Sound practices at World Savings
That Herbert and Marion Sandler get spoofed on “SNL” is odd because they ran a small bank headquartered in Oakland, the financial capital of Alameda County but nowhere else. The article “Financial crisis spurs anti-Semitism” (Oct. 10) convinces me anti-Semitism is at play.
I have admired the Sandlers for the way they ran World Savings over the years, so this is the fan letter when it counts. In my experience, other banks and savings institutions can do lots of bad things to mere checking and savings accounts. Yet World Savings didn’t do that kind of stuff. Its banking practices made sense, and it hired smart people from all kinds of backgrounds and made them into very competent employees. The reason seemed to be the guiding hand of the Sandlers.
Wachovia Bank took over one year ago. Right away it went from being like a bright, sunny day to a dark and stormy night, how I describe the turmoil experienced as Wachovia’s customer. Soon came news articles scapegoating World Savings for Wachovia’s own bad practices it brought to California. Perhaps these articles spotlighted the Sandlers as the economy got worse and why the Sandlers were satirized.
Nancy Sommer | El Cerrito
Raw deal for Sandlers
We are appalled by the media coverage that Marion and Herb Sandler have received. It was a complete disgrace using egregious untruths. They are living proof of the good that human beings are capable of. That they were used as examples of the greed and fraud in the financial industry is so ludicrous we can barely contain our anger.
The Sandlers have both done tremendous good in this world. They created a respected and responsible banking institution and have chosen to donate most of their wealth to their charitable foundation. Their integrity, generosity, and honesty establish them as role models not only in the financial community, but also in the worldwide philanthropic community.
Please know how offended we are at this outrageous attack. They have our support and our undying respect for all that they have done and will continue to do to make this world a better place.
Varda and Irving Rabin | Tiburon
Free Gaza Movement: ‘misguided misfits’?
Several misguided contributors accused the JCRC of blunting “the impact of the success of the Free Gaza Movement” (Letters, Sept. 26), blathering about justice and freedom while trying to downplay the giddy reception Hamas’ leaders accorded several members of the organization, hosting them at a festive reception and placing medals around their necks.
Hamas is a terrorist organization not only terrorizing civilians in cities like Sderot with rocket fire for the simple “crime” of proximity, but also assassinating compatriots who dare to call into question their brutal rejectionist policies. Hamas rejects Israel’s right to exist and was behind the vast majority of the terror attacks against Israeli citizens in the second intifada who sat on buses, in cafes and at seder celebrations only to be blasted to bits by indiscriminate shrapnel-filled human bombs.
JCRC represents an overwhelming consensus of organizations in the Bay Area who support a two-state solution between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors existing in peaceful, secure and recognized borders. FGM represents nothing more than a fringe group of misguided misfits who apologize for Hamas at every turn rather than encouraging their Palestinian supporters to enter into credible peace negotiations with Israel.
JCRC deserves the medals, not FGM.
Steve Lipman | Foster City
Worry about Israel, not Gazans’ rights
Recent letters expressed disdain at purported linkage of the Free Gaza Movement with Hamas (“JCRC steps up efforts to counter local ‘free Gaza’ groups,” Sept. 19). They emphasize their concern for human rights for Gazans.
Gazans elected Hamas after Israel withdrew from Gaza. Instead of using valuable infrastructure left behind by Israel, Hamas destroyed it and began firing rockets into Israel, killing and injuring Israelis and paralyzing the city of Sderot. They captured Gilad Shalit, and hold him hostage as insurance against a military invasion to stop the rockets.
Hamas smuggles advanced weaponry into Gaza to kill and maim more Israelis. Last week, Iran, Hamas’s major supporter, tried to out-Nazi the Nazis. Not only did its president berate Israel at the UN to applause, but Hashemi Rafsanjani, at the helm of the group that chooses Iran’s leaders, threatened that it would be “dangerous” if the United States, Britain and France continue to support Israel.
Maybe I’m missing something, but this smells of genocidal intent toward Israel, and Jews in general. The only question is whether you believe once Israel is gone, the Jews are safe elsewhere. I don’t.
For 6 million reasons, to me, human rights for Gazans are secondary to Israel’s survival. It’s that simple.
Desmond Tuck | Menlo Park
‘Propaganda arm’ for Hamas ignores reality
It’s not difficult to show how the “Free Gaza” movement has turned itself into a propaganda arm of Hamas. Their members enthusiastically greeted Ismail Haniyeh, who awarded them “Palestinian passports” and hung medals around their necks. Their materials make no mention at all of why Gaza’s borders are closed — Hamas’ attacks on Israel and its clearly stated goal of Israel’s destruction.
