Chabon et al off base about ‘injustice’
I hope Michael Chabon (“Berkeley author decries ‘cruel’ Israeli occupation,” May 6) and his supporters (“Planning to visit Israel? Take a West Bank side trip,” May 20) have recovered from the “shock” of witnessing “the horrible injustice” (still undisclosed by Chabon) committed by the evil Israelis toward the innocent Palestinians.
Now they can read eyewitnesses’ reports about another “horrible injustice.”
This one was committed by the U.C. Irvine police toward the innocent members of the Muslim Student Union and their sympathizers by escorting an evil female Jewish student to an event sponsored by the evil UCI Jewish students through the throngs of brave MSU men and women.
The latter were in the process of exercising their rights to free speech by yelling and screaming “Long live intifada” and “F— Israel” when the aforementioned police unit shamelessly interfered with their prerogatives granted by the First Amendment.
We can expect that shortly Mr. Chabon et al will come up with recommendations how to free MSU members from police intimidation on the U.C. campuses.
Vladimir Kaplan | San Mateo
‘Incorrect reading’ of oft-cited Torah verse
Regarding Rabbi Mychal Copeland’s Torah column (“ ‘If a man lies with a male’ verse must be put in context,” May 13), her explanation is so faulty that it needs refuting.
She writes: “First and foremost, Leviticus 20:13 should be rejected as a teaching with any real-world application on the grounds that our contemporary sexual ethics are not congruent with those of the Torah.” Nonsense.
The Torah is a timeless document that holds human truths. We will live our entire lives without being able to understand all of it. The challenge and, I might add, enjoyment, of studying Torah is when you do reach an understanding. Yet she clearly did not try.
For example, she states that “rape was not considered a crime, and young women were married off to their rapists.” But that is an incorrect reading. It’s taken out of context. In other Torah verses (in the same parashah a few verses away!) a rapist is punished with death. And being married does not mean being forced to live with the assailant; rather, it means that he now owes her permanent financial support.
A different interpretation of Leviticus 20:13 might be that (a) capital punishment was terminated 2,000 years ago in Judaism for good reason, so a “modern” approach to homosexuality has to be different; and (b) no Jew can do all 613 mitzvot; everyone is excluded because of some characteristic of birth, injury or behavior. Yet, as the rabbis teach us, “every Jew has a place in the world to come.”
For some reason, homosexuality makes many people uncomfortable. Perhaps the lesson here is learning how to overcome one’s personal bigotries and instead striving to see people who are different from you as being completely human.
Leora Lawton | Berkeley
Palestinian platform offers no hope
In his column last week, Dan Pine brought up Husam Zomlot’s résumé to make the point that the ambassador at-large for the Palestinian Authority “is no tunnel-dwelling jihadist” (“My West Bank visit left me optimistic, despite my host,” May 20).
But graduating from the London School of Economics in no way inoculates against the modern blood libel disease, whose symptoms include hurtling accusations of “ethnic cleansing” against Israel.
Similarly, opportunities to lecture around the world would be unlikely for anyone who staunchly defended the Jewish state of Israel against those who justify incitement of murderous hatred against Israeli civilians.
But apparently the world is actually willing to listen to a lecturer who cries victimhood from behind the lie of “ethnic cleansing.” The Arab population of the disputed territories has grown steadily, from 460,000 in 1948 to 2.4 million in 2005. Do those population figures represent “ethnic cleansing”?
Mr. Pine, perhaps peace is not what is really wanted by those who want a Jew-free Palestine and who are unwilling to live alongside Israel as a Jewish state. Peace, with its attendant benefits of happiness and security for all, is certainly not what their leaders have groomed them for.
When Palestinians reject the politics of destruction and demand different leadership, then — and only then — will there be a realistic basis for optimism.
Julia Lutch | Davis
Don’t forget that ‘Israel is a piece of us’
To the two young adults who co-wrote the op-ed “Don’t outsource young American Jews’ identity to the State of Israel” (May 20), I’d like to share some excerpts from an article featured in “From the J. archive” two months ago.
From the March 1, 1946 issue, the article was headlined “Refugees’ Hope In Palestine Told Here.”
The article stated: “A stirring description of the situation in Palestine was given in San Francisco … by Leo Herrman, international secretary of the Palestine Land Fund … who is touring the country to tell American Jews just how urgently needed is their support … [He] gave eye-witness accounts of the condition of Jews in Europe ‘who were kept alive by hope — not for their own lives — but for the future life of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael.’
“He told — and his telling brought tears to his listeners’ eyes — of the trainloads of Jews leaving for the extermination camps singing ‘Hatikvah’ … and who left pathetic messages attesting their desire to go Palestine.”
He then was quoted as saying, “The economic capacity of Palestine is dynamic and can expand to shelter these Jews from Europe … just how great that expansion can be depends on the support that the United Palestine Appeal receives from American Jews.”
By all means embrace your Jewishness in this wonderful land of America. But please don’t forget that Israel, too, is a piece of us.
Sheree Roth | Palo Alto
Love for Jewish state is vital
In response to Jonah Hassenfeld and Ziva Reimer’s op-ed against “outsourcing” one’s Jewish identity to Israel (May 20), I don’t see any contradiction between deepening one’s knowledge of Jewish history and carving a sense of Jewish identity for young American Jews while also incorporating the State of Israel as part of this identity.
From its very first day to this day, Israel is fighting for her survival, and the young generation of American Jews needs to be brought up with the knowledge of Israel’s history, to develop love for Israel and appreciation of the enormous struggles it faces every day, to be active on college campuses and later in matters of public opinion and policy.
The survival of Israel is at stake, and while I agree in the need to expand and deepen Jewish education, I found the writers’ approach to be quite over-simplistic.
They wrote that “The State of Israel is an important moment in the millennia-long project of Jewish life, but it is not the culmination of that project.”
Well, it is a culmination of the project in the sense that it is the home that Jews never had. And who knows: Maybe history would have taken another turn if the State of Israel existed when the Nazis rose to power.
The survival of Israel depends on the connection that the young generation of American Jews will develop to her — and this survival cannot be taken for granted.
Naomi Wagner | Sunnyvale