Avoiding clergy burnout
Thank you to Laura Stein for her excellent opinion piece on clergy burnout and how seminaries might better prepare clergy for their own self-care in the field (“We know how to prevent Jewish clergy from burning out. Why aren’t we doing it?” March 9).
While it is important that seminaries prepare us for the field and that we as clergy advocate for our own well-being, the other key partners in this equation are the institutions and organizations that have contractual agreements with clergy.
After living in the Bay Area for a number of years, I relocated to Los Angeles to study rabbinics, eventually returning to the Bay as an ordained rabbi. For the past 14 years, I have worked in various clergy roles. I have found my passion in my current work as a visiting rabbi to Bay Area congregations, partnering with leaders to prevent clergy burnout.
I tell congregational members that when I show up in their communities, it means that their clergy is resting, taking a break. When lay leadership understands and takes action to support these efforts, it helps to make clergy roles sustainable in our communities. Lay leadership tuning into organizations like Rest of Our Lives (restofourlives.org), which invest in the well-being of nonprofit professionals through rest and rejuvenation, could be transformative for us all.
Our communities would greatly benefit from a broader and long-overdue conversation with lay leaders and clergy across the entire Jewish ecosystem about how to make our Jewish institutions and organizations the most desirable places to work. And, by the way, it is not just a clergy issue. We also experience a shortage of educators, executive directors and other key staff who help to make for a thriving Jewish community.
Rabbi Susan Leider | Sacramento
A better word than ‘apartheid’?
I’m writing in response to the article “Newsom staff meets with Jewish leaders after ‘apartheid’ comment about Israel” (March 6).
As reported, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently agreed with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times that Israel’s actions in the West Bank are leading Israel down the path of apartheid. Friedman is not wrong. Newsom is not wrong. Israeli settlers, supported by the IDF, are indeed terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank and chasing them out of Palestinian villages. The IDF is demolishing Palestinian homes at an alarming rate, pushing Palestinians into geographically disconnected towns that are separated by IDF “checkpoints.” This has resulted in the creation of disjointed and economically deprived Palestinian towns — a situation that is strikingly similar to South African black townships during the apartheid era.
You may not like the word “apartheid.” But if this is not the correct word for Israel’s illegal and immoral acts in the West Bank, then what is? And no matter what word you use, does it make these acts any more palatable?
Joel Gerston | Los Altos
Letter on AIPAC was wrong
I am responding to the totally wrong-headed letter regarding AIPAC (“Newsom highlights AIPAC failure,” letters, March 5).
I have been a member of AIPAC for over 40 years, and I can honestly attest to the fact that AIPAC has not changed its bipartisan, unbiased approach to Israel. AIPAC’s mission statement clearly states that it is bipartisan and that its only objective is to support the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Roberta Zucker | Tiburon
No ‘blood libel’ at Sonoma State
Regarding your Feb. 18 article “Holocaust and Genocide lecture series at Sonoma State adopts new subject: Israel,” I am a longtime Holocaust educator and currently serve on the board and education committee of the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, a group which supports the Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide at Sonoma State and its annual lecture series. We also provide Shoah survivor and second-generation testimony to Bay Area schools. We are proud to support the work of SSU professor Stephen Bittner, who is the director of the center. His bravery in the face of threats, harassment and cowardly doxing inspires us all.
One of your interviewees, Lev Luvishis, describes as a “blood libel” Sonoma State’s academic research into the possibility of genocide in Gaza. Reference to this medieval horror emerges whenever a critic of Israel tries to talk about the death of Palestinian children. I think instead we need to remember the voices of two young girls: Noya Dan, an Israeli killed with her grandmother on Oct. 7, 2023, and Hind Rajab, a Palestinian killed along with many in her family and the ambulance workers trying to rescue her, in the beginning of 2024. We have recordings of both of these girls’ voices shortly before they were killed. Those are the voices that can lead us back to peace and justice in this world infatuated with violence.
Jim McGarry | Pacifica
Iran campaign is justified
Regarding the March 3 article: “CA Dems slam Trump for war against Iran without congressional approval”: What if it is called an undeclared war or a military action instead of war? Is the action of the U.S. and Israel judged on the merits, or judged on hate of President Donald Trump and his supporting Republicans?
To oppose the U.S. and Israel is in effect to support Iran. Iran has been killing Americans, Israelis and oppositional Iranians for 47 years. Iran has supported the proxies of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza; both have fired thousands of rockets into Israel and are cruel, brutal terrorists.
The U.S. and Israel are trying to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could reach the U.S. Iran now has fired at many nearby Arab nations. If the U.S. and Israel are successful, regime change could lead to a long, lasting peace for the entire Middle East. The example is the aftermath of World War II: Unconditional surrender, reconstruction and temporary control of the governments resulted in Germany and Japan becoming long-term peaceful allies of the U.S.
This is a historic time to make a choice, and opposition to the U.S. and Israel may become shameful and embarrassing for a lifetime.
Norman G. Licht | Palo Alto