Neighborly welcome from Lehrhaus
As an alumnus of Cal, I can certainly agree with professor Robert Alter (“Center for Jewish Studies opens at U.C. Berkeley,” Oct. 18) about the low profile of Judaica there in the late 1960s and beyond.
In 1974, with the impetus of visionary communal workers, and the indispensable help of talented teachers and dedicated lay people, I founded Lehrhaus Judaica, across the street from U.C. Berkeley. Over the next four decades I watched Jewish studies at my alma mater expand and thrive even as my institution for adult Jewish education flourished with the addition of new colleagues and the initiation of new programs throughout the Bay Area.
We’ve enjoyed a collaborative relationship with U.C. Berkeley. Many of its grads and undergrads have been our students. Many of its world-class professors have served as our lecturers and course instructors, thus bringing their expertise from the confines of the campus to the entire Jewish community. We look forward to closer ties with the planned Center for Jewish Studies, a most welcome addition to our stimulating neighborhood.
Fred Rosenbaum | Berkeley and Brooklyn
Founding director, Lehrhaus Judaica
Another Jewish ‘flavor’
In response to Rabbi Tzvi Nightingale’s opinion piece (“Ignoring Chabad shows outdated mentality, rendering survey almost meaningless,” Oct. 11), is that what American Jewry needs? With all due respect, Chabad is evangelical Orthodox. Plain and simple. During my college years I lived across the street from 770 Eastern Parkway world headquarters of the Chabad movement in Brooklyn. I’ve seen it up close, literally.
If anyone asks me what “flavor” of Jew I am, I can honestly say that I was educated — as an adult — within the Conservative movement, yet my theological philosophy is Kaplan-era Reconstructionist and my approach to Torah interpretation is more Reform than anything else. In spite of all that, I am a regular attendant at daily minyan, serve as a member of a beit din and as a gabbai and on a rotating basis as a sheliach tzibur conducting liturgical Shabbat services at a large, liberal, Conservative congregation, although I don’t always buy the party-line-du-jour of the Conservative “establishment.” Do we need to define another branch for someone like me?
Phil Kane | Beaverton, Ore.
New voice, new rituals
In response to the letter from Dan Bodner (“ ‘Repellent’ rituals explain Pew results,” Oct. 18), I would like to point out that there is a place for those who would like to maintain a Jewish affiliation but reject what he calls “an anthropomorphic God as envisioned in the superstitious Middle Ages.” It is called Kol Hadash (New Voice), the Northern California Community for Humanistic Judaism. Its members would welcome him. For information regarding coming events, see the calendar at www.kolhadash.org.
Marilyn J. Boxer | Kensington