Letters

Losing its grip?

I read your Nov. 5 article "Bush gets 24 percent of Jewish vote — less than GOP hoped for" and editorial concerning the Jewish vote for the GOP in the 2004 presidential election. You mischaracterize the Jewish vote for George W. Bush as the glass half empty when the reality is that the glass is half full.

In contrast to the perspective of the article and editorial, the 5-point gain equals greater than a 26 percent increase in the Jewish vote for Bush. This was substantial.

It was the greatest increase of any ethnic or religious group in the United States.

This contributed significantly to Bush's re-election and added to his mandate since many of the votes were in swing states such as Ohio and Florida.

Further, the two groups of Jews who voted overwhelming for Bush, Orthodox Jews and Russian Jews, are the two fastest-growing subgroups in the U.S. Jewish community. This trend portends extremely favorably for Jewish support of the Republican Party.

Your pieces should have concluded that the Democratic Party is losing its grip on the Jewish community.

Vincent B. Feher | San Francisco




Economic justice

Your Nov. 5 business supplement article "Judeo-economics" states that "Jews from David Ricardo to Milton Friedman have been major champions of capitalism."

The article also notes that Israel is "second in the West in inequality between the rich and poor."

The way to establish true economic justice is outlined in a book written here in 1879 and which became influential around the world, "Progress and Poverty" by Henry George, who was known as the Prophet of San Francisco. At the heart of George's analysis is Ricardo's "Law of Rent." George shows that high land prices mean low wages.

After George's death in 1897, the leadership of the land-value tax movement he founded devolved upon the Jewish millionaire soap manufacturer, philanthropist and early Zionist from Philadelphia, Joseph Fels, who built it into the world's most powerful engine for peaceful social change prior to World War I.

Jews concerned about economic issues should read and learn from "Progress and Poverty," which also points out how modern civilization might directly revert to barbarism, which in fact it did in an historical period we call "the Holocaust."

Yisroel Pensack | San Francisco




Palestinian immorality

"It's immoral to send someone so young. They should have sent an adult that understands the meaning of his deeds," says the mother of Amar al-Far, the 16-year-old terrorist who killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv's Carmel market earlier this month.

For shame. As if sending an adult would be justified. What's immoral is sending anyone on the first place. I scorn those that send, support, educate and raise such child criminals.

I was in Tel Aviv the night before the bombing and for the previous week in Israel with not a hint of trouble, despite Yasser Arafat's being rushed to Paris, thousands of Muslims on the Temple Mount for Ramadan and the general situation.

We left Tel Aviv in the morning, flew to Eilat and were sitting by the pool when we heard the news. It seemed like a world away. But it wasn't. Come to Israel and you'll see for yourself.

Terrorism is never justified. Pray for the peace of Israel.

Steve Lipman | Foster City




Stem cell 'recycling'

Regarding "The mitzvah of saving lives" (Oct. 21 j. opinion), Rabbi Josh Zweiback states that "embryonic stem cell research ... requires the destruction of a human embryo," which makes it sound as if embryos were being "created" so that they could be destroyed.

It is my understanding that the embryos that would be used for stem cell research were already in existence to be used for fertility purposes but were going to be destroyed and were never impregnated in a woman's body.

One might call it recycling for the benefit of humanity.

Linda Laflamme | Oakland




A condemnation with a 'but'

The association of a swastika with Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval is to be condemned ("Jews, others decry mailer emblazoned with swastika," Oct. 29 j. ).

People ought not lightly be labeled Nazis.

On the other hand, Sandoval did, shortly after his initial election, at a public political event, suggest picketing the "mansions in Tiburon" and "bar mitzvahs" of evil fat-cat CEOs. This association of evil and greed with the condition of being Jewish is, rather obviously, Jew-baiting.

The fact that the supervisor would deem it appropriate to make such a remark at a public political gathering is strong evidence not only of anti-Semitism but of the supervisor's willingness to trumpet that anti-Semitism for what he imagined would be political advantage. This is not a good thing.

The apologies which came later — and the suggestion that he did not mean to offend — were silly. Sandoval is not some hayseed. He's a U.C. grad who went on to Columbia University Law School in New York City. Sandoval could not have avoided knowing lots of Jews, and apparently he knows what he thinks of them. 

Richard Levine | San Francisco




'God's people'

Jewish writers like James Besser, Gershom Gorenberg, and Daniel Levitas write about an undefined group called "the Christian right." It is clear they never had personal contact with Christian Zionists.

After learning about the existence of Christian Zionists (CZ), I decided to learn as much as possible about them. I carefully read literature from six CZ groups. I have spent weeks in Israel living with three different CZ "solidarity missions."

They know the Bible well, and often refer to us Jews as "God's people" since God repeatedly says to us, "I will be your God, and you will be My people."

The CZ regard the establishment of the modern state of Israel as the work of God since He had said repeatedly in the Books of Prophets that He would one day gather our exiles and return us to the land he had given to our patriarchs.

There is no causal connection between the return of the exiles and the "second coming" of Jesus.

CZ view Christianity as "a branch grafted on to the root of Judaism." Hence, there is no attempt to convert God's people to anything. 

They are not involved in domestic American politics.

Yehuda Sherman | Lafayette




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