Increasing literacy
Good to see j. promoting the launch of the PJ Library Program in the East Bay (“Free books available to East Bay families,” July 25). The Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley will be inaugurating the program in the South Bay during the High Holidays.
The PJ Library Program of Silicon Valley — also funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation — has expanded its vision to focus on programming and outreach that will not only increase Jewish literacy in families, but also between families, within local Jewish organizations, and among the diverse synagogues, educational institutions and service organizations from Cupertino to Morgan Hill. Our PJ Library program has as one of its strongest aims the development and solidification of a strong sense of community based on welcoming new, young families throughout our many different neighborhoods.
We are also pleased that this program — which unites all three Bay Area federations in such a creative and collaborative project — will give those of us living south of Palo Alto a chance to feel connected to everyone else: metropolitan, north and east. And that’s just another “gift” from the Jim Joseph Foundation! We look forward to sharing our triumphs with our counterparts.
Eleanor Weber Dickman
Cupertino
Chairperson, steering committee,
PJ Library Program of Silicon Valley
Not a spokesperson
One might excuse Danielle Kubes for her offense against diversity and for the distasteful cultural hubris she expresses in her repugnant opinion piece (“Wearing skirts? Hot for Torah? Maybe you’ve been Aish’d,” July 25).
After some 20-something years of vulnerable immersion in Western, secular culture, she has arisen unto the stature of a self-appointed spokesperson for a set of attitudes, values and behaviors that, from another’s perspective, might easily be dismissed as cultish. She misapprehends that the dominating, peer stature of her Western, secular values, inculcated during her long captivity from cradle unto campus, has denied her the freedom to fully appreciate other cultural choices. One might even say that she’s been Wasp’d.
But though one might excuse the young Ms. Kubes, what about you, dear editor? Every perspective is entitled to a voice. But that doesn’t mean that every journal must give expression to every voice. Though diverse opinion is a high calling in journalism, your job is to make choices. Your choice to print this highly offensive article displays a troubling disregard for the sensibilities of many observant Jews in a community that strives for inclusion rather than offense.
Jay Koppelman | Pleasant Hill
Thriving for all
The j. article on the growth of the Contra Costa and the Tri-Valley Jewish communities (“Eastern Eden,” July 11) was an important milestone. There were a few minor factual errors I’d like to address.
The Contra Costa JCC is planning a 50,000-square-foot expansion, not the reported 5,000 square feet. I’d also like to mention that adult programs is one of our largest, most active areas.
Contra Costa and the Tri-Valley are now a big part of the whole Bay Area Jewish story. The time has long passed when bridges are barriers. As Karla Smith of the Contra Costa Jewish Day School stated in her July 18 letter to the editor: “Our communities do not and cannot exist in isolation.”
A lifelong Bay Area resident, I have lived in San Francisco, Menlo Park, Piedmont, Stanford, Oakland, Fremont and now Pleasanton. As one of the key institutions serving the second-fastest growing Jewish population in the Bay Area, the Contra Costa JCC is grateful for the growing understanding that by strengthening Jewish life in the Contra Costa and the Tri-Valley, the entire Bay Area Jewish community is strengthened.
Jamie Hyams | Pleasanton
Executive Director, Contra Costa JCC
Cook the marinade
I receive j. each week and read many of the articles and have also enjoyed trying many of the delicious recipes. I am concerned about some of the directions in the recipe for mustard marinated chicken breasts, which appeared on page 32a in the July 25 edition.
At the end of the recipe it states, “Serve any additional marinade as a sauce with chicken if desired.” If the marinade is not cooked before being served with the chicken, serious consequences may occur. The juices from the uncooked chicken, which would have been mixed with the marinade, could cause the unsuspecting person eating the chicken to become quite ill.
Barbara Segal | Berkeley
No ‘Polish camps’
The Good Life supplement story (“Eight survivors ‘graduate’ from Jewish high school in SoCal,” July 11) by Julie Gruenbaum Fax contained the erroneous and offensive phrase “Polish concentration camps.”
I refer you to a Jan. 30, 2005 statement from the American Jewish Committee, which says in part:
“We would also like to remind those who are either unaware of the facts or careless in their choice of words … that Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other death camps … were conceived, built and operated by Nazi Germany and its allies. The camps were located in German-occupied Poland, the European country with by far the largest Jewish population, but they were most emphatically not ‘Polish camps.’ This is not a mere semantic matter. Historical integrity and accuracy hang in the balance.”
John Halucha | Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario