GOP, ‘apartheid,’ Sderot

JCC Pool Closes

I am wondering if the general public is aware of the way the West Valley JCC (Milken Center) is ignoring the wishes of many of their members (“Federation Files for Permit to Demolish Pool at New JCC at Milken,” May 4).

The swimming pool has been closed since April 25, and they profess ignorance and refuse to commit either to when, or even if, it ever will be reopened. They also have closed the locker rooms, sauna, Jacuzzi and showers.

In addition to the limited nature of the facility recently, there is an additional factor to consider. As one gentleman put it to me: “First you lose your mate. Then you lose your children. Then you lose your pets and now they have taken your friends away from you.”

The Milken Center is a valuable place where Jewish seniors and others can both tend to their health and be in the presence of their contemporaries.

Unfortunately, members feel as though that place is being slowly taken away from us. We don’t know precisely who is to blame, because the Milken Center management refuses to communicate with us, so all we know is the rumors we hear –and there are many.

Ruth Hoffman
via e-mail

Israeli ‘Apartheid’

Your “analysis piece” titled, “Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid,” (May 25) lacked quotation marks around the phrase “Israeli Apartheid.” One must logically conclude that The Journal considers “Israeli Apartheid” not to be a propaganda phrase to be cited in quotation marks but rather a subcategory of apartheid, such as South African apartheid or Saudi Arabian apartheid (another subject entirely).

If I am concluding this in error or if my usage and understanding of quotation marks is grammatically incorrect, please advise. If not, I urge a correction be published in next week’s issue.

By the way, StandWithUs has an excellent analysis of the use of the phrase apartheid in anti-Israel propaganda at http://www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/apartVsIsrael.pdf. I urge your readers and your reporter to review it.

David Schechter
Los Angeles

How is it possible for The Journal to print a piece that simply assumes the legitimacy of accusing Israel of apartheid (“Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid,” May 25)? It bylines “analysis” but the only apparent analysis said that one of the speakers was “the most convincing in his arguments.” What?

If The Journal really intends on serving the Jewish community, then it should provide cogent, clear discussion about such hate-filled conferences instead of giving them free space to vent their lies and distortions.

The real apartheid is practiced by all the Arab states who kicked out the Jews, stole their property and won’t let any Jews re-enter their countries.

Joshua Spiegelman
Los Angeles

Ed note: Indeed, the headline for" Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid Comes to UCLA" (May 25), should have read "Campaign to End Israeli 'Apartheid' Comes to UCLA." The Journal regrets the error.

I am responding to the article titled, “Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid Comes to UCLA” that appeared in the May 25 edition of your Journal.

You state that I am “a descendant of Holocaust survivors.”

What I actually said was that I am a 70-year-old Jewish American, many of whose relatives were exterminated in the Holocaust. If you will do your math, you will see that I was born in 1936 or 1937 and could not be a descendant of Holocaust survivors, unless you believe in “pre-incarnation.” This might not be a terrible error, but it is an example of the overall sloppy reporting on your part.

Then, as to another speaker, you report, “A tall, thin man, Hershfield wore a black T-shirt and black pants, had a tattoo peeking out from under his sleeve….”

Why didn’t you tell us whether he had a hooked nose? What relevance is any of this to what Hershfield had to say?

Barry Weiss
Encino

Tracing Service

Edwin Black’s article on the International Tracing Service (ITS) archive is inaccurate and incorrect, and given the importance of this collection to survivors, the record needs to be corrected (“Survivors Blast Holocaust Museum Over Archive Access Restrictions,” May 18).

It is only because the United States Holocaust Memorial has pursued the ITS records that the process of opening them is moving forward.

Their availability is contingent on the ratification of an international treaty among 11 participating countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, United States). To date, France, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg have not completed this process. Only an institution with the museum’s international stature , with the support of Congress and the State Department, could have achieved this result.

The museum’s archive is overseen by an academic committee comprised of some of the world’s most distinguished Holocaust scholars. To suggest that these men and women of distinction would tolerate the sequestering of records is outrageous. The museum’s track record of more than two decades of acquisition and 14 years as an open archive guarantees otherwise.

Black has been on a one-man crusade for reasons known to him alone to deprive the museum of these archives. His accusation does not comport with my personal experience. In my more than 20 years of association with the museum — more than a decade on staff, five years on the council and two years on the President’s Commission on the Holocaust — [it] has always held to the highest standards of scholarly rigor and service to the survivor community.

As to the availability of the records, once the treaty is signed by all parties, they will be made available as soon as technologically feasible. We should expect no less, and we will receive no less.

Michael Berenbaum
Director
Sigi Ziering Institute:
Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust

Jerusalem Center

I very much appreciated The Jewish Journal’s coverage of our recent reception at the Consulate General of Israel (Community Briefs, May 25).