Pray for healing of mentally ill
Is someone you love mentally ill? You’re not alone.
One in four Americans suffers from mental illness. How many Jews share this? Should someone be ashamed if they have diabetes or cancer? Of course not. Nor should people with biological brain disorders. But the stigma drives people into isolation.
Mental Illness Awareness Week is Oct. 5 to 11, during the High Holy Days. Look around at services. One seat to the right, the left, in front, in back. The likelihood is one person has mental illness. Let’s pray for healing, with the understanding each mentally ill person lives a life many of us will never know, but is no less holy.
Tuesday Oct. 7 is a national Day of Prayer, for the relief of the pain and heartbreak of all who suffer from mental illness in the Jewish community, hospital wards, the criminal justice system and those homeless ones on our streets.
The Bay Area Jewish Healing Center has a treasure trove of inspirational resources (www.jewishhealingcenter.org/mentalhealth.htm). The National Alliance on Mental Illness-San Francisco helps people connect to other families coping with mental illness: www.namisf.org.
And may the Source of Healing relieve the suffering of all people everywhere.
Pamela Reitman | San Francisco
Kol Tzedek leads the way
Thank you for your article last week (“Bay Area organizations rev up fight against Proposition 8,” Sept. 26). Unfortunately, we were dismayed to see that you did not mention Kol Tzedek (Voice of Justice), the coalition that started the ball rolling on organizing a Jewish community response to support marriage equality and oppose Proposition 8 (which you did report on in your Aug. 8 edition).
Kol Tzedek has been delighted with the eager responses from the organizations mentioned in the article (JCRC, Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay and ADL) as well as others to join the collaborative community campaign.
For more information on Kol Tzedek and ways to get involved in phone banking mentioned in the article, visit www.koltzedek.info.
Rachel Biale | Berkeley
Progressive Jewish Alliance,
Kol Tzedek Founding Group
Karen Erlichman | San Francisco
Jewish Mosaic
Lisa Finkelstein | San Francisco
LGBT Alliance of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation
Rebecca Weiner | San Francisco
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav
Santa Cruz Hillel seeks a peace
In light of recent letters in j. attacking Santa Cruz Hillel, we find ourselves having to defend an organization that contributes so much to the vibrant quality of life of Jewish students at U.C. Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz Hillel provides rich and engaging programming throughout the school year for Shabbat and holidays, Jewish education and culture, social activies and, yes, Israel. Any honest and reasonable assessment of our programs, including the largest Birthright enrollment in the state, will show Santa Cruz Hillel is a strong advocate for Israel at U.C. Santa Cruz.
Hillel’s inclusive mission — providing a place for all Jewish students from wide-ranging backgrounds — means we cannot always satisfy those at the extremes. Instead, we promote a broader array of views reflecting the wider Jewish world. This approach has been endorsed by the local Jewish community through the many expressions of support for our work in response to these shrill and unwarranted attacks.
We are proud of and encourage the tradition of lively exchange in Santa Cruz, but these divisive tactics serve no one, certainly not the Jewish students at UCSC who stand to lose so much from these distractions. Enough! Let’s find another way to resolve our differences.
Board of Directors
Santa Cruz Hillel Foundation
Anti-Zionism alive, well in Santa Cruz
I was so pleased to read Aryeh Nanas’s comments about the inviting atmosphere for Jews and living a Jewish life in Santa Cruz and at the UCSC campus (Letters, Sept. 12).
This means that the hard work of the pro-Israel activists has been successful!
Unfortunately, what Mr. Nanas fails to do is distinguish between anti-Semitism, and the new anti-Semitism — anti-Zionism — directed against the State of Israel by such campus speakers as Stephen Zunes and Dalet Baum, among others.
The community should be aware of the “work” of the former mayor of Santa Cruz, Scott Kennedy, who is the founder of the Resource Center for Nonviolence. Mr. Kennedy enjoys traveling and has even been to the West Bank and Gaza, where he ‘visited’ with Hamas. In fact, Kennedy is an abettor of Arab terrorist movements, and the RCNV has broken U.S. anti-terrorism laws about meeting with Hamas as NGO leaders. (Kennedy recently met with Ahmadinejad).
Our community must continue to speak out against this egregiousness and provide an atmosphere for Jewish students so they can focus on their education and not get derailed by the anti-Zionists — professors and students alike.
Barbara Mortkowitz | San Mateo
Keep it civil
As a 30-year resident of the Santa Cruz Jewish community and as a longtime teacher of effective communication skill building, I was (and still am) dismayed after reading the letters to the editor in your Sept. 19 issue, one from Ilan Benjamin and Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and the other from Gil Stein.
