Barring Muslims is short goose-step away from Jews
Your Dec. 11 editorial is totally correct in calling for an end to Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Simply put, should the United States government have the power to bar the entry of anyone into the nation on the basis of religion?
When government has power over religion, a form of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass in Germany and Austria on Nov. 9-10, 1938) becomes a very easy next step. On Kristallnacht, about 100 Jews in Hitler’s Reich were murdered. Jewish shops, hospitals and synagogues were destroyed. About 30,000 Jews were put in concentration camps.
If Trump, as president, could bar Muslims from entering the United States, what is to prevent him from ordering the destruction of the lives and property of Jews and members of other religions?
Richard S. Colman | Orinda
‘Not all Jews are on the left’
Thank you for dismissing the voices of those who disagree with J.’s editorial stance on Muslims entering America (“It’s time to end Trump’s bid for presidency,” Dec. 11). And thanks for misrepresenting and misquoting what Trump said, and then demonizing and delegitimizing him. You’ve proven yourself reactive leftists.
Not all Jews are on the left. Many of us are cautious, reality-based conservatives. We believe, for example, that there is no comparison between Jewish refugees in the 1940s and Syrian refugees today, simply because Judaism has never threatened America; Islam does. Islam honors Shariah law, not the American Constitution and American laws; and a strict interpretation of the religion results in intolerance toward non-Muslims and is anathema to the liberties and privileges in our democracy.
Do you pretend to know who of the entering Muslims are radicalized and who have a penchant toward violence? You don’t. Until there is a mechanism in place to determine this, Muslim immigration into the United States should temporarily cease. The safety and security of Americans trumps your liberal ideology.
Barry Gustin, M.D. | Berkeley
In condemning Trump, J. displays intolerance
The disconnect was striking. The lead story in the Dec. 11 New York Times was that Donald Trump’s support was continuing to grow and stood at 35 percent of Republican primary voters, a substantial increase from just weeks before. The same day, J. editorialized that Trump must get out of the race and accused him of being “dangerous … unspeakably racist … and [having a] deep and abiding bigotry.”
Maybe those accusations are true, but maybe not. The fact is that unspeakable acts of violence against innocent people have been perpetrated, in California and abroad, in the name of Islam. The situation is out of control. The perpetrators may represent just a small percentage of all Muslims, but one thing for sure is that the only distinguishing characteristic of the attackers is their religion. Given these facts, new measures focused on that religion might be appropriate. It certainly is worth discussion instead of hasty dismissal by the media.
J.’s position displays a failure of understanding, engagement, tolerance and respect of conservative thinking. In its rush to condemn Trump, the paper betrays its own values. The fact is that some members of our own Jewish community agree with Trump, and they deserve a respectful debate.
Alan Titus | San Francisco
Covering the full picture
In his column about young Jewish journalists, David A.M. Wilensky wonders about the sanity of “choosing a life covering the niche news of a community that can read about itself as easily in the New York Times as in the local Jewish rag” (“Are the kids all right? New Voices gives a journalist hope,” Dec. 11). I beg to differ. Mainstream media cannot begin to cover all the richness and diversity of Jewish life.
Anyone reading the headlines these days might think that Israeli soldiers are randomly killing young Palestinians. They would not understand the full extent of the scapegoating of Israel that is endemic from college campuses to the United Nations. Anyone relying on mainstream media would be unaware of Israel’s pre-eminence as a first responder nation whenever there is a disaster anywhere in the world. They would not hear about the Jewish community’s past and present alliance with oppressed and minority groups. They would forget that Jews themselves are a tiny minority in the world.
Every minority group needs its niche media to cover all the details of communal life for which the mainstream media simply does not have the space or expertise and to give a full and fleshed-out picture of who they are. New Voices is impressive, and we can be thankful for it and for newspapers like J.
Malka Weitman | Berkeley
BDS is wicked
The Academic Engagement Network headed by the former U.C. Chancellor Mark Yudof (“Anti-BDS academics form group to enlist faculty allies,” Dec. 11) may start by clearly identifying the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as wickedly anti-Semitic. There are no nuances or shades, because BDS accusations of Israel are as libelous as the millennia-old accusations of Jews. While the latter have led to murder of millions of Jews, the former is intended to decimate the Jewish state.
Hopefully, the Academic Engagement Network will bring to light the antipodal differences between the BDS movement and traditional American values, and eventually restore the true, enlightening meaning of the First Amendment by rejecting BDS’ mockery of it.
Vladimir Kaplan | San Mateo