Standards for student conduct
In “‘What is the end here?’ Local Jewish campus leaders react to Trump crackdown”, Rabbi Jessica Kirschner of Stanford Hillel worries about whether cracking down will help or hurt Jewish students.
She might wish to consider that campus ugliness increases when there are no efforts to rein it in. There would likely be some initial testing of administration resolve. But if administrators make it clear that they will not be intimidated and that they will follow through on maintaining standards of behavior, any (inexcusable) testing will stop.
Arrest nonstudents and file charges. Give students one warning before they are suspended for at least a semester for violating the code of conduct at Stanford, where students come to obtain a liberal education so they can mature, grow in wisdom and contribute to society.
Julia Lutch
Davis
Diatribe at Yom HaShoah program
The Yom HaShoah program on April 23 at the JCC of San Francisco was a thoughtful and moving experience, inclusive of all persecuted and intentionally forgotten people. That is until the diatribe from Israeli consul general Marco Sermoneta, who took it upon himself to condemn all Bay Area congregations that had invited any Palestinians searching for peace into their synagogues.
I could not believe my ears that the loving and beautiful honoring of those who died in the Holocaust would end with this vicious and offensive attack. It is shameful that he was allowed to spread his vitriol. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Zionist and was born in a displaced persons camp after my family was destroyed by the Holocaust, so I support the land of Israel but not its off-the-rails government. It was an unbelievable end to what was a wonderful memorial.
Reggie Griner
San Francisco
Archives and an executive order
The May 2 article “Our digital archive is threatened by state budget cuts” states that the California State Library didn’t fund the Center for Digital Newspaper Collection. A fuller story is that on March 14, the Institute of Museum and Library Services was among the federal agencies eliminated by an executive order from President Donald Trump.
The institute awards federal grants, including $15.7 million for 2024-2025 for the California State Library to disburse. That grant funding is now in question. An injunction against parts of the executive order was filed on May 6.
Abby Margolis
Daly City
J. angers me
Reading the J. often makes me angry, and that is probably a good thing!! Good, fair journalism should be guilty of presenting many sides of an issue — even if I disagree with some of the things you print. So keep it up.
Marvin Engel
Oakland
Berkeley’s balanced resolution
Your headline about the Berkeley City Council’s April 28 resolution on the Israel-Hamas war misses the point when it called the resolution “tepid.”
Jesse Arreguín, the former mayor, refused to consider any resolution at all, the position that most Jewish organizations — and I myself — considered ideal. But once the current mayor, Adena Ishii, came into office, it was clear that she would allow a resolution to be voted on.
The city council resisted intense pressure and rejected both the hostile resolution put forward by the Peace and Justice Commission, which demonized Israel, and a far less hostile but politically biased alternate resolution drafted by the mayor herself. Instead the council overwhelmingly supported Councilmember Terry Taplin’s apolitical resolution that speaks to the shared grief and pain felt by all people affected by the conflict in the Middle East.
This is a victory, not a defeat, and sets a constructive tone for other municipalities to follow. Rather than calling Taplin’s resolution “tepid,” how about using words like balanced, unifying, compassionate and sane — a call for peace and understanding.
Malka Weitman
Berkeley
Petition against JCRC
On April 24, a group of Jewish friends met in front of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area’s office. We came to submit a petition with about 900 signatures, gathered in a few days, from Jews in the Bay Area and our allies. The Bay Area Jewish Progressive Coalition’s petition, sponsored by IfNotNow’s Bay Area chapter, asked JCRC’s CEO Tye Gregory to answer four questions about their apparent facilitation of the right-wing trend in America:
1. Should students be arrested and held without charges for expressing support for Palestinian liberation or voicing criticism of Israel?
2. Does allying with fascist leaders like Donald Trump and Elon Musk to target local Arab organizations keep Bay Area Jewish communities safe?
3. Will you accept Trump’s misuse of Jewish students as cover for right-wing attacks on higher education?
4. Do you believe that Palestinian lives are as precious as all other lives?
I was called there by my anger and grief over 18 months of murder in Gaza, during which time Gregory has been touring Bay Area city councils, opposing cease-fire and divestment resolutions in my name.
As yet, we have received no response, but I see the voices of Bay Area Jews of conscience growing louder than voices like JCRC, which grease America’s slide into fascism in the name of protecting Israel. JCRC does not speak for Bay Area Jews.
David Spero
San Francisco
Justice Department’s phone call
Regarding the April 25 article “UC Berkeley faculty interviewed as part of federal antisemitism investigation”: Just to indicate how deep this went, I got a phone call from someone at the U.S. Department of Justice about a month ago, with a similar inquiry. My only professional connection with UC Berkeley is that I taught a one-semester course there as an adjunct faculty member in fall 2006. The Justice Department called me on a now-rarely-used landline, which must have been what UCB had on its records.
I told the caller that my connection with UCB was nearly two decades old, and the person lost interest.
Dan Fendel
Piedmont
Inspiration from young Zionists
Thank you so much for the inspirational op-eds (“In their words”) from the young pro-Israel writers. They give me confidence that the Jewish people are in good hands — Am Yisroel Chai. Please keep them coming!
Sheree Roth
Palo Alto
When will we protect Gazans?
In spring 1982, I visited Israel for the first time. On my first day there, a supporter of what was then a fringe group, the Kahanists, shot up the Dome of the Rock while people were in prayer. Now this group’s ideology runs the Israeli government.
Since March, no supplies have entered Gaza. On April 1, Israel bombed the humanitarian aid group World Central Kitchen in Gaza. Greta Thunberg and others organized a freedom flotilla, a boat carrying supplies for Gaza. On May 1, the boat was attacked and disabled by drones. Amnesty International has called Israel’s starvation campaign a “genocidal act” and a “war crime.” American news is starting to report on the issue, but when will we act? Will we and our communities step up before it’s too late?
Deborah Apple, Rabbis4Ceasefire
San Francisco