Letters: Food for Thought, J Street: Good for Israel?

Food for Thought

As much as I love food, recipes and community building around the dining room table, “Happy Food Year” (Sept. 11), left me hungry for more. In 2009, food is one of the most popular routes into social justice for Jews of all ages. Yet, there was no mention of the food/justice work being done across the city. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs have flourished in synagogues from the Valley to the Westside, connecting Jews to local, organic vegetables and a new economic model of food purchasing. (Pay in advance of the season!) The Federation is running its campaign, “Fed Up with Hunger.” SOVA is advocating for greater food collection over the High Holy Days. Progressive Jewish Alliance is working on a Green Celebrations publication that will help people shop more justly for their simchas — food included. Netiya, the Jewish Farming Network, helps Jews thoughtfully connect their Jewish values with their love of food and gardening. CLUE LA is advocating for The Grocery Recovery Act, which would require supermarket chains expanding their stores to demonstrate that they are serving “food desert” neighborhoods and paying their workers a living wage. The Hazon Food Conference will be back in Monterey, Calif., this December and is sure to attract a large number of Angelenos. Sustainable Shabbat groups in Pico-Robertson are dining on dishes prepared with ingredients that are kosher, local and organic. And I could go on … but I should be working on my High Holy Day sermon. For your next food issue, please consider how food may be the next great pathway into social activism, civic participation and creating a healthier, more sustainable Jewish community and a healthier, more sustainable world for us all.

Rabbi Dara Frimmer, Los Angeles

Editor’s Note: The Journal has reported on all of these issues and organizations in the past. Visit jewishjournal.com/archive for the articles.

J Street: Good for Israel?

I love Rob Eshman, but he is wrong about J Street (“Give J a Chance,” Sept. 18). If you are serious about your advocacy for Israel, J Street is a dead end.

J Street is built on the myth that AIPAC and the organized Jewish community are all “right leaning” — this is false. This misrepresentation is both simplistic and harmful. I have been in the trenches long enough to know this isn’t the case. I have been an AIPAC activist for 17 years and attended every Policy Conference in Washington, while being an active liberal Democrat taking a lead role for Israel in the state Democratic Party. During most of this time I have been the chair of Democrats for Israel, Los Angeles. J Street is in the business of making policy distinctions from AIPAC that don’t exist. They provide political cover for mischievous members of Congress to vote against Israel. J Street gives them the hiding place. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) is the most recent example.

AIPAC is a large, diverse organization that welcomes Democrats, Republicans and Independents. AIPAC’s central organizing principle is that support for Israel always must remain nonpartisan. Put another way, AIPAC stands for the belief that the strategic alliance between the United States and Israel is too important to be undermined by partisan rancor. Every bill, policy and letter promoted by AIPAC has both a Democratic and Republican champion. AIPAC is constantly reaching out to the Latino and African American communities, to students, to Jews and Christians of all different denominations to broaden American support for Israel. While AIPAC is inclusive, J Street represents a narrow, partisan and ultimately counterproductive agenda.

I recognize that people have their partisan leanings — I certainly do. To be honest, when the Republicans held both Houses and the White House, AIPAC was less comfortable for me. But I continued to assist the organization because my support for Israel goes well beyond my partisan identity. I believe AIPAC reflects the pragmatic consensus that will work for Israel’s safety and security.

We need unity in our pro-Israel advocacy, and this takes dedicated and sustained effort from the left and the right; it is hard work. J Street unfortunately has and will continue to create divisions we do not need.

Howard Welinsky, via e-mail

Kudos to editor Rob Eshman. He has really honed his craft. While presenting his agenda, he diffuses any arguments against it by bringing up the very arguments he knows will be used to refute him. For example, in his defense of the reprehensible “pro-Israel” organization J Street, Eshman superficially elucidates all the arguments against J Street’s positions and then dismisses them by saying he “looked into all these claims” and they are all either debatable or fallacious. Oh really? And just how much in-depth did he really research previously proven claims against J Street, where inside knowledge of source funds and supporters are as well guarded a secret as Fort Knox?

The fact that J Street founder Ben Ami’s father was a right-wing Irgun member despoils his “Zionist yichus” rather than celebrates it (see Rahm Emanuel). Eshman jumps to usurp the fact that the latest polls show most Israelis are not in step with J Street’s agenda by stating that J Street-commissioned polls do in fact show a majority support. How convenient.

The “liberal loonies,” as Eshman calls them, are not to be feared because they are almost always seen as just that — loony and on the fringe. Much more dangerous are the “educated” liberals who purport to know better than anyone else how the world should be run. Far from needing J Street, Israel must reject them because their agenda includes laying almost all the blame for the problems in the Middle East at the feet of Israel when that could not be any further from the truth. Except, of course, it just happens to be the “truth” espoused by all our enemies at home and everywhere else. That scares me.

Allan Kandel, Los Angeles

Pluralism and Democracyin Israel

I am delighted that powerful Diaspora Jews have launched Hiddush “with the aim of promoting full religious freedom and diversity for Jews in the Jewish state” (“Regev, Gold Promote Israeli Pluralism,” Sept. 18). The State of Israel treats non-Orthodox Jews as second-class citizens. This is because of the political system that allows the Orthodox in the Knesset to blackmail the government into continuing subsidies only to the Orthodox for schools, synagogues and housing, establishing who is a “real” Jew and blocking civil rights for all citizens. Religious political parties should not exist in a true democracy.

Martin J. Weisman, Westlake Village

One More Question

In his article “The 60 Questions of Our Life” (Sept. 18) Marty Kaplan writes, and I quote: “How can anyone stomach Glenn Beck?”

My 61st question is: How can one ignore Glenn Beck’s exposé on the ongoing corruption in our government?

Danny Bental, Tarzana

Correction
An article about the Survivor Mitzvah Project’s humanitarian efforts (“Emergency Humanitarian Mission to Ukraine” Sept. 11),  included an incorrect Web site for the organization. The correct site is survivormitzvah.org