LETTERS: Torah Slam 2, Jewish Education, Israel the Bully, Gaza Symposium

Torah Slam 2

During the 37 years I have been a member of the Jewish communal service field I have had the opportunity of attending hundreds (and this is not an exaggeration) of programs (“Torah Slam Rabbis Debate,” March 27). Without hesitation, I want you to know that I consider the presentations and dialogue last night among the best I’ve heard — ever.

Educational — inspirational – motivating ….

Y’shar Koach — and thank you!

Paul Jesser

Beverly Hills

After reading Daniel Bouskila’s assertion at the Torah Slam 2 in which he states that in order to be a good Jew one must live in Israel, permit me to point out that unlike real estate where, “location, location, location,” is an essential ingredient, it does not apply to Judaism.

Being a good Jew is truly a complex question but in my opinion easily resolved by not only following halachah but by also conducting oneself in all aspects of life in a manner that brings honor to all Jews wherever one resides.

Jason Levi

Northridge

Jewish Education

Thank you for publishing Mr. Pearl’s thoughts regarding the “New Marranos” (“Our New Marranos,” March 20). The pernicious and institutionalized anti-Zionism on the college campuses and on some of the media appears to be directly related to the lack of Jewish education among school-aged Jewish children. Those who believe that Zionism is the problem appear to be well-educated and well-stationed young adults who are well meaning but clueless that they have revealed their profound ignorance about Jewish history. I realize that many parents cannot afford to provide a Jewish education and that may be part of the reason why Jewish education is erratically distributed in our community. Also, the concept of a “kehillah”- style education for all Jewish children is passé and not vogue in the new humanitarian universal model. That is why I was so heartened to read on page 16 that the Jim Joseph Foundation gave grants to fund Jewish education (“L.A. Receives Emergency Grant to Pay for Jewish Education,” March 20). This is the right direction that we must travel. The Jewish community must be more aggressive in promoting education because the alternative will be more and more people who will identify themselves as Jews but promote and propose anti-Jewish remedies to promote their agenda. It is not too late to try and provide some Jewish education to each Jewish child.

Adriana Burger

via e-mail

Israel the Bully

When I began to read Ms. Eltahawy’s column, I actually felt that maybe this would be an article by a Muslim journalist that would be based upon reason instead of typical hatred against Israel (“Children of the Naksa, Children of Camp David,” March 27). That optimism quickly disappeared when Ms. Eltahawy fired two rockets in one paragraph.

She claims that “Israel often lives up to its reputation as a bully.” Israel the bully; completely surrounded by countries that hate her and wish for her destruction, outnumbered many times by population and area, Israel, who has contributed to the world in the areas of medicine, science and technology, completely disproportionate to her size; Israel the bully. Ms. Eltahawy, no doubt, considers David the bully, and not Goliath.

Her next sentence states, “its disproportionate reaction in Gaza to the Hamas rockets fired at southern Israeli towns.” I had to reread that clause two times to make sure I was reading it correctly. These same rockets, which are aimed, not at military targets, but indiscriminately at civilians, including children and elderly. If Israel had a “disproportionate reaction” to the daily barrage of rockets, maybe it is because Israel was too gentle.

Michael A. Gesas

Beverly Hills

Scholarships

As co-president of the Los Angeles chapter of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, I would like to thank you for the impressive article that appeared in The Jewish Journal about AICF (“Surviving Bernie
,” March 13).

It is true that not enough people know about AICF and all the work they do in awarding scholarships to students to continue their studies.

Through the many events that AICF has had in the Los Angeles area where we feature AICF recipients, it is amazing how talented these recipients are and how grateful they are to receive these scholarships.  So many have told us that if it weren’t for AICF, they would not have been able to pursue their studies.

I hope that through your very informative article, your readers will understand and support the necessity of keeping AICF alive and thriving.

Renee L. Cherniak

Los Angeles

Gaza Symposium

We consider Chancellor Block’s failure to properly respond to the symposium agenda tantamount to approval of it (“UCLA Symposium on Gaza Ignites Strong Criticism,” Feb. 13). Giving time to Israel studies separately as a discussion is not equivalent to what the Center for Near East Studies allowed to be a subterfuge for propaganda. What good is the Center if when it holds its meetings for discussion, it excludes one of the major players?

We have lived through anti-Semitism, McCarthyism, red baiting and civil rights upheaval. Today there is a wave in academia of professors losing jobs, being denied grants, losing invitations to panels and conferences, and being intimidated by incriminating letters because they speak out on certain subjects. Young Jewish students are unprepared for the “new anti-Semitism” and are fearful of speaking out in classes. We expect everyone in academia to have the right to speak out without fear of retribution. That includes both students and professors. Has academia become a place for the “new Marranos” who have to hide their true identities?

What we expect for the chancellor is a transparent interpretation of the mission of the Center for Near East Studies and how it may better represent all peoples of the region. At the very least, it should be a welcoming and inclusive forum for all students and views.

