Focus on special needs
I read the article on the North Peninsula’s initiative to address the special needs of children with disabilities (“Special-needs children get a boost from Peninsula initiative,” Nov. 14). I applaud this and have already volunteered to be part of this effort through Peninsula Temple Beth El, although my kids are already in their late teens.
I strongly suggest that the community also focus on special-needs teens and adults. One thing many special-needs adults truly require is assisted living. The level of assistance needed varies by the type of disability, but there are many who will need a structured environment with someone to help them wake up, make sure they take their medicine, help them with social skills, cleaning and attaining/keeping employment.
It is my understanding that the JCC in Palm Beach County, Fla., is offering some housing along these lines. I only hope that the Bay Area can also offer such facilities in the very near future.
L.H. Livingston | Burlingame
Twisted logic
In a predictable double-standard outburst of benevolence toward Palestinians, the U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, has declared that Israel’s response to having its cities rocketed is “unacceptable.” Israel’s alleged malfeasance has been to temporarily stop the flow of food, fuel and other humanitarian assistance into Gaza while the rocketing continues.
Never mind that the smugglers who pay tunnel taxes to Hamas keep things going smoothly from the Egyptian side.
Once again, the notion of cause and effect has been turned on its head. Israel killed four Hamas members who were trying to complete a tunnel intended to be used to kidnap more Israeli soldiers. Hamas’ response was to fire rockets in “retaliation” for Israel’s pre-emptive attempt to not lose another Gilad Shalit or two.
Tell me, Mr. Ban, why is it that Jews can die violently or be maimed, but Arabs can’t be deprived of food and fuel in response? Seems a bit twisted to me.
Desmond Tuck | Menlo Park
Carter has the facts straight
Jimmy Carter’s “Palestine: Peace or Apartheid,” is not, as Mr. Dershowitz assumes, addressed to Israelis (“Dershowitz makes a powerful ‘Case’ against Israel’s enemies, Nov. 7). It gives Palestinians hard facts of their existence and choices for their future.
If they choose peace, they must form a nation to negotiate with Israel. If they choose apartheid, they must suffer the consequences. Jews whose biases allow them to misread President Carter’s intentions become complicit in war- mongering of the right and do an injustice to one of the world’s greatest advocates for peaceful conciliation.
Misunderstandings of the book’s purpose cause them to fantasize in reviews of Mr. Carter’s actions, citing facts that Carter “neglects to say, though he knows better.” Such niggling discredits serious efforts of the right to bring sense in striving for peace.
President Carter’s book is the first negotiating document intended to confront Palestinians with the reality of their choices. The author is a master mediator with a proven track record. That Jews misread his purpose is no credit to the People of the Book. Palestinians have read it correctly. They have chosen apartheid to engage with Israel and eventually to dominate. The struggle within Israel will, they hope, lead to Israel itself declaring apartheid a necessary evil.
Bernard A. Goldberg | Sacramento
Rabbi’s sisters survived
I went online and found your obituary of Rabbi Samuel Graudenz (Oct. 13, 2006), and read it with great interest.
I heard about the rabbi for the first time just this week, when a very nice lady came to collect money for a local charity. During our conversation, she told us about her family’s past and how her late brother, Rabbi Graudenz, escaped the Holocaust via Shanghai and then went to California, where he served several organizations and temples in the Bay Area and Central Valley.
However, the article’s statement that “the rest of his family perished in the Holocaust” was inaccurate. His two sisters both managed to escape Germany in those dark days on the famous Kindertransport trains to England. One of them passed away about two years ago, and the other one, the very lovely Mrs. Fisher who visited us, lives to tell the tale.
Incidentally, it is the 70th anniversary of the first Kindertransport on Sunday, Nov. 23.
Edgar Leibovici | London, England