Arson fires make a point about Palestinians
John Rothmann’s Dec. 2 letter (“Terror by fire: We will replant and rebuild”) illustrates perfectly the difference between Jews and Arabs regarding the land of Israel.
Jews love the land of Israel, which is our inheritance. We make the desert bloom, we build parks, schools, hospitals and entire new communities. We develop mind-boggling medical breakthroughs and all kinds of technological marvels. We even extend our hands in peace to our sworn enemies, hoping to live in harmony.
On the other hand, our enemies, who claim that the land is theirs, have absolutely no problem in scorching it, starting fires everywhere to destroy it rather than see us thrive in it. Destroying the infrastructure left to them for free in Gush Katif 11 years ago, including productive, revolutionary greenhouses and modern public buildings.
The arson attacks bring to mind the well-known story of King Solomon. Just like the mother who agreed to slicing the child in half (if I can’t have it, she can’t have it either), Palestinians have demonstrated that they do not belong in Eretz Israel and have no real interest in living peacefully in it.
Moshe Meir | San Carlos
Trump is ‘terrifying’
I’m writing in reaction to letters and articles in the Dec. 2 issue of J. about the election of Donald Trump. Unlike Hitler and Mussolini, Mr. Trump has a Jewish daughter and a Jewish son-in-law and various Jewish supporters.
Nonetheless, his campaign enabled or stimulated racism and Jew-baiting. See the photo of graffiti in Wellsville, New York, “Make America White Again,” with swastika (“100 anti-Semitic acts in first 10 days after election”).
And as Donald C. Cutler pointed out in his op-ed (“They are coming for us — why is Israel so silent?”): “During the most uncivil election cycle in American history … Jewish journalists were targeted for heinous anti-Semitic harassment.”
Hitler and Mussolini (and various other demagogues) wanted to make their nations “great again,” as does Mr. Trump. And while Mr. Trump got his political start riding on the big lie (the birther movement), Hitler got his with the allegation that Germany had been stabbed in the back.
In the Dec. 2 “Talking with” interview in J., psychoanalyst Lee Grossman stated of Trump, “I think he’s a terrifying man who has no conscience.” I totally agree!
Michael Cronbach | San Francisco
Guilt to the hilt
Reading last week’s “Talking with” interview (“A shrink who studies Jewish guilt,” Dec. 2), I was reminded of a bike trip I took with participants who were Protestant, Catholic and Jewish.
A discussion arose on the subject of guilt. The Protestants stated they didn’t have guilt, the Catholics said they had guilt about sex and the Jews concluded they had guilt about everything except sex!
David Fisher | San Francisco
Goodbye, Grand Bakery
The closing of the Grand Bakery is a disaster (“Oakland’s Grand Bakery to close Dec. 23,” Dec. 2). But I’m happy for owner Bob Jaffe and his family.
Mark Snyder | Oakland
Ivanka, this is your moment
Ivanka Trump, now is your Queen Esther moment.
You have probably studied the Book of Esther as part of your conversion process. As a reminder, Esther, a Jewish girl, was chosen as the new queen of Persia. The king had a minister who felt threatened by the Jews in the kingdom and vowed to commit genocide against them. Esther, a new timid queen, was encouraged by her relative Mordechai to speak truth to power. Mordechai told her that it was perhaps for the very purpose of saving her people that she was chosen for her position. She ultimately found her voice and saved their lives.
Ms. Trump, I’m sure you know that many Americans feel threatened in this post-election climate: Latinos, peaceful Muslims, African Americans, LGBTQs, Jews and women. This fear has escalated in proportion to the rising number of hate crimes. The fears have risen further since your father chose Stephen Bannon, who has given a platform to white supremacists and neo-Nazis, as his chief counsel and strategist. Imagine what kind of message this sends to people of color and to Jews. Certainly not the assurance that anything is going to become great again.
Judaism espouses the belief that all people — even people who don’t look, think, speak or believe as we do — are created in the image of God. And according to Jewish law, to save one life is to save an entire world.
I beseech you, as one Jewish mother to another, one concerned for the lives of our children and grandchildren, to seize your Queen Esther moment, to implore your father to denounce hatred and those who perpetuate it.
