Scare tactics on burial — totally not ‘cool’
Death and dying, whether Jewish or not, is never an easy subject. I, for one, have not reached a decision on how I want my body to disposed of when that time comes. The Feb. 26 article “Author asks Bay Area Jews: Since when is cremation OK?” did not make that decision any easier.
The subject of the article, Doron Kornbluth (an Israeli tour guide), who advocates burying the dead, came off as a used car salesman who resorts to scare tactics in an attempt to make his case, unnecessarily describing how the body fries and brain sizzles during the cremation process. He foolishly describes how cremation has become “cool or hip.”
Huh? Teslas, iPhones, maybe even a Fitbit can properly be viewed as things that are “cool or hip.” However, I have never heard of anyone choosing to be cremated rather than buried because it is the “cooler” choice. Maybe he should suggest that the dead be buried in skinny jeans if he wants to properly compete in the perceived-coolness-in-death game.
Lastly, and most reprehensibly, he advocates that the wishes of the deceased be ignored, stating: “Sometimes we here can figure out what is best for them, what they really want, even if it is against their stated wishes.” Aside from the very questionable moral issue of casting aside the dying wishes of a loved one, I should note that it is illegal to do so in California. California law generally provides that a decedent, prior to death, may direct the disposition of his or her remains and the directions cannot be altered.
The way one chooses to be disposed of at the time of death is a difficult determination for just about everybody. Truly, there is no right or wrong answer. However, relying on scare tactics and morally and legally questionable arguments does not help make this hard decision any easier.
Mark Ezersky | Burlingame
Housing prices have basis in social justice
Thank you for the article on the housing crisis (“Squeezed out: Housing prices gut dream for Jewish middle class,” Feb. 19). This may be thought of as a non-Jewish, economic issue, and indeed an ongoing lack of housing would stifle our regional economy. But it also has social justice implications, which you only briefly alluded to. For instance, how does a woman flee an abusive household if it costs $2,000 a month to rent?
We need to do everything possible, and some things now thought impossible, to increase the housing supply. The goal should be a long-term drop in housing prices from current levels.
Ilya Gurin | Mountain View
Sanders’ Jewish stance as a point of pride
Your Feb. 12 cover story by Daniel Treiman regarding Bernie Sanders (“Why Bernie Sanders isn’t embraced as ‘the Jewish candidate’ ”) quite amused me. I am a 68-year-old woman, a very proud identified Jew who, similarly to Sanders, was raised in a secular household. We celebrated Passover with our Maxwell House haggadah and rarely finished the entire very watered-down version while my brother and others both challenged and laughed at it. My parents attended Yom Kippur services and both my brothers had their bar mitzvahs.
Many Jews of the ’40s and ’50s were raised in similar homes — proud of their Judaism but utterly uninterested in the religious parts of our heritage — and remain so to this day. So why is this portrayed to be a problem when one of us rises in politics and runs for president? I found the article ridiculous and an unnecessary swipe at Sanders.
The recent race to see who in politics, particularly among those running at the top, are the most religious is completely un-American (does anyone remember separation of church and state?). Affiliation with a church, synagogue or mosque should not be a part of the landscape used for this choice at all.
Sanders’ lack of religious involvement is a point of pride for me and many other Jews who recognize the value of being a strong Jew whether or not religious expression exists. While many non-Jews do not understand this apparent dichotomy, and some Jews hang their hat on being Jewish as defined by synagogue attendance, I say to those of us who feel very Jewish without affiliation: Stand up and be counted!
Susan Hirshfield | Santa Rosa
This enemy’s story is about terror
Libby and Len Taubman think that Palestinians have been misrepresented and that “an enemy is one whose story we have not heard” (Letters, Feb. 26). They don’t recognize that the Palestinian and Arab story is ugly and shameful terrorism against Jews.
In 2002, the Palestinians started suicide bombings in Israel. Later they fired thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza and dug tunnels under the border. Presently, the Arabs have been stabbing, attacking with vehicles and shooting within Israel, with 31 murdered and 355 wounded Israelis.
The Taubmans should preach their “inclusiveness” to the Palestinian leaders, who have completely excluded negotiations and acceptance of Israel.
Norman G. Licht | San Carlos
Harper Lee’s positive portrayals of Jews
I was saddened to learn of the death on Feb. 19 of Nelle Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
While Lee will be remembered as the brilliant writer of one of the (deservedly) most acclaimed and enduring works of literature in American history, and as a champion of the civil rights movement who influenced public opinion through the power of her pen, her warm and positive portrayals of Jews in her great novel should not be overlooked.
In one passage from “Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch expresses admiration for a Jewish man, Sam Levy, who stood on his porch while the Ku Klux Klan paraded by his home. Through simple dignity, “Sam made ’em so ashamed of themselves they went away,” Finch recalled to his daughter Scout. “It’ll never come back.”
In another passage, a teacher, Miss Gates, explains the difference between Nazi Germany and the United States, saying: “We are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship. … Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. … There are no better people in the world than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t think so is a mystery to me. … They contribute to every society they live in.”
Lee’s point in the latter passage, of course, was to demonstrate the irony of, and chasm of hypocrisy between, America’s collective disgust with Nazi racism (expressed in particular toward Jews) and its willingness to indulge prejudicial hate and racism in the South (and elsewhere) toward African Americans. Nevertheless, Lee’s heartwarming praise and clear affection for Jews, both individually and collectively, should not be forgotten.
Stephen A. Silver | San Francisco
‘Jewish Ivanka’ must disavow Trump
Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka refers to herself as an Orthodox Jew. As a Jew, she must stop supporting her father, for two reasons. First of all, Trump’s lashon hara [gossip] should be a shanda [embarrassment] to his Jewish daughter. Trump’s insults to everyone — including his fellow candidates, his hatred of immigrants and refugees, his mocking of the disabled — are all stances that contradict Jewish values. We ask God repeatedly to help keep us from speaking ill of others. We are told that we must welcome the stranger as if he were a citizen. We must not put a stumbling block before the blind. Ivanka Trump must not be seen agreeing with her father, whose words fly in the face of the ethics of the religion she has adopted.
Secondly, Donald Trump whips up his constituency into a xenophobic, hateful frenzy. David Duke of the KKK, the neo-Nazi Craig Cobb and other white supremacists endorse Trump’s racism, although he claims not to know who they are. Ivanka seems to be blind to the fact that the hate her father encourages against Mexicans, Muslims and Syrian refugees will not stop there.
The people who love Trump also hate Jews. Trump is putting the lives of his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in jeopardy. Jewish Ivanka needs to withdraw from his campaign for moral and security reasons.
Natalie Krauss Bivas | Palo Alto