Forget ‘the good life’
Once again I have received a copy of the seniors supplement called “The Good Life” (Oct. 4). Please reflect on and change this distasteful title. It feels to me like it was invented by people under 50. Why not ask a couple of 75-year-olds about an appropriate title for a seniors supplement?
Life after a certain age is about facing limits, noticing the body deteriorating and facing increasing health problems, not to mention money problems for many.
When you call your supplement “The Good Life,” you are in complete denial of the basic truth about life for seniors — that after a certain age, the specters of sickness and death become permanent guests at the party.
Eric Strauss | Berkeley
Editor’s note: In the future, the supplement will be known as the “Senior Life” section.
Loot belongs to thief
The Iraqi Jewish Archives (“Plan to ‘return’ Jewish artifacts to Iraq sparks outrage,” Oct. 11) belong to the Iraqi government because they stole them fair and square, along with all other assets of the expelled Jewish community. For the U.S. government to collude in the return of this collection is a travesty of law where loot is returned to the thief, not the victim.
Dave Peters | South San Francisco
Liberalism the new religion of choice
For anyone who has paid attention to the status of American Jewry over the past decade, the results of the Pew study (“What do Pew study results really mean?” Oct. 11) are no surprise.
For the majority of American Jews, liberalism long ago supplanted Judaism as their religion of choice. And no amount of “healing the world” can make up for lighting candles on Friday night or keeping kosher or studying Torah. If a young couple today wants to ensure that their grandchildren will be Jewish, there are really only two choices: Make aliyah or practice traditional Judaism.
Inevitably, American Jewry — ironically — will be mostly Orthodox and politically conservative, and the vast majority of the world’s Jews will live in Israel.
Sloane Citron | Menlo Park
‘Repellent’ rituals explain Pew results
Rabbi Seth Limmer of Congregation B’nai Yisrael in Armonk, N.Y., eloquently blogged about the Pew study on http://ravblog.ccarnet.org. He tells of the many congregants who apologize for not being religious, which he understands as code for those who don’t relate to the prayer found in synagogue and may not believe in God at all. He then explains how Jews have always carried these doubts but nonetheless embrace Judaism: “Judaism has long been much more about living a certain way of life, following a certain path, halakha, a way of walking through our world, than it has been about subscription to any sort of creed of belief or fidelity.”
And yet, walk into any synagogue during any service and almost the entire content will be about praying, obeying and endlessly praising a medieval conceptualization of God. To me the Pew findings make the obvious even more so: that many Jews find the current ritual practice at temple, with its obsession over an anthropomorphic God as envisioned in the superstitious Middle Ages, repellent, and are thus repelled.
What the Pew findings tell us is that Rabbi Limmer’s ideal is what Jews want but can’t find. It tells us that formal Jewish practice has gotten itself stuck in rituals that insult our intelligence as a modern thoughtful people, and turn us away from our heritage. It tells us that some serious soul searching and dramatic reform are necessary.
Dan Bodner | Oakland