Alissa Hirshfeld-Flores | Santa Rosa
Affixing anti-Semitism to Trump is ‘hysteria’
In the spirit of respectful disagreement, I would like to address three points Donald C. Cutler discussed in his op-ed.
First, the alleged endangerment facing American Jews from Donald Trump’s presidency. Somehow, 150 white supremacists have turned into mortal threats to Jews, but when thousands of Nation of Islam members voted for Obama it was not considered a threat. And Mr. Obama’s 20 years of listening to the rogue anti-Semite and anti-Americanist pastor Jeremiah Wright was also not a big deal. Why did Trump suddenly become a puppet in the hands of anti-Semites?
Second, Cutler ponders Israel’s silence on threats to American Jews while citing how the president of Mexico has defended Mexicans in America. Really, Mr. Cutler? How many millions of Jews live illegally in the U.S.? Israel is under no obligation to provide psychiatric care to everyone who is falling for the hysteria of equating Trump and anti-Semitism.
And lastly, Entebbe. I was still living in the anti-Semitic USSR when the incredible 1976 rescue of the Entebbe prisoners occurred. For me, my friends and many other Jews who were glued to the “bourgeois” propaganda of the West, the Entebbe operation (as well as the victories of 1967 and 1973) brought about a sense of pride of being Jewish. Even more, it inspired many Jews to stand up for themselves and escape from the clutches of the Soviet regime.
Israel is not just a place where Jews can flee from real or perceived threats. It is an idea, a project. Everyone has his or her own unique path to discovering Israel. But nobody can sit still, waiting for Israel to discover them.
Vladimir Kaplan | San Mateo
Ellison’s Israel slander
makes him untrustworthy
We are hearing a lot of positive comments from our Jewish brethren in Democratic circles about the appointment of Keith Ellison to DNC chair (“Keith Ellison signals Democrats’ willingness to redefine ‘pro-Israel,’” Nov. 25).
Here is the bottom line: Congressman Keith Ellison has odiously slandered Israel as an “apartheid state.” He has never walked that back. Is this someone we should trust (as the J. headline suggests) to “redefine pro-Israel”?
Scott Abramson | San Mateo
Israel is still a beacon for human rights
In his recent op-ed piece, Aaron Hahn Tapper (“The changing Jewish story: Israel wasn’t always the litmus test,” Nov. 25) wrote, “If there is to be any guideline, it should be focused on supporting human rights, justice and dignity for all peoples.”
These principles exist in Israel, which has equal legal rights for all kinds of Jews, and also for 20 percent of its citizens who are Arabs.
He traced anti-Zionism of the past. I think the history of modern Israel, and the current crisis in all the other countries of the Middle East, does make Zionism more urgent today than ever. Yes, there will always be changes, but I hope and pray the democratic Jewish State of Israel will exist forever.
Norman G. Licht | San Carlos
Stop with the blame game — it’s not Israel’s fault
Israel’s job is not to protect American Jews, as Donald C. Cutler posited in his op-ed. Israel’s job is to be a Jewish nation, an amazing island of decency and opportunity for all, despite being surrounded by those who seek her destruction.
Incidentally, Israel would be a haven for Jews should the fires of anti-Semitism ignite, as they are threatening to in Europe. “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” was chanted by Dutch fans at a soccer game last year, and that’s just one small example.
In 2014, Jochen Bittner of the German weekly Die Zeit noted that “much of the anti-Jewish animus [in Europe] originates with European people of Muslim background.”
Also that year, Jews were trapped inside the Don Isaac Abravanel synagogue in Paris while a mob outside yelled “Hitler was right” and “Jews, get out of France,” according to several media reports. It took three hours to disperse the crowd and safely evacuate the synagogue. If “they are coming for us,” as Mr. Cutler suggests, it is in Europe.
Could it be “a monumental failure of morally bankrupt leadership” (Cutler’s words) on the part of the defeated Democratic Party to deflect onto the incoming administration responsibility for any anti-Semitism, such as that on American college campuses, that we have seen both post-election and over the past eight years?
Julia Lutch | Davis