Rule of law rules
I fully condemn the vandalism directed against the home of Rabbi Michael Lerner in Berkeley. I normally vehemently disagree with the statements that I read from Rabbi Lerner, but I also vehemently defend his right not only to make those statements but also to enjoy the protection of the law, which must be common to us all.
Anyone who would commit or sympathize with such acts should consider the importance that Jewish tradition based on the Torah gives to the rule of law. The seven Noahide laws which apply to all nations include maintaining a justice system. We can disagree with each other and strongly express opposing opinions. However, we should be guided by the Torah in understanding the limits of the permissible.
Steve Astrachan | Pleasant Hill
Tolerating the thugs
Your Dec.16 editorial (“Israel needs to halt the thuggery perpetrated by extremist settlers”) is critical of the “lawless, racist bandits” and your ire is “not directed at all Jews who live across the Green Line.”
However, the settler communities in the West Bank are complicit with this lawlessness and racism because they shield and tolerate the thugs. The politicians and police are also complicit, since they have not prosecuted or even condemned the violence perpetrated on the Palestinian citizens of the West Bank. Uprooting olive groves, desecrating mosques, killing herds and shooting at unarmed locals have gone on for years without any serious consequence or even investigation.
Many Israelis see Palestinians as occupiers of a historically Jewish homeland and are willing to see them driven off using any means at their disposal. Tolerating terrorism within their community is as much a crime as committing it. Not reporting terrorist acts, not insisting on arrests and trials for the perpetrators is an endorsement of the acts.
Yes, as you note, the military and police can capture and prosecute the thugs, but the communities that include and tolerate the terrorists have an obligation to live up to Jewish and democratic ideals and take responsibility for the acts of those who live among them.
Saul Rockman | San Francisco
Anti-Israel N.Y. Times?
The Israeli officials are completely correct (“Israeli officials escalate the war of words with N.Y. Times,” Dec. 23). The New York Times harbors a strong anti-Israel bias. Their favorite technique is to use a Jew as a mouthpiece for anti-Israeli propaganda. Roger Cohen and Thomas Friedman are happy to cooperate with the rest of the op-ed staff that can never find anything good to say about the Jewish State or its policies.
Mike Spinrad | Greenbrae
J Street’s true mission
Several letters in your Dec. 16 edition misrepresent what J Street is about. J Street’s mission is to lobby for a viable Jewish future for Israel through the two-state solution of the Arab-Israeli dispute. Without this solution, the Palestinians living in the unitary state will soon be a majority, they will unavoidably win their civil rights and the unitary state in its entirety will become Palestine. J Street works for Israel’s truest interests and deserves the support of the Jewish community.
Alexandre Chorin | Berkeley
A call for re-education
Jacob Lewis (“Cal Jewish groups right to deny J Street U admission,” Dec. 23) defends the JSU by arguing that democracy was protected by their rejection of J Street U “because the group’s request for admission was an attempt by a small group of students to unfairly represent their marginal agenda.”
Huh? Democracy means including a multitude of voices and views, not banning those with whom you disagree. If J Street U is, in fact, “a small group,” then they will be out-voted by the majority. That’s how democracy is supposed to work. I urge Mr. Lewis and his peers to reconsider and to take a political science course.
Diane Wolf | Berkeley
Cowardly, stupid or both?
Tom Friedman’s hateful, malicious and defamatory comments regarding Congress and the “Israel lobby” (“Israeli officials escalate the war of words with N.Y. Times,” Dec. 23) represent exactly how Obama feels: Friedman is Obama’s champion, buddy and — even worse — one of his Middle East advisers (“Obama to Reform Jews: Israel support ‘is a fact,’ ” Dec. 23).
Accordingly, Friedman’s attacks should be grouped with the wretchedly anti-Israel remarks made in the last few weeks by Panetta, Clinton and Ambassador Gutman. Nevertheless, Obama has no trouble asking the same “Israel lobby” for support. Stunningly, most of these folks (and I am not referring to J Streeters and others who work against Israel) — still, after four years of hostility to Israel — are giving it to him.
What kind of people are we? Is it cowardice, abject stupidity, or both?
Tod Zuickerman | San Francisco
Light on intermarriage
Thank you, Sue Fishkoff, for opening the window a little wider on the phenomenon of intermarriage (“My family tree is loaded with tinsel,” Dec. 16). It has been with us a long time but many people felt it that it has to be swept under the rug.
Even today too many try to shame those who marry outside the faith. Whatever faith. Some are afraid that Judaism will be so watered down that it will die.
Over many centuries, we have shown that this is not so. To the dismay of some, Jews will not disappear. Thank you for bringing us more light during this season of Festival of Lights.
Miriam Goodley | Oakland
Embracing interfaith
Many thanks to Sue Fishkoff for her column (“My family tree is loaded with tinsel,” Dec. 16).
As Sue made so clear, relationships and families are complicated … get over it. With so many Jews marrying non-Jews, family events, holidays, practices and beliefs aren’t simple. At the end of the day, I really hope that we can focus more on mutual understanding, respect, compassion and love among those of different faiths — in a way that we are secure in our identities, beliefs and practices yet open to treating others as we wish to be treated.
I am a daily Mass kind of Catholic, married to an active and engaged Jew. I happily belong to Temple Beth Am in Los Altos and am also an engaged member of the Catholic community at Stanford.
I’m pleased and proud to say that there were more Jesuit priests than rabbis at my son’s bar mitzvah — where no one expressed more joy and kicked up her heels more than my devoutly Irish Catholic mother.
Thanks for the column and for understanding the dynamics of today’s interfaith relationships. As my wife and I always say: “It’s all about the love … the rest are details.”
Thomas G. Plante | Santa Clara
Rambler’s secret weapon
I was delighted to read in Edmon Rodman’s article (“License to Kvell,” Dec. 23) that Sol Weinstein’s parodies of Ian Fleming’s 007, reincarnated as the Jewish secret agent Israel Bond, are being reprinted. These satires were incredibly funny, especially to a young naive Jewish college student (me) who was taken up with the whole James Bond shtick of that era.
But I fear that some of the original humor may prove a bit opaque to younger folks. For example, in “Loxfinger” I recall that Oy-Oy-Seven was given instructions to drive up from New York City to a big Catskills resort (e.g., Grossinger’s; long gone from the former “Hebrew Himalayas”). He could have made the trip in under 90 minutes if he rented a powerful Rocket 88 (Oldsmobile: also vanished), but instead chose a slow, underpowered and nebbishy Rambler (American Motors: also long gone).
Why? Because the Rambler had one well-advertised feature that Olds lacked: a front seat could tilt back to form a bed, thereby assisting our hero’s romances with any grateful lady-in-distress he rescues from the roadside by fixing her flat tire (no cellphones, bucket seats or steel-belted radials in those days, either).
Ron Oremland | Brisbane