Your Letters

From Russia With Love

The Jewish Federation applauds the efforts of the Russian Jewish community to support victims of terror in Israel (“From Russia With Love,” June 21). We also applaud the Russian-speaking Jewish community, and its leaders, for their efforts to raise funds for The Federation’s Jews in Crisis Campaign.

Since Operation Exodus, The Federation has assisted in bringing to Israel almost 1 million Russian olim and continues to provide significant funds for programs that support the Russian Jewish community in Israel, in the former Soviet Union and in Los Angeles. The Federation’s Jews in Crisis Campaign is raising money for myriad programs that aid victims of terror in Israel, including a number that specifically target the Russian immigrant community there. We are aware that a disproportionate number of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union have been victims of recent terrorist attacks. Significant funds are being designated for The Israel Crisis Management Center, a leading provider of short and long-term assistance for new immigrants who are victims of terror; the Tel Aviv Center for Trauma and Disaster Intervention, a provider of post-trauma training for staff working with immigrants; and programming for students of the Shevach Moffet High School, who are predominantly Russian and were most of the victims of last summer’s Dolphinarium bombing.

We welcome the participation of the local Russian Jewish community in our community-wide campaign to support victims of terror in Israel.

John Fishel, President The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles

Mishkon Tephilo

As president of Mishkon Tephilo in Venice, I want to thank The Jewish Journal for featuring our synagogue in last week’s issue (“Makeover for Mishkon,” June 28). We are a small congregation, but as one of the oldest on Los Angeles’ Westside, we serve an important segment of the Jewish community since our founding more than 80 years ago in what was then Ocean Park. Your article accurately reflects our excitement about Mishkon’s future. Our preschool is the only remaining Jewish preschool in our neighborhood, and Mishkon Tephilo’s board and membership proudly support one of the finest programs in Los Angeles. Your article’s contrary indication that the preschool would close next year is incorrect. Quite the opposite, our enrollment is up for this fall. Moreover, we are eager to fill our growing preschool and religious school to capacity. As other Jewish organizations close their schools, we are looking for new ways to continue and expand our commitment to Jewish education.

Richard Rosen , President Mishkon Tephilo

Where Are You?

Kudos to Amy Klein who so eloquently demands that we visit Israel now (“Where Are You?” June 21). That our letters, op-ed pieces and checks are not quite enough. Israelis need us in Israel.

This is exactly how I felt when I led Shalhevet High sophomores to Israel last March. This is exactly why Shalhevet families are sending their children to Israel this summer and in the coming school year.

Paul Nisenbaum , Assistant Principal Shalhevet High School

A Yahrtzeit With Some Hope

Aryeh Cohen’s selective reading of political events in the Middle East is colored by his palpable antipathy for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (“A Yahrtzeit With Some Hope,” June 21). When he states, “The solution is already written. It was almost signed in Taba — before Yasser Arafat and Sharon decided to engage in this latest dance of death,” he is incorrect. Doesn’t he remember that Arafat walked out on the Bill Clinton/Ehud Barak offer before Sharon took office? The “dance of death” was started by Arafat!

Jack Salem, Los Angeles

The Way It Is

Nothing more clearly shows the intractable nature of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians than Yaakov Hayman’s article (“The Way It Is, Bob,” June 21). This true believer has already in his mind incorporated the West Bank into the State of Israel since it is an integral part of the biblical land of Israel given by God to the Jews. His views are now ascendent in Israel, and the nuanced and skeptical views of Aryeh Cohen are in disrepute. Anyone with half a brain can see the logical end of Hayman’s views: There is nothing to discuss with the Palestinians. They have no legitimate claim to any portion of the land. Expulsion of the Arab population from the West Bank and Israel will be the only way to deal with them. Hayman has no concerns about the humanitarian or political consequences since any action to enforce Israeli sovereignty will be divinely sanctioned.

David M. Marcus, Los Angeles

Bay Cities JCC

With mixed emotions I read about the closing of the Bay Cities Jewish Community Center (JCC) (“Bay Cities Exits With Class,” June 28). And in a previous issue of The Jewish Journal, I saw the emotion-packed photograph of a young man looking forlornly at the Westside JCC pool about to be closed. I thought about the paraplegic in our community who had relied on the Westside JCC pool as the only pool in Los Angeles that he could use. And I thought of the hundreds of little boys who no longer can expend their energies and learn teamwork on the basketball court and in the pools at the Westside JCC. I thought of the young men being rehabilitated by Chabad who no longer will be able to exercise in the Westside JCC gym.

Many of us believe that our community was betrayed by The Jewish Federation; and, as a consequence, we cannot, in all due conscience, respond to its appeals for financial support. How sad that we feel this way.

George Epstein, Los Angeles

Autry Museum

The June 21 issue of The Journal was a beautiful acknowledgment to the newest exhibit at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. The exhibit is a wonderful tribute to our Jewish heritage. I saw it personally on Wednesday evening and was quite impressed with the research and time that went into this project.

However, a major oversight in all the articles that were published was that there was only a courtesy mention of the hardworking research staff and exhibit designers, and the project historian, Dr. Ava Kahn was not singled out for her major contribution to this project.

Rosemarie Litoff Mandel, Thousand Oaks