Your Letters

Suicide Prevention

Rob Eshman’s editorial (“Do-It-Yourselfers,” Nov. 9) was inspiring. There are many important needs to be met in the Jewish community, and it is vital for each and every one of us to support those programs that maintain and strengthen our community.

We would like to bring your attention to another such program — Project Tikvah: Jewish Youth Suicide Prevention Program.

Project Tikvah has the support of the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements. As with the programs mentioned in the editorial, there was a need and efforts were made to fill that need. For further information regarding Project Tikvah, please call (818) 981-0123.

Jeff Bernhardt, Co-Director

Janet Woznica, Co-Director

Tough Questions

Thank you for your timely article (“Are You There, God?” Nov. 2). My husband and I have been grappling with this question for some time, especially in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

The rabbis’ comments have not only reaffirmed our questions and sense of confusion about God’s presence or role in a universe laden with evil, but they have also have given us a deeper understanding of the meaning of life and one’s sense of purpose and responsibility toward others. It is apparent that it is only in one’s acts toward other human beings that the world can become more enlightened, compassionate and whole; of this we need to be reminded, in whatever form it takes.

Dorie Bulloff, Playa del Rey

Gay Stereotypes

I was intrigued to read Mike Levy’s review of Lothar Machtan’s book, “The Hidden Hitler,” which questions Hitler’s sexual identity (“Was Hitler Gay?,” Nov. 16). But my response is neither to agree nor disagree with the critique. Rather, I draw attention to the distasteful illustration that accompanied the article, depicting Hitler wearing a provocative outfit, including tights and high heels. Why show a mock-up of Hitler as a cross-dresser when the book questions if he was gay? Let’s not perpetuate stereotypes.

Rabbi Zachary R. Shapiro, University Synagogue

Salam Al-Marayati

I consider myself a progressive, but found the letter from Daniel Sokatch of the Progressive Jewish Alliance (Letters, Nov. 2) to be off-base.

Sokatch tried to convince Rabbi John Rosove to consider rejoining the Muslim-Jewish Dialogue of Los Angeles, claiming Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and participant in the dialogue, had apologized for his recent comments implicating Israel in the World Trade Center attacks and publicly accepted Israel’s right to exist.

However, that same issue featured an article about a CSUN exhibit, constructed by Al-Marayati’s very own Muslim Public Affairs Council, that equated Zionism with Nazism and degraded the Museum of Tolerance, one of the city’s major Jewish institutions.

There is no reason why our Jewish leaders should seek to engage Al-Marayati in dialogue. If the Progressive Jewish Alliance wants to do so, it has that right. But it should do so understanding that it represents itself only, and not the entire “progressive” Jewish community.

Randy Steinberg, Los Angeles

Clarification

Tom Tugend’s article on “Haven” at the University of Judaism (“Safe and Sound ‘Haven,'” Nov. 11) might give the mistaken impression that I knew when I was raising money for the play that the true cost would be much more. Not true. I would have never lied to investors. What I tried to convey was that if I knew the actual cost of production was going to be $400,000, I wouldn’t have had the guts to even go out and try to raise money, and that I doubted whether investors would have been willing to put that much up for a four-week run in Los Angeles.

William Goldstein, Los Angeles