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Saudi strategy: Tell lies again and again to sway doubters

For years, parents and Jewish Community Relations Councils have battled local curricular committees which include in our textbooks the kinds of Arab fiction-made-history described in your Oct. 28 articles, "Exposé: How Saudis influence our children's education."

We are witness to the distortion of the Israel-Arab conflict in our universities, where faculty inappropriately use classrooms as a bully pulpit to foment their own anti-Israel, anti-West and anti-USA ideology; where Muslim student groups run roughshod over campus rights of free speech; and where millions of petrodollars buys college governance's tolerance of abuses by faculty and Muslim student groups.

Now we see the trickle-down effect as bigoted professors write, in collusion with Arab sources, the kind of curricula for our middle and high school students that you expose.

We are witness to an Arab war against reality, sponsored by the Saudis, emanating from their propaganda center in New Mexico, and disseminated by faux-academics to unsuspecting teachers, curricular committees and textbook publishers.

The strategy is simple: Tell the same lies often enough, and in enough places, and gradually people will come to believe them.

They have time. They know that this year's sophomore is next year's senator.

David Meir-Levi | Menlo Park




Friends 77 years

Thank you for the beautiful Oct. 28 obituary of Marilyn Borovoy.

Another of Marilyn's roles was being a friend. She and my mother, Julie Mills, were friends 77 years. They met at Sherith Israel when they were 6. They were members of the same bridge group for 60 years.

My mom and Marilyn played bridge together two weeks ago. I knew about the game because I had invited my mom to visit her great-granddaughter, and she declined. She was taking friends to lunch. The lunch got canceled but before my mom could tell me, another friend asked her to play bridge at Marilyn's

If my mom had said no, she would have had a completely open weekend to come with me. But my mom is a loyal friend. So she went for the hour of bridge, which turned into a second hour. Marilyn was feeling good, and they were all laughing and reminiscing about old times.

The next day my mom told me she'll always be glad she accepted Marilyn's invitation because she passed away that evening.

How blessed was Marilyn to have known such friendship and to have spent her last day among good friends doing something she loved.

Donne Mills Davis | Menlo Park




Undermining security?

I was appalled to read in your Nov. 4 issue an announcement by Friends of Palestine of a concert in Marin County for the purpose of raising funds and assisting financially high school students in Israel who do not want to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Is your editorial board so naïve or anti-Israel by publishing this article that would help these kids to break the law in Israel by refusing to serve their country? Would you also publish a similar article for American teenagers in this country in case of a draft?

I was under the impression that j. is a Jewish publication and not one that would undermine Israel's security.

Henry Sommer | Burlingame




'Warm and inviting'

As I write this, my husband just left to teach religious school at Congregation Shir Shalom. He did not, however, drive to Cotati to do so because, despite Nate Bloom's Nov. 4 "Celebrity Jews" column, Congregation Shir Shalom is alive and well and living in Sonoma, not Cotati.

Cotati is home to a Reconstructionist synagogue, Ner Shalom. Shir Shalom is one of our county's Reform synagogues, and we invite Bloom to drive up from Oakland some time and experience our warm and inviting Shabbat services in the beautiful "Valley of the Moon."

Ann Clark Attinson | Sonoma




Joke or prejudice?

Would j. run a joke the punch line to which was "He's a good Jew — they bargain with everybody," or "He's a good black man — they dance for everybody"? Then how can you justify running a joke in Ted Roberts' column that ends with "He's a good Christian — they forgive everybody"?

Humor has a wonderful place in Jewish culture, even on the High Holy Days, but jokes that stereotype anyone, even the societal majority, should not have a place in your publication (and besides, neither of Roberts' two columns in your Oct. 7 issue was especially funny or enlightening).

Although we live in a modern, egalitarian society of laws, 24 percent of us personally experienced anti-Semitism in the past year, according to the S.F.-based federation's community study. Jewish publications should take seriously their responsibility not to practice the same type of prejudice that has plagued us for thousands of years, and continues to do so today, and your readers should not have to worry about being embarrassed by the content of our own Jewish news weekly.

