Two helpings of food festival organizers
Thank you for your enthusiastic and exciting coverage of Hazon’s Jewish Food Festival coming up on Sunday, March 17.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that for Jewish second-stage organizations like Hazon, our partnership with the JCCSF has been what has enabled us to bring this Festival to fruition. Executive Director Barry Finestone and past Board President Sue Diamond’s immediate enthusiasm when they first heard about the Jewish Food Festival idea a year ago gave us incentive to move the project forward. The JCCSF leadership and staff have opened their doors, assigned their people to the planning committee, given us access to their skilled marketing department, and we couldn’t be more grateful for or satisfied with their cooperation.
Thank you to the JCCSF — wonderful partners to Hazon.
Deborah Newbrun | San Francisco
Bay Area Director, Hazon
Bad attempt at ‘humor’ at expense of JVS
I, like so many others, enjoy a bit of humor when talking about serious subjects. It can make the topic easier to digest and, in the long run, help make the point even more effectively.
However, when I read last week’s Tygerpen column by Trudi York Gardner, titled “Phone banks teach wise guys how to find the big money,” I failed to see the humor in the reference to Jewish Vocational Service and job opportunities when so many of our clients — and individuals throughout the Bay Area — are still struggling to build skills and find work.
At JVS, we work with individuals from all walks of life. There’s nothing humorous about what many of them are going through, facing the economic, social, psychological and emotional challenges that being unemployed brings with it. Whether they be seasoned professionals downsized out of a job, college graduates who can’t get a foot in the door, low-income individuals learning skills for the first time, or even individuals who have been in trouble and are looking to start over, we offer them the respect, support and assistance they need to change their lives and those of their families and communities.
So many in our community are still struggling to find jobs. For them, and for all of us working with them, humor just isn’t appropriate.
Abby Snay | San Francisco
Executive Director, JVS
InterfaithFamily interface
Thank you for your article introducing Rebecca Goodman as the director of InterfaithFamily/San Francisco, the new partnership between InterfaithFamily and the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation (“InterfaithFamily opens S.F. office to serve on local front,” Feb. 1). The financial support from the federation and key donors is enabling our community to join IFF projects in Chicago and Philadelphia as models of support for interfaith couples and families.
IFF/San Francisco has been created on the foundational work of Rosanne Levitt, Karen Kushner and Dawn Kepler, with primary support from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman and Walter and Elise Haas Funds. These pioneers contributed to opening the minds and hearts of rabbis, educators and our community to the increasing diversity among Jewish families.
Rebecca is moving quickly to make hybrid online/in-person workshops and classes available in conjunction with our JCCs. She is also publicizing what’s available to people in interfaith relationships by recruiting listings on IFF’s Network and subscribers to our bi-weekly email newsletters, responding to requests to our officiation referral service and to inquiries to our telephone “hotline,” and offering inclusivity trainings.
Paul Cohen and Nancy Gennet | Mill Valley
National board members of InterfaithFamily
Minyans are a fine, and perhaps vital, option
I read Dr. Yaffee’s letter (“Traditional synagogues remain essential,” March 8) with considerable interest. I wish I could agree, but available statistics and the realities of synagogue life suggest otherwise. For example, a survey conducted by the Jewish Federation of the East Bay in 2011 stated that only 21 percent of East Bay Jews are dues-paying members of a synagogue. I think it is therefore fair to ask for whom are traditional synagogues essential and why do they appeal to relatively few Jews?
Daily minyans are wonderful but they are poorly attended and often struggle just to reach a quorum. Moreover, very few synagogue members actually attend them. Much the same is true for Friday night and Saturday morning services. The difference, unfortunately, is only one of degree. There are plenty of other examples.
My point in raising these issues is that conventional synagogues face irrelevance absent a thorough re-examination of essential premises and a concerted effort to look for and inculcate new ideas and new thinking. I don’t suggest that independent minyans are the answer, or the only answer. I do suggest they are one place to look for ideas to revitalize an institution that should be essential but increasingly is not.
Robert White | San Francisco
Upsetting email ad
I was shocked by the advertising email I received this week from j. on behalf of a humanistic “Jewish” congregation. Because they openly describe themselves as being “non theistic,” which clearly means not believing in God,” how can j. promote participation in such a group?
Sadly, the Bay Area Jewish community, according to a recent survey, has only a 20 percent congregational affiliation rate. On the other hand, we are blessed with a broad range of congregations to choose from: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal, large, medium and small.
I believe that our otherwise terrific j. should not be promoting so-called “Jewish” congregations where they do not believe in God!
Stephen Olson | San Francisco
Rockets’ reverberations
It is shocking and upsetting to hear that rocket attacks from Gaza not only negatively affect current Israeli citizens but prevent the births of future Israeli citizens as well (“Sderot miscarriages linked to rocket attacks,” March 1). This shows just how critical finding a solution to the conflict is. Peace seems now more valuable than ever.
Maya Smith | Berkeley