Tweet

Share
 

Like Dreyfus?

Abraham Ruef and Mayor Eugene Schmitz were not quite the villains that Dan Pine makes them out to be in his April 14 cover story "The quake, the fire and the Jews."

The scandal at city hall was more about two groups vying for power than reformers attacking a corrupt regime: The anti-labor progressives led by millionaire Rudolph Spreckels and James Phelan attempted to oust the pro-union government of Schmitz and Ruef. They succeeded. Neither group were angels.

Ruef's trial was marked by jury-tampering, intimidation and violence. Both Spreckels and San Francisco Bulletin editor Fremont Older, who worked to prosecute Ruef, regretted their involvement. In fact, Older later fought for years for Ruef's parole.

In the new book "The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906," author Philip L. Fradkin writes, "Ruef was San Francisco's equivalent to France's Alfred Dreyfus."

Gail Todd | Berkeley




Real pressure

The official Palestinian reaction to a despicable act of murder at a Tel Aviv falafel stand speaks volumes about the true intention of the Hamas-led government.

To call an indiscriminate attack on civilians "legitimate" is the very definition of terrorism.

No one can tell the Palestinians how to vote and whom to elect. However, they should understand that there are real consequences for electing terrorists to power and forsaking the peace process.

Only a complete boycott and economic embargo of the Hamas government can force them to look for real alternatives, the ones that actually matter, not the dishonest and corrupt Fatah.

Western governments should also put real pressure on the Arab states that claim to support peace while giving money to Hamas. The U.S. Congress should hold Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and others accountable for their financial and political support of terror.

Until the world puts real pressure on Palestinians to change their leadership, they will continue to suffer without a real economy, without real institutions and without a real future. That's the real lesson in democracy.

Vadim Rotberg | San Francisco




Hamas demands

In the recent j. article "Israeli statesman sees chances for moderation in Hamas victory," Israeli statesman Shlomo Ben-Ami believes there is a chance that Hamas will become moderate. I have no doubt that Hamas will if only some of their demands are met.

Like:

• Tear down the security barrier.

• Accept 3 million Arab refugees to Israel proper.

• Restore the borders to May 14, 1948.

• Call the country Palestine.

• And let the Jews that want to leave take their national anthem "Hatikvah" with them.

Gershon Evan | San Francisco




Life-saving work

As western region director of American Friends of Magen David Adom, I was pleased that you covered a fund-raising event on behalf of the organization (March 31 j.). We were fortunate to have Jonathan, Faye and Jesse Kellerman, a family of authors, as guest speakers.

Dan Pine covered the event, but after reading the article, it disappointed me that nothing was mentioned about the life-saving work of Magen David Adom.

Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency medical, blood and disaster service, touches the lives of every Israeli. Its well-trained staff, with its amazingly quick response time to multi-casualty terror incidents, is also touching our own lives through the training that they recently provided to 132 U.S. Homeland Security directors.

In 2005, MDA's blood services processed 282,955 units, providing 95 percent of the needs to the people and hospitals and 100 percent to the IDF. Its fleet of 700 ambulances answered 444,691 calls — averaging 1,200 per day. Every nine minutes an accident victim was evacuated, and every five minutes it took a woman in labor to the hospital.

Its 100 first-aid stations are located from the tip of Eilat to Kiryat Shmona. See http://www.afmda.org or call (800) 323-2371.

Ellen Rofman | New York
American Friends of Magen David Adom

Alumni sought

This year, Camp Ramah in California celebrates its 50th anniversary as an organization on the forefront of Jewish continuity and leadership.

In order to commemorate this occasion, a number of exciting programs and initiatives are planned to take place in various locations throughout the United States. The festivities will culminate in a gala event for the Ramah community at camp on Dec. 3 in Ojai.

All former campers and staff are invited to participate in these celebrations and share memories of their Ramah years. In our efforts to include everyone connected to Ramah, we hope to reconnect with as many alumni as possible. We are encouraging all former campers and staff to

register as alumni on our Web site (http://www.ramah.org/alumni) or to call our office at (888) CAMP-RAMAH.

