East Bay’s heroes
It is true that of necessity our community has several effective defense agencies. We are blessed to have them.
We are equally blessed to have the agencies in our community they, in a sense, defend.
While the article about the East Bay JCC (“JCC in peril,” Aug. 8) was accurate and important, there is the “other” story that must be told.
It is simple. Some of life is planning for the future. More is about what happens in the meantime. As to the JCC, while it is true they are suffering a financial crisis, in the meantime, day after day they are providing absolutely wonderful programs for young and old alike. Just think about the terrible hole left for us if it were to close.
So I believe it is fair to say that both staff and lay leadership are nothing short of heroic in continuing to provide so much to our community during these difficult financial times.
We are blessed to have them and be able to support their efforts.
Irving Cramer | Berkeley
Aish is just Judaism
What a sad state of affairs when Jewish people call Aish HaTorah a cult, placing it in the same category as Scientology and skinheads (Letters, Aug. 15).
It is ironic that Aish is actually trying to deprogram people who have been brainwashed by a secular society that places more value on image and ego than on soul and kindness. It’s hard to see this from the eyes of the secular world, but take a moment to look at the world through the eyes of the Torah. Is it really so bad to teach our children to dress so that the opposite sex’s hormones don’t stir? Is it so bad to teach our children that they all have a holy spark inside them? When they actually want to let it grow, we clip their wings?
Traditional Judaism is certainly not a cult, and Aish and other outreach organizations out there are simply traditional Judaism. I would recommend seeing for yourself at Aish.com and learning about what they have to offer before you discount your own faith. They simply offer the lessons we’ve been learning for thousands of years. Nothing new.
Sam Adler | San Francisco
Good revelations
When I was 21, I went on an Orthodox immersion trip to Israel and was nearly “Aished” (“Wearing skirts? Hot for Torah? Maybe you’ve been Aish’d,” July 25). My three weeks in the Holy Land were spent traveling the land and learning at a yeshiva. We spent a full day at Aish HaTorah in an intensive immersion into Torah and Judaism. It was fascinating! The entire trip exposed me to ideas that I had not had the opportunity to explore in Hebrew school.
I loved the experience and the amazing information I had access to, yet I am not ba’al teshuvah; I did not take the leap into a frum life. How did I avoid being “Aished,” as many call it? Simple; it was not the life for me.
Much of our lives are spent searching for meaning; if some find it through becoming more religious, I do not feel we have the right to throw a cult reference onto the experience. We all have a choice, and as long as the “Aishing” leaves the person with their compassion and humanity I say more power to them! I hope we can all come to our own personal “Aishing” revelations, allowing us to live our lives to the fullest.
Shoshana Baars-Stanton | San Franciso
Overstating the numbers?
If Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s op-ed (“Broken men like John Edwards must put family first,” Aug. 15) is to be believed, the institution of marriage in the U.S. is in deep trouble.
He examines John Edwards’ extramarital affair by stating that Edwards considered the external adoration from crowds more important than the love of his wife.
He then makes the assertion that hundreds of millions of Americans go to work believing that what they do at the office better determines success than what they do at home. He also asserts that impressing their bosses is more important than keeping their wives off Prozac.
Considering that the United States population is 300 million, for him to assert that hundreds of millions of Americans consider work more important than family makes all marriages vulnerable, and leads to the impression that most wives are on Prozac.
Questions: Where did the rabbi arrive at his figures? What makes him an expert at determining the percentage of American husbands that consider work more important than a monogamous marriage? What “fact checker” did he use to arrive at his statistics?
If rabbis perform counseling in addition to the rabbinate, then they need to do fact checks before making bold assertions that are open to disbelief.
Stan Heimowitz | Castro Valley
Hillel of the people
College stands as a time when many Jewish students discover their own personal Jewish identity despite being five years removed from their bar/bat mitzvah and many on their own for the first time. Students often feel lost in a sea of options and pressured by academics. U.C. Berkeley epitomizes that experience. For this reason, Berkeley Hillel holds engagement, led by students, as central to its mission.
I cannot think of one activity at Berkeley Hillel that students do not help to organize. This model exists for the same reason Jews have flourished throughout history — community, particularly in unfamiliar circumstances, defines our Judaism.
I know that without a community of Jews to belong to, I certainly wouldn’t participate in Shabbat dinners, Yom HaShoah readings or Purim parties, activities that define my Judaism. If this serves as an indictment of my generation’s inability to persist individually then so be it, although I don’t think that’s what college or life is about.
For what it’s worth, as long as we say HaMotzi before eating, I’m glad to have all my Jewish friends at a fiesta barbeque — where, by the way, we held a powerful moment of silence for Israel’s fallen heroes.
Dan Rosen | Berkeley
President, U.C. Berkeley Jewish Student Union
Don’t be fooled
The fossil fool industry is putting another fast one over on us. They plan to spend the tons of money they are making overcharging us to propagandize us into paying for a new boondoggle: liquid fuel from coal.
Even though it generates twice as much CO2 as regular gasoline it will be sold to us as a clean fuel; and even though it was invented by the Nazis (Auschwitz was originally set up to provide slave labor for coal based liquid fuels) they are presenting it as the next big (and green) thing.
Don’t be fooled again. Conserve what you can and use renewable resources (solar, wind, geothermal) for the rest. The Appalachian Mountains and our air and water will thank you.
Ed Taub | Mountain View