Airport Security
Having flown out of Ben-Gurion Airport many times in my life, I have seen the basic difference in security between it and other airports (“LAX TLV,” Jan. 8). And it has nothing to do with money or technology. All other airports’ security measures are meant to keep weapons off of planes, while Ben-Gurion attempts to keep terrorists off of planes. That is why Ben-Gurion is successful.
Michael Stein
Sherman Oaks
Mensches
I have just finished reading this week’s edition of The Jewish Journal (“The Mensch List,” Jan. 8). I enjoy reading The Journal each week, and I must say mazel tov on this most wonderful issue featuring all of the selfless individuals and the good works they do. It must be a monumental task to find the few who will be featured yearly out of all of the deserving in a city as large as Los Angeles.
I am wondering how it is decided that someone, or an organization, is picked to be featured in the mensch issue. I have not noticed anything in previous issues asking for people to write in and recommend people or organizations who they think might be appropriately included in this issue about mensches. I might have missed it, but I do not remember seeing anything about it.
Boni Gellis
via e-mail
Editor’s note: We do ask for candidates. Send them any time to {encode=”editor@jewishjournal.com” title=”editor@jewishjournal.com”}.
I am honored to have been included in this year’s article on mensches. To be included along with so many other amazing human beings, who do such extraordinary things in our community, is indeed humbling. I was especially proud to see that Alisa Malki was one of the other mensches. When Alisa was in high school in Redlands, she served as president of her USY [United Synagogue Youth] chapter, and I had the privilege of traveling with her on Far West on Wheels during the summer of 2005. She stood out as a special young lady then (a real mensch) and has continued to be a source of pride to the Jewish community of Redlands and beyond.
Merrill Alpert
via e-mail
Consistent Kaplan
What a guy that Marty Kaplan is. Ends the year on a negative note, starts the year on a negative note. Look out for the rest of the year!
Melissa Cohen
via e-mail
I have a good idea for The Journal. Dump Marty Kaplan (who goes on ad nauseum about former conservative politicians who are out of office and not running for anything) and hire a real journalist who can write about and expose the corruption and bad policies of what is going on right now with the politicians who are currently in power and running the country!
John Gable
via e-mail
How Hitler Was Defeated
It is dismaying to read of the hallucinatory fawning by rabbis and others over a fictional and violent movie, including even Eli Roth’s father (“My Son Killed Adolf Hitler,” Dec. 11).
The true story, the real and heart-wrenching epic of sadness, sacrifice, toughness and heroism, took place when the USSR gave 20 million lives in the fight against fascism in World War II.
This is not to diminish the contributions of the other Allied forces — my father, a Jewish kid from Hoboken, was shot down in his B-17 over France and joined the anti-Nazi underground there — but it was the Red Army that saved the world from Hitler.
Eric Brill
Rancho Palos Verdes
Jewish Revenge
I have to totally disagree with Rabbi Sela of Sinai Temple (Letters, Dec. 25). He thinks good revenge would be “capturing Hitler alive and making him attend the bris of every Jewish child born to survivors. Make him go to the weddings, the High Holiday services, every opening of every new synagogue….” Heck, why not have this despot join in the catered parties from Greenblatt’s deli too? No, the best revenge for Hitler would have been to capture him alive and make him attend every single funeral of the millions who perished because of him. That is the proper revenge.
John Gable
via e-mail
Carter Should Retract
Jimmy Carter wants forgiveness from the Jewish people (“Jimmy Carter … I don’t accept his bogus apology!” Jan. 5, Iranian American Jews blog). If he is serious, he must recant and correct. Saying he is sorry for any damage he “may” have caused is not enough. See link below to review list of defamations Carter has been repeating decade after decade. After he has issued “corrections” (if he is clueless he can read “History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression” by David Meir-Levi) he needs to support those who tell the truth so they may continue their work after he is gone.
Here is my suggestion; you most likely have others: Carter should invite Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch [PMW] to the Carter Center to make his presentation, which can be called “What the Palestinians tell one another versus what they tell the West.” Carter Center will then make a significant donation to PMW so that PMW can hire an army of people to travel the United States and the rest of the West so all can learn the real reason for the intractable Israel/Palestinian [conflict] — radical Islamic ideology. If Carter objects to a program of the type outlined above, he will neither deserve the forgiveness he seeks nor will he receive it.
Shirley Lewis
Los Angeles
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1655
Pray for Shalit
We have a Tehillim campaign on the go and wondered whether you could post this letter to your publication or Web site to help attract more Jewish women for this.
We need 1000 Jewish women to join an international Tehillim group to recite Tehillim each Shabbos for Am Yisrael and the peaceful release of Gilad Shalit. It is our prayer that in Shamayim they will recognize the unity and efforts of these 1000 Jewish women and cancel the idea of releasing 1000 Terrorists. We currently need another 912 women to meet our target of 1000. Help us increase goodness in place of its opposite.
Join right now, right here by adding your name to our Tehillim list. You can send your name via the blog post listed below. You can recite just one Tehillim or as many as you can manage.
Read more at: http://leivesther.blogspot.com, or sign up via http://whatoccupationaltherapyis.weebly.com/tehillim-group.html
The Tehillim is recited every Shabbos during daylight hours to accommodate the different time zones. We will continue each Shabbos until we reach 1000 women and then depending on the need /matzav.
We also ask each woman attending to donate U.S. $1 or more via the donate button on the blog. The money collected will go, G-d willing, to purchase a pair of tefillin for a baal teshuvah in need. In this way we are increasing in a mitzvah performed specifically by men as it is our prayer that Gilad Shalit return home safely to fulfill Torah and mitzvot.
Thank you for your kindness,
Shoshanah Shear
via e-mail
Rabbi Weil Comment
I was present at Beth Jacob [Congregation] when Rabbi [Steven] Weil exclaimed, “You call yourself a tzadik? You’re a liar!” (“Orthodox Union Champions Focus on Business Ethics,” Jan. 8). This remark climaxed a crescendo in his sermon, exhorting every individual to conduct business affairs with the same standards as ritual observance. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, directed at the Spinka Rebbe or at any one person.
The Jewish Journal should clearly retract Roberto Loiederman’s misrepresentation.
Jay Braun
Los Angeles
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