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March 21, 2002

Orthodox Life

I would like to thank Amy Klein (“Divided We Stand,” March 8) for courageously agonizing with us over the frayed state of Jewish unity in our community. I empathize with her dilemma of how limited a role a newspaper like The Jewish Journal can have in facilitating that unity, given the reality on the ground.

However, I would like to make two suggestions concerning your Orthodox Life pullout section in the same issue about.

1) I fear that despite your obvious best intentions, a special Orthodox centerfold pullout tends to ghettoize Orthodox life, as if it’s not part of the mainstream. The subtle, unintended message to non-Orthodox readers is that this is not for you. Integrating these articles into the main body of the weekly paper might be a preferable solution.

2) Of much greater concern is the repeated invocation of the pejorative nomenclature “ultra-Orthodox” to describe the traditional Orthodox community. The prefix “ultra” is defined in my Webster’s New World Dictionary as “excessive” or “extreme.” When this appellation is applied to a large segment of the Orthodox world, it serves to marginalize them in the eyes of everybody else. If you want to distinguish these communities from the “modern Orthodox” world, why not use the term “traditional Orthodox?”

I make these suggestions in the spirit of appreciation for your efforts. But if the goal is to bring us together, we have to start by bringing an important segment of the Jewish world in from the cold.

Rabbi Eli Stern, Outreach Director The Westwood Kehilla


From the three articles in Orthodox Life (March 8), I would have to assume that the only things religious women do is date, get married and, sadly, send their sons off to yeshivot; no Torah study for us. If things have changed since Yentl’s day, you wouldn’t know it from The Jewish Journal. Yet, I personally know several venues for women to study Talmud, and that’s just in Los Angeles. You can only imagine what’s available in New York and Israel. How about joining us in the 21st century?

Maggie Parkhurst, Glendale


Teresa Strasser

Teresa Strasser’s column (“Bored Games,” March 8), reminded me of my daughter who used to say, “I’m so bored in my stomach,” when she was a little girl, trying to tell me she was a little depressed. I love your writing. You are such a great talent!

Name Withheld by Request


If Teresa Strasser is truly “bored” with herself as she writes in her March 8 column, she should know she is not alone. There are plenty of Jewish Journal readers who are truly bored with her self-absorbed writings as well.

Name Withheld by Request


Sports in The Journal

It’s great to see a sports page in The Jewish Journal (“Sports Roundup,” March 8). I do indeed think that your editor should be applauded and encouraged to continue regular reporting of the local sports scene, especially at schools. I’m sure the sports pages will prove to be a draw for new readers because everyone loves coverage of their communities and their kids. Anytime you can make kids feel good about their achievements, their fitness and their teamwork, you’ve done a very good thing!

Cindy Vandor, Development Director Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School


Helping Israel

As my family and I are in the midst of making aliyah in this particularly bellicose time, something gnaws at the very core of my Jewish being (“Ways to Help Israel,” March 15). Are we again going to stand by mumbling something about the unfairness of how Israel is treated? Come, make aliyah with me, or do something proactive, albeit peacefully, to let our government know that Operation Enduring Freedom has been our battle since 1948.

E. Daniel Weidmann, Education Director California Educational Consultants


Marlene Marks

Although I live in Israel, I consistently read Marlene Adler Marks’ witty and well-written column. She’s one of the most important voices in the Los Angeles Jewish community.

However, I must take issue with a point that Marks made in her column about the Passover seder (“Frequently Asked Questions,” March 15). Marks refers to the “wicked child” as the child who says “I,” while she refers to the “wise child” as the child who says “We.” Marks clearly implies that individualism is “wicked” while collectivism is “wise.” I strongly disagree with her assertion.

In my view, the most important thing that any person can do is to create an individual identity; an “I.” Without an individual identity it is impossible to achieve true freedom.

Marks is right to point out the importance of forming a “we,” but first and foremost each one of us should develop a strong sense of ourselves as individuals. Ultimately, this will make us a stronger Jewish community. However, building community can only come after building an individual self — an I.

Moshe Eitan, Kibbutz Chafetz Chayim Israel


“Trembling Before G-d”

Regarding Mike Levy’s article (“L.A. Trembles,” March 8) it is disappointing that the Los Angeles Orthodox community has been so disinterested in “Trembling Before G-d,” while congregations in other cities like New York have embraced the breakthrough film.

Sandi Simcha DuBowski’s documentary about gay Orthodox Jews is a valuable tool for beginning a dialogue with Orthodox rabbis about the issue of homosexuality.

Last month, the Anti-Defamation League offered a screening of the film followed by a discussion. Representatives from the film, including DuBowski, raised the issue that Orthodox homosexuals live both in denial and in fear because their religious beliefs state that their sexual identities are anti-halachic. The film offers intimately told personal stories of Chasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian and who love and embrace their Judaism, but realize that their homosexuality is forbidden in the Orthodox community.

While it was perilous for many participants in the film to share their stories, the lessons that the viewer absorbs regarding being true to oneself, while practicing religious faith, are valuable for any person to discover.

Amy Levy, Associate Director Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles


Appeal to the UC

I am writing this letter on behalf of the UC students participating in the EAP one-year program in Jerusalem. I am not the voice of the students, nor do I claim to be. However, I feel that this letter represents how we all feel. We have been briefed that the UC offices are considering suspending the program. I am begging them not to do that.

All of us acknowledge that this is a very troubled time and that their concerns for our safety are well placed. But for some of us here, this year means more than just studying abroad. When we turned in our applications, the intifada was raging — we knew what we were getting into.

For many of us, Israel stands at the core of our belief system and we are honored to be here at this time to be able to be in Israel and to show our support by continuing to live here. In light of this fact, we can’t help but ask ourselves: Why is the UC abandoning us?

The UC system has made returning home early as painless as possible. Those students who wished to go home have gone home, and they are very appreciative of the level of understanding that the UC system has shown. But we, the remaining students, would like to ask that they continue to let us make our own decisions whether to stay or not.

Our lives here are definitely filled with emotional ups and downs. We have stresses in our lives that are unique to our study center. We fear going to certain places at certain times, and the sound of every ambulance siren still affects us.

With these concerns in our lives, what we need most is not a parental-like decision being forced upon us, but the UC system to stand behind us to support us. We are asking that they stop being yet another stress in our lives, stop contributing to our everyday worries and begin supporting us. Do not make our lives harder by abandoning us. Stand behind us — be the institutional support that we are longing for.

Eli Raber Junior, University of California Santa Barbara


Corrections

In the March 15 article, “Seder, the Spago Way,” the Venetian charoset recipe should have been attributed to “From the Jewish Holiday Kitchen” by Joan Nathan (Schocken Books, $19.95).

While Beverly Levitt got her recipe for Aromatic Couscous (“One People, Two Cuisines,” March 15) from Toribio Prado, who served it at a Sephardic Passover dinner at Cava restaurant, Sephardim do not eat couscous on Passover. Prado had gotten the recipe from his grandmother, who is a Sephardic Jew from Spain.

Michael Aushenker’s article (“The Trial’s of Ted Deutsch,” March 15) states that, since Deutsch was dissatisfied with the settlement he received in an earlier lawsuit, he filed the present lawsuit. In fact, he has only filed one lawsuit — the present action which was dismissed by the district court judge and is now on appeal.

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