Yiddish culture is ‘new again’
Yiddish culture is so old that it’s new again — and cool! I attended the Yiddish Cultural Festival in Cotati last month and enjoyed your coverage (Nov. 21). J. readers in Sonoma County who missed this terrific celebration should watch for next year’s plans. Those far from Sonoma County should know that KlezCalifornia has put on Yiddish culture festivals every year since 2003: in Palo Alto (Nov. 1-2, see J. Oct. 24), Berkeley, San Francisco, West Marin and Santa Rosa. Each has attracted hundreds of Bay Area Jews and non-Jews as eager participants.
Every month, the Bay Area features dozens of Yiddish-inspired activities: klezmer concerts and dance parties, Yiddish conversation salons and sing-alongs, lectures on Eastern European Jewish history and more. We know of 13 musical events Dec. 18–25, from Santa Cruz and Sunnyvale to Petaluma. Check KlezCalifornia’s free newsletter, www.klezcalifornia.org or call (415) 789-7679.
Judy Kunofsky | Berkeley
Executive director, KlezCalifornia
Honor women behind YiddishLand
Thank you for covering Sonoma County’s YiddishLand festival. The excitement came through clearly in the article. Gesher Calmenson and Irwin Keller, half the organizing team, were honored to have their voices included.
YiddishLand was a shared vision and a group effort, and, as we say in Yiddish, a halber emes iz a gantzer lign: a half-truth is a whole lie.
YiddishLand would not have happened without the skills and leadership of the women on our committee. Suzanne Shanbaum brought the organizational and technical expertise. Gale Kissin brought to bear a decade of Yiddish groundwork in Sonoma County. Gale grew up among Yiddishists, the language and its music her first loves. When she arrived here, there was no natural landing place for those passions so Gale tilled the Wine Country soil herself, first founding the band Harmonia Shvesters with Laurie Lippin, and then, with Suzanne Shanbaum and Rhonda Findling, Mama Loshn, a band dedicated to fostering Yiddish wherever Jews celebrate or lament or dream.
When we tell the history of Yiddish revival in Sonoma County, let’s make sure the women who form the core of this movement get their due.
Gale Kissin, Suzanne Shanbaum, Gesher Calmenson and Irwin Keller
YiddishLand Organizing Committee, Sonoma
Ner Tamid not at fault
Regarding “Russian-Jewish school in San Francisco to close?”(Nov. 21): As a member of the Ner Tamid board of directors, I feel that the article glossed over a pertinent issue of the conflict, which was based on lack of insurance to cover the Aleph Bet School. It neglected to say that Ner Tamid’s insurance was not going to cover the Aleph Bet School because it is an independent school, and that Ner Tamid notified Helen Bond that she needed to provide insurance for herself, her teachers and her students. When she declined to purchase insurance, Ner Tamid offered to buy the insurance for her, but would need the names, salaries and hours of the teachers that she employed. Ms. Bond refused to provide that information as well. So Ner Tamid had no other choice but to end the relationship because the liability was too great.
Pablo Libedinsky | San Francisco
Aleph Bet parent’s ‘hurtful claim’
As a member of Congregation Ner Tamid, I find it deeply disappointing — shocking, really — that Edward Kats, the Aleph Bet School parent quoted in your Nov. 21 article, believes Ner Tamid is guilty of “discrimination” for “depriving Russian children of an education.” This is a serious and hurtful claim against one of San Francisco’s oldest and most venerable shuls, and one that is completely untrue.
If Ner Tamid wished to discriminate against the Russian community, why would the shul have given the Aleph Bet School free access to shul facilities and a wide variety of other services at absolutely no cost for more than four years? Why would Ner Tamid have offered memberships to Russian families at a 60 percent discount from our next-lowest member dues rate? Why would Ner Tamid have brought the school’s children onto the bimah every Shabbat morning, and then provide them a hot kosher meal after services?
In fact, Ner Tamid had no interest in changing its support for the school until we learned that the school was wholly uninsured (having neither workers’ compensation nor general liability coverage) and unwilling or unable to purchase insurance.
And finally, with regard to the broader Russian-speaking community, the article neglects to note that Ner Tamid for years has offered free Passover seders, Yom Kippur services and Simchat Torah celebrations tailored to the Russian-speaking community, without asking anything in return. Our Russian-speaking members continue to be welcomed and valued, and we hope other members of the Russian-speaking community will join us as well.
Mr. Kats owes Ner Tamid an apology.
Howard Simon | San Francisco
Ferguson editorial distorts facts
Your Nov. 28 editorial on the recent violence in Ferguson, Missouri, is a remarkable distortion of fact and issue. The opening sentence “No one outside that St. Louis County grand jury room knows what evidence was heard” is patently false. All 24 volumes of evidence were released to the public immediately after the announcement of the grand jury decision. Much of that reported eyewitness and forensic evidence indicates that Michael Brown had attacked officer Darren Wilson in his police car and was charging at the officer when he fired in self-defense. Tragedy, yes. Injustice, no.
Furthermore, your later statement that a “grand jury would indict a ham sandwich” is not a call for justice, but a mockery of it. It might be wise to consider that in almost each instance where the Torah admonishes judges against taking the case of the rich man over that of the poor man, it immediately warns against taking the case of the poor man over that of the rich man. Your next editorial on the perils of urban life might well consider the danger (sometimes fatal) faced daily by the police in the course of their work, which is to protect us all.
Steve Astrachan | Pleasant Hill
New ADL head is ‘wise, creative choice’
It’s not easy to replace an iconic leader like Abe Foxman (“What will ADL’s priorities be in a post-Foxman era?” Nov. 28.) Although I’m not a millennial or a Gen-Xer, Jonathan Greenblatt seems like a wise and creative choice. While I appreciate the concerns voiced about the ADL losing sight of its core mission, I’m puzzled because the links between bullying and other forms of hatred seem connected to a subculture of hating “the other.” From my perspective we can only create a safe, thriving community if we work in coalitions addressing the underlying roots of hatred in all their manifestations — including, of course, anti-Semitism.
Rachel Eryn Kalish | Woodacre
‘Flood of hatred’ doesn’t ebb
There are two very telling pieces in your Nov. 28 edition. First is the Mideast news about Jordan’s parliament paying “respect to synagogue attackers” and second, Tammi Roseman-Benjamin’s op-ed quoting an Arab BDS advocate who tells an Israeli supporter: “As long as you choose to be on that side, I’m going to continue to hate you.”
Between these two stories one can clearly see the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is not the proverbial Israeli occupation, nor it is a religious antagonism; it is the atavistic anti-Semitism, plain and simple.
The Palestinians could have had their own state before the “occupation” came into being and many times after the 1967 War when Israel offered, on many occasions, to return almost all the territories in exchange for peace.
As for the religious enmity, Jews lived among Arabs for centuries. Beautiful synagogues were built in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq and other Arab countries.
The old-fashioned anti-Semitism has come back to life via century-hallowed customs of vengeance and all-consuming jealousy, amplified by vicious propaganda. Israel’s victories on the battlefields and success in economy and science have turned the Jewish State (and Jews) into a mass-appealing target of hate and warmongering.
Only new modern-thinking leaders might be able to close this flood of hatred and bring real peace to the Middle East.
Vladimir Kaplan | San Mateo