A shocking photo
Your recent cover photo of the tattooed man (“Life-changing journey,” Sept. 13) was quite upsetting to me. According to the Torah, it is forbidden to have a tattoo. And certainly the tattooing of concentration camp victims was a heinous crime, as the Nazis intentionally used something that is a Jewish prohibition in a distorted and perverted way.
While I know tattoos are popular today, I don’t think that a Jewish publication should be promoting this trend. I am proud to say my own sons have not defaced their bodies in this manner.
Whatever the article, I found it a shocking photo.
Marjorie Myers Fulbright | San Francisco
How to find ‘Mazl Tov’
Thanks for your fine article on the local publication of Sholem Aleichem’s play “Mazl Tov” in English (“Tevye, step aside? SFSU prof shepherds first English translation of Sholem Aleichem play,” Sept. 20).
Our group is pleased to be co-publisher of the play, and we would only add to the article that readers who want to find a copy of the new book in the Bay Area should contact Henry Hollander at www.hollanderbooks.com or (415) 831-3228. Henry is a dedicated Yiddish bookseller who deserves to be celebrated as much as the pakn treger (bookseller) in Sholem Aleichem’s play.
Joel Schechter | San Francisco
Workmen’s Circle of Northern California
Paying it forward
A few years ago, prior to having open-heart surgery, my doctors advised me to bank several units of my own blood to be used, if necessary, during the procedure. I asked what would happen to this blood if it was not needed. I was told that, if at all possible, it or some of its components would be donated to another patient. When asked if this was acceptable, I said “yes” without hesitation.
I made it a point to avoid knowing how this issue played out; I never asked, I never found out.
I am deeply grateful for my own recovery, and it would please me no end to think that someone else may have benefited as well (“Make your life count, be someone’s hero in just one hour,” Sept. 13).
Nancy Lipsitz | San Francisco
Reasserting importance of two-state solution
I find it interesting and instructive that in their Sept. 13 letters to J., Martin Wasserman and Neal Wohlmuth, while dismissing the possibility and importance of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, completely ignore my references to the actions and opinions of Yitzhak Rabin and all six living former directors of Israel’s security service, the Shin Bet (“One state or two? There’s only one right answer,” Sept. 6).
I would have thought that the support of these extremely well-informed and committed Zionists for a negotiated settlement would carry some weight.
But no. In his letter (“Land is permanent, peace is temporary”), Wasserman relies on his own opinions and declarative statements, while Wohlmuth (“Time bomb is ticking”) invokes the observations of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a controversial figure banned from politics in Israel when he was determined to be “racist” and “anti-democratic” by the Israeli government and the Israeli Supreme Court.
I would suggest that Wasserman and Wohlmuth, along with those who agree with them, might spend a few minutes reviewing the histories of Rabin and the Shin Bet chiefs; Ami Ayalon, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon, Yuval Diskin, Avi Dichter and Avraham Shalom. I’d be interested to know if Wasserman and Wohlmuth would have the chutzpah to argue with the likes of these Israelis as to the imperative of Israel’s survival as a Jewish and democratic country.
Dr. Michael Cooper | Lafayette
Save it for the tabloids
I was struck by the tenor of several of the items contained in Nate Bloom’s “Celebrity Jews” column (Sept. 6). It was rife with lashon hara (evil speech).
It mentions that Google co-founder Sergey Brin was separated from his wife before he began dating his new girlfriend. Nice, but none of our business.
Worse, it goes on and on detailing which royalty in Monaco had how many children out of wedlock, and with whom.
This kind of gossip, whether true or false, simply should have no place in a Jewish newspaper. Rather, it should be left to the paparazzi and papers like the National Enquirer to disseminate negative and private information about people.
Steven Saxe | Corte Madera
Killings don’t bode well for peace
Two Israelis were murdered by terrorists last week, which received very little coverage in the U.S. media.
Tomer Hazan was murdered by the terrorist Nidal Amar, a Palestinian Arab who worked in Israel without papers. He and Hazan held jobs in the same Bat Yam restaurant and reportedly had become friendly. Amar lured an unsuspecting Hazan into Samaria, to an open area not far from Amar’s Palestinian village of Saniria, killed him with a blunt weapon and hid his body in a well.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Kobi, 20, stationed at a post near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, was killed by a sniper shooting from a distance. The sniper is still being sought.
The armed wing of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party has proudly claimed responsibility for both killings, and the Palestinian Authority that Abbas heads — Israel’s so-called peace partner — has yet to muster even a lukewarm condemnation of the murders.
In a normal universe, this might raise doubts about the prospects of the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But Secretary of State John Kerry is still pushing ahead with his completely fatuous agenda.
Arthur Cohn | Portola Valley