While differences of opinions and perspectives are a common part of peoples’ lives, where in the above-mentioned letters is the effort for “Shalom Bayit”? Instead, the letters are filled with aggressive, self-righteous, judgmental invectives, which sound to me like the politics of the day. Surely, the involved parties could have sought out a mutually respectful way to express their views.
What is accomplished for the good here? Venting steaming anger against another causes estrangement, divisiveness and possibly high blood pressure!
Doris Leavitt | Santa Cruz
Rabbis for Obama shouldn’t hush up
I disagree strongly with those who feel that rabbis — acting as private citizens — should refrain from endorsing a political candidate (Letters, Sept. 26).
Rabbis are our role models. How can they teach values like tikkun olam if they are not themselves passionate about democracy and our right to vote?
Two of my rabbis have signed that letter in support of Obama (Rabbis Janet Marder and Josh Zweiback), and I am proud of them. They are impeccable in their ethics, free of bias from the bimah, and vigorous in their instruction to us to make all members of the synagogue welcome at all times, regardless of our differences.
I am a physician. I do not bring politics into the exam rooms. A patient need not be a Democrat to be welcome in my practice any more than they need to be female or white or Jewish. But I certainly feel it my civic duty to take a stand on what kind of health-care reform will be enacted in this country, and that means having an opinion on who will bring that about.
Antoinette Rose | Palo Alto
Member, Doctors for Obama
Let seniors vote as they choose
When I read “Some older Jews wary of Obama because he’s black” (Sept. 26), it came to me that it was purely anecdotal in content and politically guilt-driven in derivation to appeal to Jews who somehow see themselves as “bearers of truth” to seniors of the world.
I would say that most Jews in the United States vote their political consciences, whether it is of a liberal, conservative or independent leaning, as other Americans do.
For this writer to label older Jews as racist if they do not support Obama is, in of itself, a subtle racist tactic. Our parents and grandparents (mine died in the Holocaust) were the ones who fought the wars to make our guilt-ridden lives as wonderful as they are today. I would bet the farm that seniors would agree that life today is much better than it was in the past. To accuse them of racism for not following the party line is disrespectful and self-loathing.
Let them vote any way they wish.
Samuel H. Gluck | San Bruno
Remember the Trinity
Ron Kampeas’ article (“Jews dig for details in vetting McCain’s VP,” Sept. 5) notes that Sarah Palin once sported a Pat Buchanan pin. If true, hers is a despicable act, knowing full well what Buchanan’s anti-Semitic views are. We are indebted to him for this information.
However, I wish Mr. Kampeas had contrasted her unacceptable behavior to the blatant anti-Semitic act of Obama. He was a member of an anti-Semitic organization (Trinity Church of Chicago) for 20 years. The church gave a lifetime achievement award to Farrakhan. Obama did not leave the church until political pressure forced him to do so.
If Mr. Kampeas believes that we should overlook Obama’s Trinity affair for the sake of “change”, I will understand (but do not agree). Whatever Kampeas’ rationale, I hope that in his retort (assuming the readers get one) he will not try to deny the act itself or deny that it is a heinous act of anti-Semitism. So doing would be an insult to the 6 million victims of the Holocaust.
Ronald P. Gruber | Piedmont
Grasping for straws?
It seems as though the Republican Jewish Coalition is so desperate to convince wavering Jews to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket that they are willing to overlook the most blatant facts about Palin and “tout the appearance of a small Israeli flag propped against a window of the state capitol.”
Is this what it’s come to in the Jewish community? Here’s a VP candidate with no foreign policy experience, a right-wing record on domestic issues (she’s anti-choice, supports the NRA, besides completely mismanaging the finances of her town of 7,000), but the fact that she had a little Israeli flag in her window completely overshadows every other aspect of her candidacy.
Let’s not get started with McCain’s 90 percent record of voting for Bush policies, while posing as “Mr. Maverick.” Barack Obama is a solid supporter of Israel. Yet there are still some in our community who can’t find it in themselves to vote for the Obama/Biden ticket, despite the progressive values they represent. Please compare their records to the other ticket, and don’t give in to the fearmongers in our community.
Richard Weiner | Oakland
Not Kristallnacht
Characterizing the firebombing of three synagogues in June, 1999, as Sacramento’s “own Kristallnacht” is very offensive and a trivialization of the Holocaust (“Law and border,” Sept. 19).
Had the fire department stood by and prevented rescue or other appropriate actions; had the police department blamed the Jews for the attacks and arrested many Jews and thrown them in jail; had numerous Jewish-owned businesses and homes also been simultaneously attacked — then it would have been like Kristallnacht.
Norman H. Green | Los Angeles