A ‘riveting’ exposé
I was delighted to read the accurate, forthright coverage by Dan Pine of ZOA President Morton Klein’s Jan. 26 address at the Hebrew Academy in San Francisco (“In S.F., ZOA president lashes out at ‘Orwellian lies’ against Israel,” Jan. 30). Klein’s talk was a riveting, two-hour exposé of contemporary global and national treatment of Israel. It was a tour de force. I’m glad J. gave its readers a report of such extraordinary truth-telling.
Quentin L. Kopp | San Francisco
Russian River Jewish community is a ‘shining light’
As the board president of the Guerneville-based Russian River Jewish Community, I wish to take issue with a statement by a member of the group Zmanim (“Earth-based Judaism takes root in Sonoma,” Jan. 30). The statement by Yael Raff Peskin that “there is no organized Jewish community west of Highway 101” from Petaluma to Ukiah is incorrect and actually insulting!
The RRJC (as we are known) has been a shining light in Jewish cultural life for almost 40 years. Our dedication to passing on our shared cultural traditions and events that incorporate outreach to the greater community is well known. Relying on a core membership and Jewish federation grant, we hold events from Rosh Hashanah to Israel Independence Day — all are welcome.
Natasha Pehrson | Monte Rio
Attacks are no ‘random acts’
An encounter with an Auschwitz survivor said it all: “How is it possible that it could be happening again, in my lifetime?”
The president refers to the terror in Paris at the kosher deli as a “random act” and does not mention that it was an attack on Jews at a targeted place where Jews would be shopping before Shabbat. The White House and State Department spokespeople refuse to call it an act directed against Jews, until the outcry becomes so great that they tweet the concession that indeed, it was an act of anti-Semitism.
The president calls for the authority to use military force against the Islamic State in part because of “their vicious acts of violence against religious and ethnic minority groups including Iraqi Christian, Yezidi and Turkmen populations.” The failure to list Jews in that number is glaring. The attack in Copenhagen is yet another indication of the terror being felt.
The White House seems unwilling to state clearly, as negotiations proceed, that the Iranian nuclear program is an ongoing threat to Israel and the West. The continuing attacks on Israel’s prime minister are deeply disturbing. Despite assurances to the contrary, there appears to be a willingness to distance the United States from Israel and to embrace those who are committed to Israel’s destruction.
Let us hope the White House response to the rising tide of worldwide terror will be more than just words, and that appeasement will not be the order of the day.
John Rothmann | San Francisco
Stick it to Granny?
Jonathan Harris gives thoughtless advice in his column “Will gay revelation ruin grandma’s 90th?” (The Advice Mensch, Feb. 13). He suggests turning the birthday party into an “on-the-spot” bigotry test. According to his opinion, the family gathering should not be a celebration of grandma’s life but a celebrated opportunity to “stick it to her” and to breathlessly await her reaction. This is not what I expect from an advice “mensch.”
Sofia Shtil | Fremont
Do the math again
I am glad that Kay Barchas’ letter openly disagreed with my defense of police, as her views represent those of many others (“Do the math,” Feb. 6). However, her arguments are flawed by not considering the high crime rates that afflict many urban black communities. In 2013, this 13 percent of the population represented nearly 44 percent of reported homicide victims.
Police intervention follows crime. The more crime, the more police intervention.
Evaluations without reference to crime rates give conclusions that may be technically accurate but irrelevant to the circumstances at hand. When reported police shootings by race are normalized to reported arrests by race for 2013, the ratios (white at .0000475 and black at .0000557) show no significant difference.
The issue goes beyond the misinterpretation of data. Ignoring violent crime rates marginalizes the victims, those human beings for whom the numbers are more than statistics in a government database. My credentials are those of an ex-Boston cabbie. There was once a very nice older black woman passenger whom I took to her daughter’s apartment because, she explained, her son-in-law had just been murdered. After all these years I have never forgotten her.
Better to work positively with the police and the communities involved to hopefully reduce violent crime so that more can live.
Steve Astrachan | Pleasant Hill
Defacing graves defiles the dead
The most permanent demonstration of anti-Semitism must be the defacing or destruction of a Jewish gravestone or holy site, as we saw last week in France. Aside from the rash of incidents around Europe and elsewhere involving the despicable demonstration of current hatred, old gravestones are still being uncovered after having been used for construction purposes in Eastern Europe during and after World War II.
The Jordanian soldiers’ infamous use of Jewish gravestones from the Mount of Olives to build latrines between 1948 and 1967 is one of the more loathsome memories of those decades.
When you mutilate the final resting place of dead people, there can be no mistake about your intentions. It is to annihilate the memory of those who lie buried there. It goes beyond killing people.
Any European trying to make sense of the spike in anti-Jewish attacks in their neighborhoods shouldn’t fool themselves that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to make aliyah is merely a scare tactic or pre-election ploy. It’s a reminder that history doesn’t actually repeat itself — we just keep making the same mistakes.
Desmond Tuck | San Mateo