Letters

Thanks to Rabbi Weiss

The English are a fortunate lot that Rabbi Weiss has chosen to live with them. Two years ago I heard Rabbi Weiss speak for one hour. Instead of squandering his time spouting bitterness for this group or that, he delighted the audience with a step-by-step description of his search for religion that culminated in Orthodox Judaism and told us the beauty of living his life as an observant Jew. Shabbat was an opportunity to spend one day a week to enjoy life, not a horrible restriction on individual freedom. In the past I was warned to “stay away from the Black Hats, they won’t even tell you what page of the Siddur they are on.” The Jewish Journal had an ad for a series of lectures at the Westwood Kehilla. With some trepidation I went to see what Rabbi Weiss had come to love. At the first Kehilla lecture, I sat in the back, said nothing, and left before the lox and bagels were served. Each Sunday I came back to lectures that made more and more sense. On Shabbos, warm, wonderful, welcoming shul members would walk up and introduce themselves at “Kiddush” rather than have you stand there alone feeling like an outsider. The Black Hats showed a big heart.

Like Rabbi Weiss I have come to yearn for the peace of Shabbos; the walking to shul instead of complaining about how far away I had to park, about relearning the joy of reading instead of desperate channel surfing. I’ve had two years of slowly learning the Orthodox way of life and words; I can’t express how grateful I feel for the one hour listening to Rabbi Weiss which gave me a push in the direction of an Orthodox shul whose rabbis and members have showed me that you can talk the talk, walk the walk and live a genuinely happy life.

Bunnie Meyer,Santa Monica

Balanced Perspective on Guns Needed

In response to your article “Opposing Gun Violence” (May 5), every responsible Jew and gun owner would like to see unnecessary gun violence curtailed. However, since I assume your paper has a responsibility to the community in presenting a fair and balanced report on this issue, I would like to suggest that you left out something very important; a risk-reward analysis of the gun issue. Ann Reiss Lane was quoted as saying that, “in 1998, some 1,088 residents of Los Angeles County lost their lives to guns. Of these, 157 were under 18 years old.” Wouldn’t your readers be interested to know how many of these were gang related, how many of these shootings were justified self -defense and how many were accidental shootings of innocent people?

Do you think that your article would have been more balanced if you had pointed out that in the United States in 1998, at least 500,000 people successfully used guns in self-defense? Or that in those states that have passed liberal right-to-carry concealed handgun laws, violent crime rates have dropped dramatically? A liberal right-to-carry law in L.A. would have a much greater, positive impact on violent crime than trigger locks.

Ronald Norman,Los Angeles

Christian Junior High Teaches the Holocaust

Acaciawood School is a small private school in Anaheim. We focus a large segment of our junior high curriculum on the Holocaust. Our hope and expectation is that through education, the potential for brutality of man toward man can be exposed, thereby sensitizing our students consciousness so that portions of history may never be repeated.Our teacher has been trained through various programs sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Facing History Foundation. We have developed an extensive library of Holocaust literature, as well as a video library. We do feel it is important to incorporate oral histories into the curriculum, and have had the opportunity to invite several Holocaust survivors to our campus to share their stories. As part of this curriculum we take students each year to the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance and encourage participation in Holocaust-related writing competitions. We are proud of the work our students have done.Due to the interest we have generated among our students for issues relating to the Holocaust, several have chosen the Holocaust as their topic to research for National History Day. We have an outstanding research-based performance done by five high school girls and a 10-minute documentary compiled by junior high students. Now that History Day is over for this year, we would like to share these projects with the community.

We are always looking for materials and resources to share with our students.

Larry A. Wilde,Principal, Acaciawood School

Kosher in OC

After reading Ilene Schnieder’s “Jewish in OC,” (April 28) I was not surprised to be flooded with phone calls – many of our customers asking, “Doesn’t she know you are here? Doesn’t she know about your store?” Although her references to Orange County as a “Jewish desert” were based on her impressions in 1970, some might think that there are still no kosher establishments there.I wanted to let you know that we are here. Our store is called Orange County Kosher Market and Deli. We are located in Tustin, right near the 5 and 55 freeways, in the El Camino Plaza. Along with the many Jewish day schools and Orthodox congregations, we have become a real center in the community. After opening our store in December 1999, we experienced the excitement and sheer joy of being welcomed by the families of Orange County; they stood in our store and cried with happiness. They eat here, meet here, socialize and schmooze here, and at our grand opening in January they even danced here. We are supervised by the Rabbinical Council of Orange County. It makes our customers feel very good to see their own rabbis and community leaders eating at our outdoor tables while they are shopping inside the store.

I know that everything said in the article was true in the past, but things are changing in Orange County. After 25 years in the kosher meat business in Los Angeles, we closed our store on Pico and started over in Tustin. The new store took 8 months to build after 5 years of planning. The costs of running this business are exorbitant and not too many people would take the risk to start again in an area that is not known as a Jewish center. Even with all of our experience and contacts, it is still scary.We would be please to have all your readers know that we are here and Jewish life in Orange County is thriving.

Frances and Mike Zelig,Tustin

Three Cheers

Let me take my place in the cheering section of readers hoping for a weekly Orange County edition. Thank you for recognizing the journalistic void and helping to fill it.Ilene Schneider’s “Jewish In OC” article was most interesting. I would like to add to the list of significant events that happened in the Orange County Jewish community in recent years. In 1990, Heritage Pointe, a Jewish home for the aging that serves Orange County and Long Beach, opened its doors. Perhaps you would like to do an article on this fine organization in future issues.

Valerie Sloane,Fullerton