More Schwartzie, poquito mas LimmudLA, and a bissl CAMERA

Did We Need Blood?

I was disappointed to read David Suissa’s column, “Did We Need Blood?” (Feb. 22). Suissa suggests that the women who shared Rabbi Schwartz’s abusive e-mails are guilty of humiliating the rabbi.

Suissa’s refusal to abandon the rabbi demonstrates that he is a good friend. We all need friends to stand with us in times of trouble. However, Suissa goes too far in claiming that these women, the victims, are the true offenders.

This role reversal allows Rabbi Schwartz off the hook, while forcing these women to endure even more pain. When they attempted to connect to the Jewish community and our faith, they were called licentious intruders. And for crying foul we are supposed to slap on a new label — rabbi wrecker.

Instead of deflecting guilt while continuing to inflict hurt, can we please deal with the real issue — the conduct of Rabbi Schwartz?

Rabbi Brian Schuldenfrei
Sinai Temple

David Suissa responds:

I don’t know who Rabbi Schuldenfrei is, but it is remarkable that a rabbi at a major institution like Sinai Temple could be so negligent with his words. He brazenly states, for example, that I claimed that “these women, the victims, are the true offenders.” Huh? I took excruciating care to make no accusations whatsoever , but simply to bring up difficult questions on a difficult subject, and to tell my readers: “You make the call.”

While the rabbi was sloppily interpreting my views, he conveniently ignored the points of Torah that formed the basis of the column– and which were conveyed by another Conservative Rabbi (Miriam Hamrell). Was that because these words of Torah did not support his own views?

The Jewish Journal should either apologize to the Jewish community for its hatchet job on Rabbi Schwartz or be honest enough to stop pretending to be the paper of record for the entire Jewish community of Los Angeles (“Chai Center Rabbi Explains ‘Off-the-Handle’ E-mails,” Feb. 15).

Yaakov Arnold
via e-mail

I couldn’t believe what I read about Rabbi Schwartz. Attended his High Holiday service many times; he always seemed tolerant toward everyone, even to non-Jews.
To read the horrific things he wrote and said made me want to vomit. Especially the one to Jamie Katz, whose mother was Japanese (she converted to Judaism).

I couldn’t even look him in the eye now without spitting in his face. He’s a shame/disgrace to the rabbinate.

I’m a third-generation American Jew on both sides. My ex-husband had an Orthodox conversion in 1968 in Long Island, N.Y., and even a mikva. What names he might call me, I wonder — what about my kids?

Madelyn Tarfman
Santa Monica

CAMERA Ad

A vocal portion of the Los Angeles Jewish community was upset by the decision of All Saints Episcopal Church to host the Sabeel conference Feb. 15 and 16. In a full-page ad in The Jewish Journal sponsored by the local American Jewish Congress and the StandWithUs group, and aided by CAMERA, a Boston-based watchdog group, they spread dire warnings about Sabeel’s intentions.

The two of us, longtime rabbis in the Los Angeles area who are committed to Zionism, interfaith dialogue and seeking a peaceful solution, felt compelled to question the attacks, and we did so by attending the conference and engaging in conversation with other attendees.

This is a report on what we learned. Sabeel is a Christian Arab theological institute based in Nazareth and Jerusalem. A small circle of Christians, Muslims and Jews in North America have formed Friends of Sabeel to support them. Sabeel and Friends of Sabeel advocate an end to the conflict by peaceful means and a two-state solution to the conflict. Their theology is not all that different from other Christians whose narrative of suffering informs their spiritual life.

At no time has CAMERA, the David Project, the American Jewish Congress or CAMERA employee Dexter Van Zile (a disaffected United Church of Christ minister) ever proven any of their claims against Naim Ateek, Sabeel and the many others associated with Sabeel.

This well-funded cohort of programs and individuals reflects fear and anger toward Palestinians. Our claims are documented on Richard Silverstein’s Web site as well as on Muzzle Watch.

Sabeel’s theology sees the suffering of the Palestinians as Jesus-like, and it lobbies for an end to the 40-year occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem. This theology makes Jews uncomfortable. It made both of us uncomfortable. But that is not a reason for disqualifying Sabeel from conversation nor is it a license for the vitriol that has been hurled at individuals such as the Rev. Naim Ateek and others.

At no time did we hear a call for violence from speakers or any individuals at the Sabeel conference. There are many issues on which we disagreed, but those were disagreements that one of us — as a co-workshop leader — was able to raise within the hearing of over half the conference participants.

Religious communities and people of goodwill must actively seek a path to peace. Sabeel and the Jewish community should be united in its alarm at the ultimately anti-Semitic activities of groups like Christians United for Israel, which calls for Armageddon, led by the Rev. John Hagee and supported by some sectors of the American Jewish community that are blindly pro-Israel. We should be encouraging dialogue wherever possible.

Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs
Progressive Faith Foundation
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
Co-director, www.JewsOnFirst.org

Heroic Parents

I am the mother of two young boys and two teen daughters; one is currently attending UC Santa Barbara and one is a senior at Shalhevet. I can only tell you that I see now those same benefits in my own children and in the several hundred that pass through the doors of the Jewish preschool where I work (“A Salute to the Heroic Parent,” Feb. 29).