculture?
Since the Torah mandates that we are to share with hungry people, why isn’t the Jewish community (and others) addressing the fact that 70 percent of the grain produced in the United States is being fed to animals destined for slaughter while an estimated 20 million people die from malnutrition and its effects annually?
Richard H. Schwartz | Staten Island, N.Y.
‘Ignorant’ activism?
Randy Ezekiel’s and Michael Harris’ letters to the editor (May 23) were the same thinking as mine.
They pointed out the existence of anti-Semitism among our own Jews and the lack of understanding that the Palestinians (Muslims) have accomplished nothing in this world but warfare, death and destruction.
For Jews to ignorantly associate themselves with such distorted thinking is impossible to comprehend.
Alvin Tucker | Walnut Creek
Lending a hand
Jews are famous for their care and support of troubled people around the world (“Jewish family builds mosque in Cambodian village,” May 23). Will we hear or read about a Muslim family building a beautiful synagogue in Casablanca, Morocco — or anywhere else for that matter — for Jews in the world?
Gershon Evan | San Francisco
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California