Letters to the Editor

I found the angry letters condemning The Jewish Journal for its profile of Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller (“To Nudge and to Support,” April 30) to be so cruel and unforgiving. By including Seidler-Feller’s 2003 physical assault of a female journalist and his subsequent apology and teshuvah, The Journal offered a fair rendering of the rabbi as a worthy yet flawed human being, like the rest of us.

Rx for What Ails Health Care\n\nDr. Jerome P. Helman assures that [within the] pending California SB810, expected to hit the desk this fall for the governor’s signature, stands the prescription to arrest and cure prohibitive California medical costs (“Healing Prager,” April 16).

Standing With UCI’s Jewish Students \n\nWe applaud UC Irvine Jewish students who are effectively countering the Muslim Student Union’s [MSU] bigoted and divisive campaigns, and urge Jewish students to attend UCI in ever-larger numbers (“Is UC Irvine Safe for Jews?” April 16). We have worked closely with UCI students since 2001, supporting them in every way, from funding speakers and events to brainstorming and guiding them about organizing responses and proactive events, supplying materials on controversial topics, funding and participating in their retreats and advocacy training with Hillel, among other efforts. Our YouTube video of [Israel’s U.S.] Ambassador Michael Oren’s UCI talk on Feb. 8 exposed the MSU’s bullying tactics to over 700,000 viewers.

As a physician of 45 years, who has followed the calling of the profession devoted to patient care, I must start the healing process for Dennis Prager (“A Response to a Reader,” April 9). The only way to ensure the health care needs of the public is to adopt a single-payer system. By removing the health insurance companies from the monstrous system they have created and transferring their massive funding to a public utility, all of us would be guaranteed the care we deserve and already pay for without new taxes. Profits, with their moral and ethical shortcomings, would be removed from the table and administrative expenses cut to 5 percent.

Mourning Loss of Jewish Day Schools\n\nThe pending closures of Shalhevet’s elementary and middle schools (“Shalhevet to Close 3 Schools Because of Financial Woes,” March 26) are tragedies. The schools are blessed with excellent faculties, and their corridors exude ruach at every turn. They’ve complemented well the outstanding array of Jewish day schools that dot the local landscape by providing unique alternatives for committed Jewish families. The shuttering of their doors will be a sad day for our community.

You should really get a more balanced and perceptive Editor-in-Chief if he thinks the Tea Partyers (“Party Off,” March 26) are more of a danger than the radical left in this country!

Prejudice in the ‘Hood\n\nIn my childhood in Miami Beach, there were neighborhoods where Jews could not live, and the same was true in some other cities. Now, that is the attitude of Arabs in Jerusalem. I am surprised to see the Obama administration criticizing Israel for the crime of building housing for Jews in \”gentiles-only\” neighborhoods (“U.S.-Israel Crisis: This Time, It’s Serious,” March 19). After all, people with Obama’s skin color have suffered decades of similar discrimination in our country.

Heritage Listings Necessary\n\nAvi Davis is correct to argue that Israel’s heritage listing of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem is rendered necessary by continuous Palestinian violation of Jewish sacred sites and denial and negation of any Jewish right or even connection to them (“The Palestinian Graveyard Spin,” jewishjournal.com, Mar. 2).