Daniel Leemon | Atherton




Hurricane relief

I worry that Jews will not get the attention Christians will receive from the volunteer organizations like the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Mormons, etc. More important, I know these relief efforts are not intended to help the businessman get back on his feet. That is where many Jews will come up short unless they receive help from the Jewish community.

When Hurricanes Frances and Ivan caused flood damage in 2004, many businessmen needed help replacing damaged inventory. The Hebrew Free Loan Society of Pittsburgh lent out approximately $100,000, and enjoyed a 99 percent repayment history.

All the hurricane relief money should be provided as free loans.

Every Jew should know that he can apply to one place for the money that he needs. There should be one Web site, and one mailing address for applications. The Free Loan Societies located in the affected areas can review and approve the loans. Thus, everyone who needs help knows they will receive fair treatment, and the donors know that the money will be applied judiciously.

Lee Feldman | Pittsburgh, Pa.




'Snide, cynical'

As I read Dan Pine's Oct. 28 column, I was hoping he would thoughtfully reflect on the power of the Mishebeirach prayer. Instead, the tone of his remarks turned adversarial and condescending as he contrasted the prayer to Christian faith healing, which he then broadly and arrogantly dismissed as a "freak show."

He further made tangential and unnecessary comments, stating that if the faith healers were so successful, then Kaiser Permanente should hire them, though Kaiser, in line with "penny-pinching HMOs" would have to cut a deal with generic faith healers to cut costs.

I don't know of Pine's personal experiences that would lead him to make these deprecating comments. I would be happy to discuss further with him the topic of Jewish ethics and health-care delivery and why I have been proud to be a physician working within an organization which I feel embraces these ethical values.

Dan Pine, I feel, needs to revisit his obligations and responsibilities as a journalist and steer clear of lashon hara. Frankly, such snide, divisive and cynical remarks as his serve as obstacles to the process of tikkun olam.

Amnon Goodman, M.D. | San Francisco
Permanente Medical Group

Not hiding

It's hard to believe that Woody Weingarten lives in the community that I do.

"After a couple of decades in the ultra-assimilated Bay Area," he writes in the Oct. 28 j. article "Yiddishkeit at East Coast reunion," he's happy to visit New Rochelle, N.Y., where "everyone" is Jewish.

While we may not represent the percentage of the general population that New York Jews do, my experience is that the Bay Area Jewish community doesn't try to hide its Jewishness.

Ultra-assimilated Jews do not build beautiful new Jewish community centers, start Jewish community high schools, support Jewish museums and libraries, establish Jewish residences for seniors and the developmentally disabled, create new synagogues, go to Jewish street fairs or celebrate Israel in the Park by the tens of thousands, raise millions of dollars for Jewish needs locally, and internationally or subscribe to Jewish newspapers.

Jewish life in the Bay Area may have a different accent than that in New York, but ultra-assimilated it isn't. And it's disturbing that the managing editor of the Jewish newspaper hasn't discovered that.

Ellen Bob | Palo Alto




Wedding bells

Thank you very much for including same-sex marriages in your wedding announcements.

I hadn't noticed any before, but it was very nice to learn of the blessings that Sharon Papo and Amber Weiss will experience, having found and committed to each other. All the better that their families were included in the announcement, as I assume they are included in the young women's lives.

One of the most profound experiences of community support is during weddings. As a Jewish lesbian, I appreciate that you are part of that expression of support for same-sex couples.

Ellen Maremont Silver | Sebastopol




Deletion urged

It is time to remove the word anti-Semitism from our language. The proper word to describe people who dislike or hate Jews is anti-Jewish.

Irvin J. Borowsky | Philadelphia
founder and chairman American Interfaith Institute

Letters policy

j. the Jewish news weekly welcomes letters to the editor, preferably typewritten. Letters must not exceed 200 words and must be dated and signed with current address and daytime telephone number. j. also reserves the right to edit letters. The deadline is noon Monday for any given week's publication. Letters should be sent by e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or by mail to j., 225 Bush St., Suite 1480, San Francisco, CA 94104.

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