Our Covers, Pope’s Sex Advice

Our Covers
I am continuously impressed with the intellectual quality of the contents of The Jewish Journal. Especially for a free newspaper (which I have to pay to get delivered).

Yet, like many others, I often find your covers in poor taste.

What baffles me is the contrast between the outside and the inside.

Obviously, those who create the very intelligent inside also create the covers.

Have you ever addressed this contradiction? Or maybe you do not think it is a contradiction. Perhaps it is just a marketing ploy to get people to pick up The Journal.

Maybe I missed an explanation in one of your editions. But I sure am curious.

Amiel Shulsinger, El Monte

Rob Eshman responds:
Thank you for your kind words regarding our content. As for our covers, they do tend to be a bit more provocative and attention getting than some people like. Given that most of our print readers pick up the Journal for free, and that all but 4 percent of the Journals we distribute are returned to us (the industry average is around 10 percent) we are loathe to fix what isn’t broken. We are also very proud of our graphic designers, who each year (this year included) win awards for their work. That said, one reader who shares your opinion of our covers told me he found the ideal solution: he pretends the paper is in Hebrew, and reads it from back to front.

Pope’s Sex Advice
Rabbi Boteach argued that Christians such as Miss California are wrong to think that gay marriage is the primary threat to the family; the threat to the family is our culture’s degradation of women through pornography and similar reductions of women to sex objects (“What Would Jesus Say About Miss California?” May 22). Pope John Paul II wrote a profound book on these issues, “The Theology of the Body.” In it, he argued that it is always wrong to treat another person as an object of lust and that marriage and sex must be based upon love and service to each other. This viewpoint is opposed to pornography and similar types of degradation of women and men. Rabbi Boteach and other Jews of similar views should read John Paul; while there are profound theological differences, of course, between the Christian and the Jewish perspective, we should all know that many of us are trying to pull together, the same way, to preserve the family in a world increasingly hostile to it.

Rick Gibson, via e-mail

Hit Them Where It Hurts
I’m sick of hearing my fellow Jews whine about anti-Zionism/Semitism on college campuses, like UC Irvine, and doing nothing about it but write articles in Jewish papers, plead with unmotivated administrators and naively attempt “meaningful dialogue” with the perpetrators (“The Crucible of UC Irvine,” May 29).

The only way to get the administrators to act is to kick ’em where it counts — in the pocketbook. Tape the MSU’s activities on campus and send copies to the alumni, both Jews and gentiles. Advise them to withhold their contributions until the administration puts an end to the MSU’s hostile activities.

When confronted with a decline in donations, the administrators will be forced to step up to their responsibilities in ensuring a safe environment, free of organized hatred.

Daniel Iltis, Los Angeles

Cremation Ad
I am not Orthodox, I don’t have a strong opinion about cremation in either direction and I feel Steve Flatten’s letter (objecting to the cremation advertisement) was mildly extreme but clearly heartfelt (Letters, May 29). Mr. Eshman’s response doesn’t deal with Mr. Flatten’s upset, turmoil, bewilderment and sense of betrayal by a publication that he appears to read regularly. I disagree with Mr. Flatten but I also respect his passionate beliefs and I believe that there should have been some acknowledgement of the ancient nature and powerful meanings of certain practices for many Jews. Mr. Eshman’s response is surprisingly (for him) disrespectful and almost arrogant in its lack of acknowledgement of and lack of response to the emotions involved in the Jewish community about such issues. Mr. Eshman’s response’s reasonable endorsement of “sharp and fair-minded debate” is very different than his also casually telling someone that they should “challenge their own beliefs and practices.”

Charles Portney, Santa Monica