While Hamas blames Israel for the hardships in Gaza, it continues to smuggle missiles, preparing for the time when it decides to break the “truce.” As Tariq Alhomayed, editor in chief of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, wrote: “So how can there be talk of lifting the Gaza siege and relieving the distress of its people, while Hamas concentrates all its efforts on recruiting and providing for its thousands of fighters. It is clear that Hamas’s priority is to look after its militants, at the expense of Gaza’s people and their suffering! Isn’t this a deliberate exploitation of their humanitarian suffering, their poverty and need?”
The Free Gaza Movement ignores this, just as they ignore Hamas’ murder of political rivals, its rejection of peace with Israel and its anti-Semitic charter. They are now just another part of that exploitation.
Michael Harris | San Rafael
Look beyond color
We empathize with Daniel Najjar (Letters, Oct. 10) who, as “a brown-skinned Jew,” is saddened by “too many” Israelis’ and Americans’ assumptions that “Jewish hands are white and Palestinian hands are brown” on your Oct. 3 cover.
Najjar rightly says that “both Jews and Palestinians come in every color.”
This certainly is our experience in bringing together Jewish and Palestinian youth and adults in camp programs and sustained dialogues for over 16 years.
In contrast, Najjar himself wrote on to unfairly criticize j.’s choice of a beautiful front page photo of connected dark and light hands, specifically attributing them to Palestinians and Jews, in that order.
We’re reminded that in each of us — no exceptions — can reside a quiet “unconscious association” that contributes to “the impediments to peace” of which Najjar helpfully reminds us.
Let us continue to become better at clearly seeing each other beneath the surface and as equally human — neighbors forever.
Libby and Len Traubman | San Mateo
Fearful hate rhetoric
I am stunned that Orthodox Jews have an overwhelming preference for John McCain and his ticket (“What the candidates really meant when they said ‘Shanah Tovah,'” Oct. 10).
Jews should be very concerned about the hatred that the McCain-Palin campaign is encouraging, a hatred we Jews should know very well. The McCain campaign has done nothing about the Obama hate rhetoric that is reported on the campaign trail, and in fact seems to encourage it. Shades of Germany in the 1930s.
The reason the Christian right (Palin) has such strong support for Israel has nothing to do with a love of the Jews; it has everything to do with keeping Israel in Jewish hands so that the Rapture can proceed; Jesus can not return as the messiah if Israel is not in Jewish control.
The overall meanness and “every man for himself” attitude of the Republicans, especially under Bush-Cheney, has conservatives who hate government doing everything in their power to disband and disable the agencies they run. The Jewish notion of supporting the stranger, for we were once strangers in the land of Egypt, is counter to how Republicans respond to immigration and the needs of immigrants. How can Jews support this ticket?
Joel Schipper | San Francisco
Not monolithic
Andrew Silow-Carroll (Views, Oct. 10) says that Jews who support McCain (largely the Orthodox) are also those who are more committed to Israel, while Jews who support Obama (largely non-Orthodox) are those who put domestic social issues ahead of Israel. This is a nice sleight-of-hand that implies that Jews who vote for Obama don’t really love Israel, but is as false as flag-waving Republicans claiming that Democrats are unpatriotic.
For some decades now, conservatives of all religions (Jews, Mormons, Catholics, Protestants) have tended to vote alike on social and economic issues, as have liberals of all religions. Orthodox Jews tend to be more conservative on social issues (like abortion or homosexuality) and therefore vote Republican; non-Orthodox Jews tend to be more liberal and therefore vote Democratic.
At the same time, Orthodox Jews have no lock on loving Israel. Liberal Jews may love Israel more deeply any Orthodox Jew, but believe that Bush’s policies have been bad for Israel and McCain’s will be no better. Therefore they support Obama because they believe that his administration will be better for Israel. Let me make that general statement more specific: I support Obama precisely because I love Israel with all my heart.
Patricia Munro | Livermore
‘Divisive demands’
Ben Harris tells us that there was “little sign of political controversy” in regard to the withdrawal of Gov. Palin’s invitation to the anti-Ahmadinejad rally in New York (“Human rights luminaries lead rally against Ahmadinejad,” Sept. 26). It must be the understatement of the year. Tens of thousands of people did not attend the rally, because J Street’s thuggish actions forced organizers to withdraw invitations to every public official and to end up with a much weaker and less-attended event. J Streeters and their supporters caused a major split within the Jewish community to the cheers and snickering of our mortal enemies.
