Not conflicted
Monday, March 7, after crossing the picket line outside of the Hilton, my stomach turned. I was conflicted about working “Power of One” as a JCF employee versus my support for labor. A hotel manager assured me the union employees were working, and the picketers were outside supporters. I was still uneasy.
Gloria Steinem, our keynote, decided she wouldn’t cross a line, in solidarity with the union. Focused on Gloria’s decision, I was served an $82 meal by a union worker who is merely asking for better health care.
I left wildly conflicted about my decision to work.
The next morning, at breakfast with Gloria and a union activist, I was reminded, in a less emotional way than crossing a line, of the grand issues feminism encompasses.
While Gloria stood in solidarity with the union, I stood in solidarity with the JCF, which funds social service organizations around the world.
Supporting the federation is just as feminist as supporting labor rights. I’m fighting to make the world a better place.
I’m not conflicted anymore. Feminism is not single-issued. It’s simply the pursuit of justice. Turns out, Gloria and I stand on the same side of the line.
Esther Gibian Fishman | San Francisco
Showing off
I found an anecdote in your March 4 celebrations supplement story “B’nai mitzvah boosters” upsetting enough to write. The story says a mother was “feeling stuck” when various synagogues said her daughter would have to attend Hebrew school for two years in order to have a ceremony there.
The mother hired a tutor and the family held an “unorthodox” ceremony at a local Jewish community center. The mother said her daughter “did the full service and didn’t have to share it with anyone like at synagogue. It was all about her.”
A bar/bat mitzvah is supposed to be a public celebration — with the community — that a young person has reached the age where he or she can participate in the community as a full adult and lead the congregation in services.
Instead, this family’s message to their daughter was that becoming a bat mitzvah is an excuse to show off and throw a party.
Sadly, I think this is true of many families.
I wish families would use the occasion to focus with their children on the real meaning of becoming a child of the commandments rather than on throwing a glorified birthday party with some Hebrew skills thrown in.
Janice Gelb | Los Altos
A cry for help
As a member of Congregation Sherith Israel, thank you for drawing the attention of the Jewish community to the building retrofit crisis of our temple (j. cover story Feb. 25).
Sherith Israel has been my family’s congregation of choice since I chose Judaism. My son started religious school at the temple when he was 2-1/2 years old and will become a bar mitzvah on its magnificent bimah this June.
My husband’s funeral was in the main sanctuary. Our family has shared countless High Holy Day, Shabbat and special celebration services in this beautiful temple — the spiritual experience enhanced by and inextricably meshed with the stunning temple itself, its flickering candles, light against stained-glass windows, warmth of the wood bimah, intricate wall designs and magnificent dome.
We members love the temple and will be reaching as deeply as possible into our own pockets to help pay for the retrofit. But the $20 million cost is staggering — too great for the congregation’s members to carry alone.
To think that this splendid temple is at risk of being closed permanently or razed is unbearable. The preservation of this historically rich temple should be a high priority for the entire Jewish community. Please help.
Carol Kingsley | San Francisco
‘Inspiring evening’
Our congregation recently was treated to a truly inspiring evening of poetry featuring the charismatic poet and liturgist, Marcia Falk, who read from her own poetry, her “Book of Blessings,” her exquisite translations of “The Song of Songs” and the newly published, “The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems by Zelda.”
Zelda, an Orthodox Jew descended from a line of prominent Chassidic rabbis, became a best-selling Israeli author, winning numerous literary prizes. Falk’s translation is a landmark event, the first time that the work of this prominent poet is available to an English-speaking audience.
The leading Israeli writer Amos Oz calls it “an exemplary translation” preserving “Zelda’s melodies, idioms, and colors.”
Temple Sinai congregants were both mesmerized and enchanted listening to Falk.
For those who missed this special evening, Falk will be giving a repeat performance at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 22 at the Osher Marin JCC. More information is available by calling (415) 444-8000.
Rabbi Suzanne Singer | Oakland
Temple Sinai
Oscar redux
For those who want to kvell some more, Jorge Drexler — Oscar-winner for best song — is a Jew from Uruguay.
Drexler composed and sang “Al Otro Lado del Río” for the soundtrack of “The Motorcycle Diaries.” He has written/recorded several songs with Jewish themes, and his work has been recorded by Israeli David Broza, among others.
Flaurie S. Imberman | Palo Alto
‘To be remembered’
I’m glad friends advised me to ignore Michael Fox’s Feb. 25 review of “Paper Clips.”
I saw the film at the San Jose Jewish Film Festival. I’ve not often been with an audience so involved, appreciative and laudatory. Virtually everyone sat transfixed.
While Fox found it the most banal Holocaust film ever made, the Los Angeles Times said it is a documentary with a persuasive message.
The school principal and teachers of a middle school in Whitwell, Tenn., conceived a plan to illustrate to their all-Christian, Southern, teenage students the horrors of intolerance, the magnitude of the Holocaust. Their classes sought 6 million paper clips from survivors and others to illustrate the enormity of the number 6 million.
Eventually, 29 million clips arrived, many with letters commemorating the murders of family and loved ones.
The tears of the students and their teachers were genuine.
Clearly, the paper clips attached their thoughts and hearts to those of murdered Jews, Jewish survivors and, later included, murdered homosexuals, Gypsies, Slavs, Poles and Soviet prisoners.
In a closing sequence, synagogue children and their teacher visited and led the participating Whitwell teenagers in the Mourner’s Kaddish in Hebrew.
It’s a film to be remembered.
Hillel Levine | Castro Valley
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