Peace looks different from Palestinian side
In her letter last week, Molly Freeman shared her vision of a Passover seder, 10 years down the road, in which families commemorate a Palestinian state whose residents live peacefully next to Israel (“What did you do to create Palestine?” April 5). She appeals to readers to work toward the goal of creating a Palestinian state that would end the conflict.
Her vision is indeed a noble one. And polls show that 82 percent of American Jews would support a two-state solution that ends the conflict. Two-thirds of Israelis would support a peace agreement that creates a Palestinian state the size of the West Bank and Gaza.
Unfortunately, while most Israelis are prepared to take the difficult steps to achieve a lasting peace, the Palestinian vision is different. Currently two-thirds of Palestinians regard a “two-state solution” as only a first step toward the ultimate goal of replacing Israel with a single Palestinian state.
While Freeman’s vision is honorable, the readership of j. is not the audience that needs to hear that message. Only when Palestinian acceptance of the Jewish state rises to the level of Jewish support for a Palestinian state will peace be realized.
Andrew Gross | Union City
Experiences in Germany
When I visited the Berlin Jewish Museum, I couldn’t help thinking, particularly when I was looking at exhibits that described Jewish life in pre-war Germany, that this was what Hitler had planned (“Berlin museum’s ‘Jew in a Box’ exhibit raises interest, ire,” April 5).
Supposedly, after he destroyed us, he wanted to set up a museum showing what we were like. I wanted to grab the other visitors and say to them, you don’t need to look at what’s on the walls, look at me. That seems to be the purpose of this exhibit, although it would be better if Germans could see us living “outside the box,” too.
In contrast to my experience at the museum, I did have positive Jewish experiences in my visit to Germany, the best of which was spending a Shabbat dinner with the Chabad rabbi and his family in Munich. At one point, we were singing “Shalom Aleichem,” and in the middle, the rabbi got up to open the window. He called us to come over and pointed to an apartment across the way, and said, “see that apartment, Hitler used to live there.” And then we sang even louder.
Jeremy Smith | Berkeley
Bus ads’ wrong message
Or Shalom Jewish Community joins the Jewish Community Relations Council and many others in condemning the anti-Muslim advertisements that have appeared on Muni buses in San Francisco.
Quoting a religion’s most violent fringe and branding the whole group by association is provocative and hateful. We recognize the First Amendment issues raised by the prospect of banning offensive publicity of this sort, but we are saddened by the thought of San Francisco’s many peace-loving Muslims seeing their faith smeared in public without response from their neighbors.
So, we respond by condemning the ads and stating our wish to live in peace based on mutual respect with all San Franciscans, in their diverse faiths, cultures, and backgrounds.
Corey Weinstein | San Francisco
President, Or Shalom Jewish Community
Marriage vs. union
Most of us agree that we should not deny homosexuals the joy of intimate relations as stated in a recent j. editorial (“Same-sex couples deserve deliverance from injustice,” March 29). But for 2,000 years, religious Jews believe that the Hebrew Bible has recognized that man and woman are created with different anatomy and physiology. Therefore, the conjugal relation of marriage requires a man and a woman.
So what is the solution? It is to pass laws allowing same-sex union, with the same social and fiscal benefits as heterosexual marriage. For those gays who insist on the term “marriage” rather than “union,” they should have the appropriate Jewish denominational committees vote for the change in definition of marriage for their respective communities, rather than a handful of judges deciding it.
Edward Tamler | San Mateo
Missing Tygerpen
To the decision makers at j., I just had to write to tell you that I will truly miss Trudi Gardner’s column — she is such a bright light, with a wonderful sense of humor. Just wanted you to know that as a Reformed Jew, I read j. like an Orthodox Jew, back to front because Trudi’s column puts me in a good mood to read the rest of the paper.
I’m sorry you made such an unfortunate decision to eliminate her column.
Barbara Proctor | Pleasanton
‘Soft words’ from Obama in Israel
Eighty-five percent of Israelis polled by Yediot Achronot, in the Hebrew daily’s “daily pulse taking of public sentiment,” said that in the aftermath of Barack Obama’s visit, they weren’t convinced by Obama’s words.
In short, if President Obama wants Israel’s trust it will hinge on “walking the talk” — particularly on Iran but also in a host of other areas that have led to such mammoth distrust of the current administration in the eyes of so many Israelis, myself included.
There are too many ways the administration has distanced itself from Israel, in part due to a philosophy of post-modern relativism coupled with a liberal naiveté about the nature of the world we live in. This has led to a series of foreign policy blunders that have merely exacerbated the situation for us who happen to live in the Middle East, behavior that has emboldened Israel’s enemies and fed their intransigence.
All the niceties and soft words can’t erase this.
Daniella Ashkenazy | Kfar Warburg, Israel
Fight back, Stanford
The “divest-from-Israel resolution on agenda at Stanford” article (March 1) struck a chord with me. As a resident of Palo Alto my entire life, I practically grew up at Stanford and take special interest in the events that occur there. Hearing that the BDS movement has started to stir in such a pro-Israel community has put me on edge. So many places in the world have a negative view of Israel as it is. We can’t afford to have the Bay Area join them, too. I can only hope that the many Jewish organizations on campus take a stand and speak up.
Danielle Yacobson | Palo Alto