We woke up to the realization that major Jewish organizations and their leaders for
got lessons of the first Holocaust. American Jewry was fractured and divided by petty and egotistic bickering then, as it is now. We cannot close our eyes to the clear and present danger of a second Holocaust and ignore petty hatred from the left and cowardice of our leaders.
Many of us are stopping financial support of organizations whose leaders have no strength or conviction to withstand absurd and divisive demands of the few who hate their fellow Americans more then our common enemies.
Sofia Shtil | Fremont
‘Jew’ or ‘American’?
Until 1961 the country of origin for Jews immigrating to Canada was categorized under “Jewish.” It didn’t matter that the person lived in France or Poland, only that he or she was Jewish. All other people were grouped by the actual country from which they had emigrated.
How is this Canadian discrimination any different from Libby and Len Traubman’s reference to Abraham’s Vision co-directors as “a Palestinian and a Jew” (Letters, Oct 10)? The Canadians, as I mentioned, stopped their discrimination in 1961.
Howard Roth | South San Francisco
Erring on Iran
Debra DeLees’s op-ed “Live from New York — it’s political theater” (Sept. 26) makes two fundamental errors. First, it accepts the National Intelligence Estimate stating “with high confidence that … Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” However, this headline-catching beginning was footnoted, “We do not mean Iran’s … uranium conversion and enrichment.” Creating nuclear weapons depends on adequate nuclear fuel, not the comparatively simple process of developing warheads.
Furthermore, the supporting conclusion that “Tehran had not restarted its nuclear program as of mid-2007” had only “moderate confidence.” For all the report’s criticism, the most telling was from Adm. McConnell, who issued it. Last February he answered Senate Intelligence Committee objections repeatedly that he should have better considered its language before publication.
Her second error was that, while acknowledging (and dismissing) one Bush administration advance, she does not recognize the 29-year history of failed diplomacy with this regime. Presidents Carter and Reagan tried and ended with the embassy takeover and the Iran-Contra scandal. More recently, the British, French and German attempt at a diplomatic solution with Iran only provided more time for weapons development.
We must assume an active nuclear weapons program by a regime that does not at all respect the norms of diplomatic exchange.
Steve Astrachan | Pleasant Hill
Take care of the Earth
On Sukkot, the Jewish festival devoted to our offering thanksgiving for the abundance of life, we are reminded that humans are only privileged caretakers of this precious, but imperiled, planet. Like the wilderness sukkot of our Israelite ancestors, this Earth is no more than our temporary dwelling, and it is our important responsibility to cherish and care for our planet and all its creatures, as coworkers with God. The fragile shelter of the sukkah should remind us that we can’t rely on technological advances to save us and we must find a way to live in harmony with nature.
As we decorate our sukkahs with pictures and replicas of fruits and vegetables on our harvest festival, we should consider how future harvests are endangered by global warming, widening water shortages and soil erosion and depletion. As our Israelite ancestors were sustained with manna, a vegetarian food “like coriander seed,” while they dwelt in sukkahs for 40 years in the wilderness, we should sustain ourselves with tofu, the modern-day manna, and a wide variety of other plant foods, to improve our health and to help move our endangered planet to a sustainable path.
Steven Schuster | Staten Island
Richard H. Schwartz | Staten Island
Blurring lines between church, state
Dan Pine’s article on the Sacramento eruv (“Sacramento eruv delights local Orthodox community,” Sept. 19) says “some eruvs take years to build — usually due to concerns from municipal agencies and uneasy non-Jewish neighbors.”
This omits the fact that some Jews oppose eruvs because they co-opt municipal property (like utility poles) for religious purposes. I don’t want crosses or Muslim slogans on municipal property, either — do you?
Orthodox Jews impose a labyrinth of restrictions on themselves, then expect a city to help them circumvent these restrictions. A rabbinical court could easily decide that carrying things on Shabbos is legitimate if it promotes the welfare of the family, or encourages study. They’ve figured out, for example, how the Orthodox can use private elevators in Jerusalem hotels on Shabbos.
To see what happens when there isn’t enough separation between religion and government, see Iran, Utah — or Israel, where the haredi stone city buses running in “their” neighborhoods on Shabbos.
Marty Klein | Palo Alto