Marge Schlaifer, Toby Segal,

Los Angeles

Creative Soul

Craig Taubman is one of the most creative people with whom I have had the privilege of working. He and his company, Craig ‘n Co, produced Shaare Zedek’s celebration in honor of Theodore Bikel’s 80th birthday almost five years ago. He created Jewels of Elul, an outstanding pre-High Holy Day guide — the third edition was sponsored by the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The ACSZ has supported almost every one of his community efforts, especially the annual Let My People Sing.Last year Craig Taubman publicly apologized for making an error connected to the Faith Jam / Israel 60th anniversary celebration in which he, to get outside involvement, agreed to not include any mention of Israel (see “Man of Joy,” Jewish Journal, Dec. 10, 2008).

This year, I believe he is making even a greater mistake. I am referring to the 2009 Let My People Sing, specifically to the event on April 15, Let My People Eat, which is scheduled to take plane in a non-kosher restaurant.

It is not that I believe that everyone must keep kosher — I don’t — it is that I find it abhorrent that a wonderfully conceived and much needed community-wide program has been placed in a venue that tells a significant and important part of our community to stay away! This is just plain wrong!

I wrote to the head of the JFS to voice my disappointment and requested that they consider changing the venue. This is the response that I received:

“Thank you for your e-mail and I appreciate the point you are making. When JFS sponsors an event we do hold them at kosher facilities. In this case, however, we are the beneficiary of this event and not the sponsor. In this time of great economic uncertainty and increased demand for service we welcome the opportunity to work with a variety of community partners and greatly appreciate Craig’s willingness to help raise funds for critically needed services.” 

I do not find this response acceptable, especially since the contact in the ad is to JFS, thus making them, at least, a co-sponsor.

Please join me in urging the JFS and Craig to change the venue for this function.

Paul Jeser

via e-mail

Questionable Cartoon

With reference to the upset and response to the Oliphant cartoon, I believe it is time that we Jews respond emphatically (“Jewish Groups Call Oliphant Cartoon ‘Anti-Semetic,’” March 26). We should, each of us, notify the newspapers that publish his work, that unless we receive a true apology, we will cancel our subscription to the publishing newspaper. It is time we actively respond and respond dramatically!

Marvin R. Selter

Studio City

Milken JCC

Reminds me of the great fiasco several years ago when the Jewish Federation abandoned the Westside JCC … 

Your report by Contributing Editor Tom Tugend speaks of “both sides” coming together to agree on a plan whereby the Milken JCC can continue to serve the community (“Phoenix Rises — Milken JCC Readies for Big Splash,” March 27). Something is seriously awry when we have two sides — rather than a partnership. The JCC is attempting to fulfill its role in providing a central core for community activities. In my mind, the role of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles should be to serve as a partner in this noble endeavor by providing the funds. Isn’t that what it was set up to do? Instead we have the Jewish Federation acting in part at least as a landlord — not a partner in an endeavor to benefit the community.

George Epstein

Los Angeles

Dr. Pearl’s Marranos

Professor Pearl’s article, “Our New Marranos,” would have been better titled “Their New Marranos” (“Our New Marranos,” March 20). He does an injustice to Marranos, possibly because in most of his articles that I have read in the past few years, especially since the atrocious murder of his son Daniel, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, he seems to me to show himself as a most reasonable, logical man, yet one lacking a sense of the tragic in history, both in general, and in Jewish history. So do those he criticizes as anti-Zionists in last week’s piece, Ehrenreich, who seems on the face of his Op-Ed merely a fool, not to mention an ignorant coward, anxiously driven to separate himself from what he was born into, tragically enough, the Jewish people; and Ms. Roberts, a UCLA student who thinks she can define herself, and/or “ourselves,” meaning Jews, “according to [her] own her beliefs and circumstances.”

Such Jews, and they are legion, Pearl is calling what the Spanish today terms a marrano: “persona maldita o descomulgada” that is, wicked, depraved.” Our historic Marranos were, even if great men of the Catholic hierarchy, or a saint like Teresa D’Avila, always in immediate danger of their lives from the ever-present Inquisition. The last “old Marrano” was burnt at the stake in Lima, Peru, as recently as 1749. There was no self-definition possible even as a Prince of the Church, or for any leading member of the Spanish establishment then. The list of “signs” by which a maid or gardener could denounce a Jew contained simple observations like: If the mistress washes and puts on fresh linen on Friday evening, or changes a shirt for her husband, or lights a candle, she shall be reported. An Ehrenreich or Roberts is not threatened by being put on the rack, not yet, let alone deported and gassed, and in the West, at this point, they are free to speak and publish what is on their minds. But — do they have minds that think clearly? That is Pearl’s true question. It is his basic complaint about their moral irresponsibility, which he terms dishonesty. It is a fatal cowardice. Perfectly understandable: even Freud didn’t wish to flee Vienna as late as 1938.  Talk about denial?