Rabbi Daniel Greyber | Los Angeles
executive director, Camp Ramah in California

Ecumenical protest

Thank you for your recent article on the Magnes exhibit "If Not Now, When? 150 Years of California Jewish Activism." As a historian of American Jewish history and curator of the exhibit, I should point out an error.

In reaction to the abduction of an Italian Jewish child in 1858 by the Papal Guards, 3,000 Jews, Protestants and Catholics gathered to protest in San Francisco — not 3,000 Jews, as was stated in the article. One of the points I want to make is that this was an ecumenical protest.

Second, I would like to put my quoted comment about the lack of Jewish protest in San Francisco during the early Holocaust years in context. In the 20th century, Los Angeles, not San Francisco, received the majority of European Jewish immigration to California. Therefore, they had a larger Jewish population including a sizable number of recent immigrants with strong ties to European Jewry. This was not the case in San Francisco where Jews had lived for generations.

Thank you, Alexandra Wall, for taking the time to view the exhibit and interview me. I hope many readers will visit the exhibit and enjoy discovering the history of California Jewish activism.

Ava F. Kahn | Berkeley




Back to the Bible

Rabbi Joshua Strulowitz, who is campaigning against Christian missionaries and Jews for Jesus, should go back and read his Bible.

There is absolutely nothing in our Jewish Bible that says anything about a messiah. There is nothing about his being born in Bethlehem, or about his being born, or about any messiah.

The concept of a messiah is post-biblical.

Yehuda Sherman | Lafayette




'Very hurtful'

I'm a Muslim convert of African origin. I found Andrew Silow Carroll's recent accusation in his j. opinion "Looking for honesty in the Muslim world" that Islam and other faiths (including Judaism) are not essentially religions of peace very hurtful, far more hurtful than any cartoon.

Those comments appear to me to be from a person for whom religion has just become a mere culture rather than an enobling way of life. Mere culture/heritage is what is dangerous because it causes people to form into ghettos and cliques.

In the Miraj, Prophet Muhammad (in a vision) ascends to heaven and meets all the prophets and prays with them. The Koran states that Muslims are exhorted to say, "We believe in all the prophets and we make no distinction between any of them."

What is the meaning of these things? It is that all religion is essentially one and the same. If this is not the blueprint for a peaceful world, I don't know what is.

Conversely, for the last 100 years under communism, democracy (mob rule), fascism, etc., we have had the most unjust and destructive wars in the history of mankind.

Muhammad Badr Badu | Norwich, England




'Unfair agenda'

I'm pleased to see that the board president of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has noticed increasing community concern regarding the content of the festival (March 24 letters), but I wish he would take the problem more seriously. Many of us have made similar observations in recent years, independent of each other, and we are now comparing notes at the Yahoo group FilmFestProtest (groups.yahoo.com).

We believe that the SFJFF's emphasis reflects an unfair and harshly critical agenda. We get a view of Israel designed to instigate hatred rather than understanding.

These films are sometimes accompanied by one-sided anti-Israel panel discussions, and in many cases the festival offers films that are downright obscene (e.g. a Jewish woman teaching Palestinian children to want to become suicide bombers and kill Jews).

Our goal is to have the SFJFF expand its narrow anti-Israel perspective, not to restrict "creativity and imagination" as Ellie Shapiro's suggests in another March 24 letter.

Art Altman | San Carlos




Countering 'lies'

As part of the group that organized and created "Spotlight on the Middle East" (March 31 j.), I would like to thank you for your fine article. Phil Smaller should get the credit for promoting and coordinating the use of the cable television media, while the very capable work of Don Mintz in providing and formatting visual materials for these productions should be noted and acknowledged.

Our purpose has been to provide a counter to the deception and lies of some Arab and anti-Israel academics who have completely misrepresented the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by providing honest and reliable historical information to the public.

Arthur Cohn | Portola Valley

most popular rss feeds