Quote wasn’t about Palestinian students
I am grateful to journalist Alix Wall and J. for the article published in the April 29 edition on my work and that of the Helen and Joe Farkas Center for the Study of the Holocaust in Catholic Schools (“Catholic educator makes survivors’ stories his life mission”).
However, I want to clarify something about my relationship to Palestinian American students. The quote used to describe these students was actually an extension of my comment about some colleagues who resist incorporating Holocaust education because of anger at the current State of Israel.
In contrast, while some students certainly feel similarly, many of my Palestinian students over the years, both at St. Ignatius College Prep and Mercy High School in San Francisco, have shown incredible understanding across the human rights landscape and have been very cooperative and constructively critical regarding our learning objectives in Holocaust education.
I certainly have had some very productive dialogues with Palestinian American students who want the narrative of the Nakba included in my learning objectives. I have learned much from them.
Jim McGarry | Pacifica
A shower to wash off the ick
It is impossible not to be grossed out by the trial taking place in San Francisco concerning the Koret Foundation (“Tad Taube, Susan Koret clash in S.F. trial,” April 29). How does one take sides in this issue? After reading the entire article, I felt the need to immediately go and take a shower. Very sad indeed.
Blair Gershkow | San Rafael
Going to Jewish camp did what for Chomsky?
The April 29 article “Stars’ shout-out to Jewish summer camp” lauded the remarkable success of Jewish summer camps in forming positive identification with Israel, Judaism and the Jewish people by quoting various business and entertainment “stars.” Bravo.
But the side reference to camp graduate Noam Chomsky was ironic at best. Apparently, Chomsky and clear-thinker Alan Dershowitz both attended Camp Massad in Pennsylvania. It might make sense to credit Massad with helping professor Dershowitz find his vocal and powerful place in the Jewish world.
But I can only hope that professor Chomsky, a notorious Israel basher, did not absorb his venomous ideas there!
It’s not that Chomsky doesn’t have any positive qualities; there is simply nothing Jewish or even pro-Jewish about them. Long ago, in the late ’60s, I spent an evening in his Harvard Square apartment with an informal group of mainly MIT students. We admired him then for his compelling stand against the Vietnam War.
As I vaguely recall, though, even on that consensus issue, his anti-U.S. rhetoric seemed over the top. As Dershowitz himself has admitted, Chomsky is a charismatic guy. But his views on his own people are off the deep end and, linguist that he is, he is a master at twisting words.
Rick Tavan | Saratoga
Controversial Hitler comment makes a decent point
Former London mayor and veteran British Labour Party politician Ken Livingstone may have been upside-down and backwards when he said recently that Hitler supported Zionism. But he made an important point, albeit unintentionally.
Livingstone claims that Hitler’s original plan for the Jews was to send them to Palestine. Other anti-Semites have asserted that there was a pact between Zionists and the Nazis to bring about a transfer of German Jews from the Reich to the place where they really belonged.
If that were true, isn’t it interesting that Hitler himself allegedly selected Palestine as the proper destination for the Jews? And that was in the 1930s, before modern Israel existed.
Moreover, the fact that Mr. Livingstone would claim in 2016 that the most vicious anti-Semite ever known accepted in the 1930s that Palestine was the proper home for the Jews pours icy water on the Arab/Muslim theory that the Jews are not a nation and don’t belong in Israel.
It also shows that Jew-haters can’t keep their story straight.
Desmond Tuck | San Mateo
Wicked, wise lessons from Passover stories
Some recent columns in J. re-examined ancient seder traditions in light of modern sensibilities (the orange on the seder plate, the “fifth child” who is absent from the seder).
These columns brought to mind my own interest in re-examining the Passover story of the Four Children. In the haggadah, the wise son asks, “What are the testimonies, statutes and laws that [God] has commanded you?” His question is considered respectful.
Then the wicked son asks, “What does this service mean to you?” The words “to you” are taken as excluding himself from the Jewish people’s experience of the Exodus, and he is condemned.
Yet the wise son said “you” too. Why the double standard? Shouldn’t the wise son be reprimanded for excluding himself from the Passover laws? And shouldn’t the wicked son be praised for inquiring about Pesach’s meaning?
In fact, we are all, at times, wise, wicked, simple or unable to comprehend. We are also too quick to judge others (which can lead to a child unfairly being labeled “wicked”).
Instead of labeling our children, parents should aspire to ensure their children feel included when they ask about Passover, respond appropriately when their children’s questions are simple, and inspire curiosity and wonder when their children do not even know what to ask.
Stephen A. Silver | San Francisco
Haggadah ‘make-believe’ needs modern makeover
The Passover seder is one of the great Jewish traditions, yet the haggadah, in all its variations, is predictably tedious and beyond the boundaries of identification and emotion. Isn’t it time to make such a celebration something more visceral and relatable?
There is no historical evidence that supports the Passover story. The slavery the Jews supposedly endured is likely, but the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea? Come now! Really, we have much more recent events to honor and ritualize,
and we should do so with the same ubiquitous energy that the traditional Passover seder has enjoyed for centuries.
We need look no further than the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel for inspiration. At the same time, we should be honoring the sacrifices of those millions of men and women in the allied countries that have enabled the continued existence of democratic ethics and, of course, the Jewish people — especially here in America where we have thrived beyond expectation.
This is the real Passover story. Why keep on with the same old fairy tale of emancipation and deliverance when there are much more poignant, palpable and self-evident realities staring us right in the face? I’m all for matzah, horseradish and haroset, but let’s link our meals, customs and observances to the genuine experiences that have choreographed the world we live in today, not the facile, make-believe of a story too often told.
Marc Winokur | Oakland
For a nondescript dry cracker, who knew?
When I was a child, my mother made matzah pancakes. It was our version of matzah brie. I loved those matzah pancakes and never really understood eating fried matzah any other way.
My mother fried them in butter, and the smell of browning butter still lingers in my subconscious. The butter made the pancakes crispy and yummy on all sides and with maple syrup drizzled over them. Oh my, is there anything better? At 71, am I too old to use the word yummy?
The years have flown by and my kids and I found out that there are many different ways to make and eat matzah brie — much to our chagrin.
Many years ago my children’s stepmother called me one morning to find out why my kids wouldn’t eat her matzah brie. Her version was the more traditional style, scrambled, so I answered her, “Oh, that’s because I always make pancakes.”
My husband of over 30 years loves matzah brie scrambled but mushy and still somewhat runny. Needless to say, he makes his own. I eat my matzah pancakes with maple syrup, my husband uses salt and pepper. My daughter-in-law, although she loves my pancakes, grew up using Karo dark syrup, so there is now a bottle of it in my pantry.
I now know there are many ways to love fried matzah. For a nondescript dry cracker, who knew?
Myra Feiger | Hayward