George Orwell’s protagonist in 1984,Winston Smith, an independent or secret dissident , is finally called to account for his self-definition, and when the cage-mask containing a starving rat is held to his face, he cries out, “Do it to Julia!” and she is the woman he loves as his very soul, until that moment of truth is thrust at him.

That moment may be presented, the bill to be paid, not at one’s own hour of choice, but at any moment in today’s world. Since it is the fundamental issue here, one should keep in mind the final words of Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, in our most famous Western tragedy, “King Oedipus”:

You still presume to do what pleases you?

You never in your life were free to choose!

In short, the latest lesson of our history, the events and meaning of Shoah, seems already lost on such people, who fail to understand that it is no longer possible for Jews to live, let alone define themselves, in whatever way they wish. Rather, they are defined by those who do not wish them to live at all.

Jascha Kessler

Santa Monica

Anti-Zionists, who in no way demonize Israel,  have every right to be part of the Jewish community. However, the activist among the anti-Zionists who make obscene analogies, promote every kind of libel against Israel, and encourage writers and editors to omit all the key points from textbooks, articles etc. that would make an overwhelming case for the Jewish state have no right to be part of our community. Pearl is wrong in comparing these people to Marranos, they rather compare to Theobald of Cambridge, the 12th century apostate who made up the Blood Libel. Certainly it would be absurd to count him as one of us.

Ronnie Gribler

Los Angeles

Eshman and Pearl

Your March 20 issue contained Rob Eshman’s plea for a Jewish community leader, and Judea Pearl elaborating on anti-Zionist Jews (“Job Opening,” “Our New Marranos”). I believe that these issues are connected. World Jewry is fractured because we are terribly confused by the State of Israel. After 61 years, the “Light unto the Nations” is closer to being a Jewish Republic than a true democracy. Still no constitution, and the ultra-Orthodox are still allowed to judge Jewish legitimacy. As a people, we are so completely divided that even the ultra-Orthodox Sephardics and Ashkenazis attend different schools. We in the Diaspora are torn between the love and need of a Jewish homeland, and embarrassment from bad publicity. People like Bernie Madoff make us question Jewish righteousness. There is also confusion and dissension in our houses of worship. The Union for Reform Judaism has no policy on dietary rules, but my Reform congregation has strict kashrut rules for the premises. Politically conservative Jews have no tolerance for liberal Jews. At one time Jews found common ground on now minor issues such as dealing with quotas in medical schools and getting jobs in the gentile private industry. At this time our future seems unpredictable.

Martin J. Weisman

Westlake Village

Praise for the Journal

I read much of this week’s Jewish Journal and once again I was quite moved (March 20).  Be assured, I am not easily moved or impressed.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jeff Bernhardt’s, “What to Do When the Kid Just Says ‘No!’” about Bar/Bar Mitzvah prep blues.

Then I read David Suissa’s, “Music Man.” Wow!!  That was a powerful and beautiful piece.

I most appreciated Rob Eshman’s, “Job Opening.” While I am not out of work, this does sound like a very intriguing and without a doubt, a challenging job. I do know about challenging jobs, having taught the past twelve years in South (Central) Los Angeles public schools. On top of that, I have been teaching at the middle school level, therefore I can certainly relate to a challenge.

Mr. Eshman stated, “The old ways are gone, and the new ways are yet to be created.” This sounds a bit like an invitation for someone like me who certainly will not follow 3,000+ years of failure, and who demands something new.

I was surprised last May when the annual Israel Festival granted me a booth for my ‘controversial’ organization, The Levite Line (.com), albeit at more than double the normal price. I was also pleasantly surprised to be allowed to present at LimmudLA this year.

So maybe L.A, Jewry is ready for me (or they took advantage of my ability and willingness to pay)? I assure you, my leadership would be a change. For one thing, the Jewish tradition of being the perennial victim will soon come to an end, because I personally refuse to be a victim. This is not sticking-my-head-in-the-sand stubbornness. This is learning from the past (I have an M.A. in History), determining the problems and finding solutions, no matter what they may be. Things can change, things must change, and I for one am without a doubt an agent for such change.

Now if my checkered past can be overlooked, along with a belief that there are answers to ALL questions, then forward we can go. I won’t hold my breath, since I’m not part of the super-wealthy German-Jewish elite stock, but my answer is Hineni — Here I Am.

Richard S. Levik

Los Angeles

THE JEWISH JOURNAL welcomes letters from all readers. Letters should be no more than 200 words and must include a valid name, address and phone number. Letters sent via e-mail must not contain attachments. Pseudonyms and initials will not be used, but names will be withheld on request. We reserve the right to edit all letters. Mail: The Jewish Journal, Letters, 3580 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1510, Los Angeles, CA 90010; e-mail: letters@jewishjournal.com; or fax: (213) 368-1684.