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Letters to the editor: Israel’s video, the U.N., an affordable Jewish education and more

Regarding Rob Eshman’s column about the shooting in Hebron: He is certainly entitled to his opinion, but this soldier is also entitled to his day in court and Eshman’s inflammatory comments before the court hearing endanger this soldier’s rights (“Israel’s Vicious Video,” April 8).
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April 13, 2016

Predator or Protector?

Regarding Rob Eshman’s column about the shooting in Hebron: He is certainly entitled to his opinion, but this soldier is also entitled to his day in court and Eshman’s inflammatory comments before the court hearing endanger this soldier’s rights (“Israel’s Vicious Video,” April 8). We all have a point of view that we wish to share and we should be free to do so, but not when it endangers the rights of others.

It is reasonably clear the terrorist would have died under any circumstances. Therefore, the question was whether it was reasonable to assume he had a suicide belt on that could have endangered the lives of more people. Has Eshman served in any military, let alone in the Israel Defense Forces as a teenager, where split-second decisions must be made that determine if you and others  live or die at the hands of fanatics?

Eshman using his position at the Jewish Journal to be the prosecutor, judge and jury is, in this case, reckless and unfair.

Jack de Lowe, Raanana, Israel

Fear not for the future of the IDF. Quoting a former Yitzhak Rabin “adviser” and facilitator of the Oslo accords, the single most damaging capitulation ever taken on by Israel, that the IDF is in danger of “collapsing,” is ludicrous. As is Eshman’s damaging diatribe against a soldier protecting our homeland. Yes, we have an internal existential threat, but it’s not the army and it’s not what he believe is our path down the rabbit hole of diminishing proper behavior in defense of our country. It’s our own people ignoring the call of our enemies for our destruction that poses the greatest threat to our existence.

Allan Kandel, Los Angeles

U.N. an Unholy Alliance

It would make my day if I were to read a letter to the editor or an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times like David Suissa’s editorial titled “A Resolution Against the U.N.,” (April 8).

Suissa reports that more than 80 percent of United Nations condemnations in each of the last four years have been against Israel. The rest  are divided among the other 191 members of the U.N. Such a disparity highlights the strong bias of the U.N. against Israel. How anyone can believe that any one country deserves more than 80 percent of U.N. condemnations is beyond me.

To confine Suissa’s year-by-year enumeration of U.N. condemnations of Israel to the readers of the Jewish Journal is not only an injustice to Israel but is preventing people at large from learning how biased the U.N. is against Israel.

Marc Jacobson, Los Angeles

Unaffordable, Not Unattainable

I would like to thank the Jewish Journal and Jared Sichel for the thorough research and wonderful job they did covering the Nagel Jewish Academy (“Jewish Education for a Two-Figure Tuition,” April 8).

I need to clarify one thing — mainly because my mother called me, upset. Her complaint was, “How could you say that tuition for a Jewish education is a waste of money?”

My whole raison d’etre is based on the good book’s commandment of “Inform them to your children and your children’s children,” so it was not my intent to imply otherwise. My concern is in how we deliver it. The cost of Jewish education is astronomical — and out of reach for many Jews. I pay $80,000 to educate my four children, and yet most of that money is going to pay for the things that public schools already provide.

So with Jewish parents who are already sending their kids to their neighborhood public school, and who feel disappointed they can’t pay for a private Jewish education, Nagel Jewish Academy is there to fill in the gap. Nagel Jewish Academy’s singular focus on a Jewish education has reduced the price to $1,250 per child (tax deductible), and we have covered all the costs ourselves to make it free for all parents.

We want to offer a Jewish education for free to those who can’t afford one. It’s not a replacement for a private Jewish school, but an alternative.

Levi Nagel, Founder of Nagel Jewish Academy

The Message Is the Medium

Dr. Gary Michelson certainly has accomplished a lot and given a lot, but I was left very cold with his disingenuous and dismissive answer to the question about donating to Jewish charities (“The Life Saver,” April 1).

As wonderful as he might be, this article belongs more in the L.A. Times than on the cover of the Jewish Journal.

Bill Fields, Los Angeles

correction

The article “Jewish Education for a Two-Figure Tuition” (April 8) incorrectly identified the owner of the space used by Nagel Jewish Academy in Beverlywood. It is owned by the Friendship Circle of Los Angeles.

 

A Moving and Shaking item about a discussion at IKAR, “How to Live as Jews in the World: Particularism vs. Universalism” (April 1), misidentified the interim president of the Academy for Jewish Religion, California. She is Rabbi Laura Owens.

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