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A striking contrast?

Regarding your two April 15 views "Gay pride festival in Jerusalem — sacrilege or celebration?" a far more striking contrast would be simply to reprint two photographs: one, the photo of Jerusalem religious leaders at their press conference/

protest of the Gay Pride Festival, and two, the photo of San Francisco religious leaders taken last February at their press conference confirming their broad support for gay marriage.

Jerome M. Garchik | San Francisco




Basic Judaism

Last month I had a messianic experience. In friendly company, in a comfortable surrounding with ample quantities of good food, we spent almost unlimited time discussing comparative religions and basic Judaism.

My wife and I visited Mickve Israel, in Savannah, the 1878 gothic-styled synagogue of the third oldest congregation in the country. The temple has beautiful stained glass windows and a historical collection from its 1733 founding as a Sephardic congregation.

On the Saturday of our visit, the temple was conducting its fifth annual Introduction to Judaism course. The course was well advertised in local papers, and 80 percent of the hundred participants were not Jewish.

The Jews included a few temple officers and members, the confirmation class, new converts and us. Most of the non-Jews came because they had Jewish friends or just wanted to understand more about the religion that helped form their own religion.

The course took 12 hours in one day, and there was no cost except for a gentle request to chip in for two meals.

I hope that more temples would run a basic Judaism course for members and neighbors so that over time, when the Messiah comes, He or She will feel welcomed.

Howard Strassner | San Francisco




Withdrawal pitfalls

If Israel goes forward with the plan to withdraw from all of Gaza and expel the region's over 8,000 Jewish residents, the Palestinian Authority has said it will declare statehood in Gaza, and its sovereignty will be recognized by numerous countries.

This means, first of all, that it will become much easier for the terrorists to bring in weapons, since the authority will control its own ports and its border with Egypt.

It also means that if, in the future, Gaza-based terrorists continue firing rockets at Israel — as they are vowing to do — an Israeli counter-terror action will mean crossing the border of a sovereign Palestine state. That will trigger not only a storm of international condemnations, but perhaps sanctions as well.

Thus, the Gaza withdrawal plan is likely to create a situation that will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Israel to combat Gaza-based terrorists.

Morton Klein | New York
national president, Zionist Organization of America

Arms race fueling

The United States has armed Egypt beyond the capabilities of Israel.

We gave them $1 billion in aid, with which they built a factory to build tanks. We are in the process of selling them upgrades.

We also sold them 15,000 rounds of spent uranium shells that can defeat just about any armor on any tank.

We have sold them multiple rocket-launch systems, hellfire missiles, and probably more that is not being reported.

After giving Egypt an edge militarily, we are now trying to sell the same tanks to Israel.

Hosni Mubarak has announced free elections in Egypt, which could allow a radical Islamic party to gain power.

We did this same thing with the Shah of Iran. Remember the rise of the ayatollah?

Does anyone really know why we are fueling an arms race in the Middle East?

And at the same time, we are telling other countries not to sell to Iran, Korea, or China.

Hello, is there anyone in the White House aware of this? If they are, I didn't vote for them.

Terrence Healy | Santa Clara




The reason for inaction

In Suzanne Weiss' recent review of the film "Looking Away," she states that "60 years later, historians still don't understand why Allied forces ignored Nazi killing centers."

A so-called "historian" would have to be completely naive or devoid of any thinking facilities to not readily understand the rationale of the nations of the world in ignoring the Nazi atrocities during World War II. It was resoundingly clear from the

Wannsee Conference in January 1942, and the fact that all of the allied nations had been informed in detail as to plans of Germany's Final Solution and most simply accepted the fact that by doing nothing would also resolve their own "Jewish problem."

"Inaction sometimes is clearer than action" — certainly so in this case.

Harry W. Gluckman | Alameda




The purpose of life

I agree with Rabbi H. David Teitelbaum's recent letter, and thank him for it. For those who missed it, the gist was to emphasize the concept that God is "a still small quiet voice" (I Kings 19:12) within us, not a super humanoid.

In my opinion, it is folly to try to understand why God has allowed massive disasters, such as the Holocaust or the recent tsunami, or individual disasters, such as the death of a child.

In fact, Rabbi Harold Kushner's book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" specifically says "when," not "why," because no one knows why.

It's more like there's a big random number generator out there in outer space, and when your number comes up, you lose the lottery. Religion helps us deal with those tragedies when they occur.

More importantly, Judaism motivates us to try to do our best in life. My late mother, Jean Weiss Williams, once said, when there was some unimportant religious controversy in the newspapers, "These religious leaders often lose sight of the fact that the purpose of all of this is to teach us to be better people, to help us get along better with each other."

Leonard W. Williams | Sunnyvale




'Not hands-off'

As a teacher and a Jew, I take offense at Michael Fox's recent review of "Paper Clips." It is troubling that he failed to understand the movie.

The faculty of Whitwell had no intention of making a Holocaust movie. They intended to teach about tolerance, and found there was no better forum than a class about the Holocaust.

The students learned about how they and their neighbors were intolerant, and how they could if they worked together teach themselves and others to be less so.

The Holocaust study was a vehicle to help them.

If that offends Fox, he needs to study his own tolerance.

The Holocaust is not a hands-off topic for non-Jews. All students, of all ages, have too much to learn from the tragedies of that time.

"Paper Clips" should be seen by every teacher, student, parent and child. It reminds us of how fallible we are and how wonderful we can be when we learn, together, with tolerance.

Rinat Manhoff | Washington, D.C.




Planned violence

Please allow me to correct some misinformation: Despite his many failings, Ariel Sharon did not set off the current violence in the Holy Land by his "now-infamous walk" on the Temple Mount (Dec. 3 j.). Prior to his walk Sharon had gotten permission from the Arab authority, (probably the Wakf,) for his walk.

The Arab violence was planned well in advance, the planning having started soon after the Israeli army's very hasty and disorganized retreat (really a rout,) from Lebanon, during which they left behind much equipment and, more importantly, abandoned their allies, the mostly Christian South Lebanon Army.

Perhaps someone who keeps written notes can supply the name and date of the Arab leader who made public the fact that the Arab violence was planned well in advance.

Yehuda Sherman | Lafayette