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May 17, 2001

Breitburn Oil

Julie Gruenbaum-Fax’s article (“Oil Loses Round,” May 4) should perhaps have been titled “Planet Earth Loses Round” as the so-called environmentalists seek to block the Breitburn plant on Pico.

The biggest failure — in a long list — of the Clinton administration is the virtual absence of an energy policy, for which we are now paying dearly. The plummeting of oil prices allowed us to reduce domestic oil exploration/exploitation to the lowest levels in 50 years, and to promote the widespread use of gas-slurping SUV’s. We are now paying the price for our collective folly.

The sooner we get our conservation policies in place, provide incentives for alternative energy, develop nuclear fuel production and — yes — encourage domestic oil production, the sooner we will be rid of our dependence on the Middle East for oil.

It is critical both for the geopolitical strategic position of Israel and for the ecology of the world. For there are are no environmental safeguards in the world’s major oil producing countries. The United States imposes the most stringent oil exploration protection.

And after all, we all live on planet earth. Not just in Pico-Robertson. Got a spare candle, anyone?

Selwyn Gerber, Beverly Hills


The Breitburn oil drilling project may be little-known outside the Pico-Robertson community but it was the fourth biggest project in City Hall defined by lobbyist expenditures of $396,635 last year.

The recent court rulings requiring Breitburn to reduce noise levels are a victory for the neighborhood, as your article points out, but do nothing regarding the larger problem of emissions from the site. The community is legitimately concerned because Proposition 65 warning signs are affixed to the Breitburn doors.

My suggestion is that the community needs to be reassured and safeguarded in two ways. First, regular monitoring for health effects, based on child-specific standards, needs to be done by an independent party such as the UCLA School of Public Health. Second, enforcement of the permit conditions needs to be conducted by an independent agency as well. The community has no reason to trust in-house monitoring and enforcement on a project that is so politicized and lubricated with lobbyist money.

Such independent monitoring and enforcement would assure that no health issue goes unreported or unchecked. This proposal represents no threat to the project if it is conducted properly, but would certainly increase the peace of mind of the community.

Tom Hayden, via e-mail


Cancer Resource

The May 11 cover story on cancer was both informative and extremely moving. Although The Journal listed many of the important cancer resources in the community, I noted one that was omitted. The John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John’s Hospital, which is the location of the Joyce Eisenberg Keefer Breast Center, is another valuable community resource, which the members of our community should keep in mind.

John R. Fishel, President, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles

Editor’s Note: The Joyce Eisenberg Keefer Breast Center offers comprehensive programs, including screening and diagnostic mammography, breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, education and support services. For more information, call (310) 582-7100.


Strasser and Smith

What’s wrong with you guys? Has anyone thought of introducing J.D. Smith to Teresa Strasser? It would be a match made in Singles heaven.

Joseph N. Feinstein, Sherman Oaks


Pope’s Silence

We Jews are losing the media war between the Arabs and Israel. While the pope did not want to be part of this war and was on a mission of reconciliation, his presence gave the hatemongers an international platform, and by remaining silent he endorsed their repetition of the libel Jews have carried on their backs for almost 2,000 years (“Pope Blasted for Silence,” May 11).

American Jews must be kept informed about what is going on and they must join in writing to the media who repeat these terrible misstatements and lies. We must protect what we have achieved here in the United States and we must protect our fellow Jews in Israel or wherever they may be.

Harold L. Katz, Los Angeles


Capital Punishment

Regarding rabbinic injunctions against capital punishment cited by Stephen F. Rhode (Letters, April 20), we have commemorated yet another Yom HaShoah, but has Rhode drawn any connection between his high principles and the murder of millions of innocents? Would he have opposed the execution of top Nazis? Balked at executing the willing executioners of the SS? Appealed to rabbinic authority on behalf of Adolf Eichmann? Israel, contrary to its policy on capital punishment, found itself in the paradoxical position of executing Eichmann. Rhode fails to see the difference between the murder of innocents and the execution of those who have murdered them.

On Talmudic interpretations requiring two witnesses to a murder, and a murderer’s right to be informed of the consequences of his crime — this is sophistry, because 1) there are usually no witnesses to most premeditated murders; and 2) murderers, nowadays, even if warned, would laugh at such warnings, given the tortuously slow appeals process.

That “all civilized countries have abolished capital punishment” is hardly to their credit. The hallmark of a civilization is not how it venerates all life, but how precious it holds innocent life.

Sam Bluefarb, Diamond Bar


Exodus Controversy

The Jewish Journal has covered the story of Sinai Temple’s Rabbi David Wolpe and the controversy of the Exodus story very well. All of the responses have merit, including Rob Eshman’s editorial (“Wolpe Hurricane,” April 20).

I have another approach, one that would help bring more unity to the Jewish people of whatever denomination or belief: I propose a public forum in which a Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis could participate in expressing their respective perspective in the Exodus story. This type of public airing would go a long way in clarifying any misconceptions that might have occurred in the emotionally charged atmosphere that ensued.

Bernard Nichols, Los Angeles


I must take issue with Michael Berenbaum’s issue of comparison between Exodus denial and Holocaust denial (Letters, May 11). He distinguishes Holocaust denial as “pernicious and most often motivated by venom.” Apparently, Berenbaum is not familiar with the many statements by liberal and so-called progressive rabbis in the past. To Jews who teach their children about the Exodus and that some 3 million Jews were at Sinai to receive the Torah from G-d, those events were as real as the concentration camps during the Holocaust. The propagation of Holocaust denial is enabled by profound ignorance. Exodus denial is rooted in profound ignorance of Torah and its Mesorah of the last 3,300 years.

Howard Winter, Beverly Hills

Correction

In the May 11 Table of Contents, under the headline “Papal Criticism,” the anti-Semitic comment came from the leader of Syria, not Jordan.

The phone number for information regarding the support group for parents of special needs children at Sinai Temple — (310) 761-8800 ext. 1255 — was listed in a May 4 letter from Marilyn Stern. The contact person at this number is Sally Weber, not Marilyn Stern.

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