Shut the Wiesenthal Center
If it were up to me, I would shut down the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its affiliates around the world and use the money to help elderly survivors (“Struggling survivors in Israel want state to do more,” Nov. 29).
Rabbi Marvin Hier, the head of the center, was paid over $700,000 in 2011 to oversee a staff of 120 and a budget of $24 million used to chase down the last 90-year-old former Nazi camp guards. How many pairs of shoes would that buy for people?
Nothing the center can do will bring back the 20-plus relatives our family lost in Nazi-occupied Poland. Seventy-one years after their ghetto was liquidated, I am not interested in revenge.
David Klug | Lafayette
Ugly side of Azerbaijan
J. readers should know that not all is well in Azerbaijan (“In a tough neighborhood, Azerbaijan is friend of the Jews,” Nov. 15). While the government’s good relationship with the Jewish community seems laudable, a quick Google search of “human rights Azerbaijan” will expose the ugly side of the Aliyev regime.
Last year Reporters Without Borders ranked Azerbaijan 162nd out of 179 nations in terms of press freedom. According to Human Rights Watch, Azerbaijani journalists face prosecution on bogus charges, harassment, intimidation and physical attacks; the government limits freedom of assembly by breaking up peaceful protests, sometimes violently, as well as arresting protesters and human rights defenders, who once in prison are subject to torture and ill treatment.
Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department have criticized the Azerbaijani government for its restrictions on freedom of religion. The tolerance and multiculturalism described by Rabbi Doug Kahn in his op-ed certainly do not extend to Armenian Christians, whose churches have been vandalized and who have had to live in hiding or flee the country.
As the child of a Holocaust survivor, I learned that our traditions direct us to stand up for justice, not a narrow view of what is “good for the Jews.”
Terry Fletcher | Berkeley
Rabbi’s aliyah mischaracterized
Regarding the Nov. 15 article “Rabbi Dardik to leave Beth Jacob, move to Israeli settlement with family,” couldn’t you have titled the article “Beloved rabbi leaving Beth Jacob to fulfill dream of living in Israel,” instead of feeling the need to politicize his leaving? This really does succumb to ignorant populism with the easy categorization of the Gush Etzion towns as “settlements.”
Now that you’ve opened the issue, let us look at this “settlement.” This area was under Jewish ownership long before the establishment of the State of Israel. The land was purchased for Jewish development in 1925 and was under Jewish ownership until 1948, reaching a population of 450 residents. During the War of Independence, the land was lost to the invading Arab armies, and the land came under Jordanian control. After the Six-Day War, Israel recaptured the Gush Etzion area that had rightfully been theirs to begin with and repopulated it. It now has a population of over 50,000.
Gush Etzion is not a set-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night, established-in-the-last-20-year outpost “displacing” any native peoples. Quite the opposite, Jews were forcibly displaced during al-Nakba. Concerning native peoples, maybe the Miwoks, Pomos, Costanoans, Wappos, Patwins and Yokuts might want their land back.
We will truly miss our teacher and friend.
Joel L. Carr | Piedmont
Biblical case for cannabis
How is it OK for Jews and other citizens to have access to highly addictive powerful and deadly painkillers along with other pharmaceuticals, but not be allowed to use what God says is good on the first page of the Bible? Cannabis has been documented for over 5,000 years medically without a single death; that’s safety on a biblical scale. A biblical argument for Jews to not use the plant cannabis doesn’t exist.
Stan White | Dillon, Colo.
Family connections
Your article “Alpha males, Sigma females” (Nov. 29) touched a personal note for me. One of the co-founders of Sigma Alpha Mu was my great-uncle David Levinson. His older brother was my grandfather, Samuel Levinson (no, not the famous comedian), and I was told by my mother that her uncle David suggested the fraternity name to honor his brother.
Dan Fendel | Piedmont
Laughable Iran accord
I had to chuckle when I read Chuck Fisher’s recent letter (“Iran deal is a victory,” Dec. 6). When someone cites Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft and the Friends Committee on National Legislation in support of a position on the Middle East, you can be sure that such a policy would not be good for the Jewish state.
The Friends Committee is opposed to Israel’s right to self-defense, and the two so-called security experts have long supported appeasement to terrorists. Quite an endorsement for this Iran accord.
We will see in a few months whether the deal is as bad as most Israelis believe. If it is, don’t be surprised if the Israel Air Force pays a brief visit to Iran. One thing that we can count on with Obama is that we can’t count on Obama. The lesson of the red line in Syria is that Iran now has a green light.
Gil Stein | Aptos
All voices deserve to be heard
I attended the JCRC’s program “Celebrating the Year of Civil Discourse” on Dec. 8 at Beth Israel Judea and was very disappointed to see the JCRC’s continued, enforced exclusion of so many Jewish voices.
Then, happily, I saw this week that the Swarthmore College Hillel has voted to become an Open Hillel, breaking from Hillel International’s strict prohibitions. They had found that “this policy has resulted in the barring of speakers from organizations such as Breaking the Silence and the Israeli Knesset from speaking at Hillels without censorship, and has resulted in Jewish Voice for Peace not being welcome under the Hillel umbrella.”
It is time, past time, that we here in the Bay Area live up to our Jewish ideals and permit open, respectful discussion in all venues and inclusion of JVP.
Anna Rogers | San Rafael