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22 against 1

I applaud Sarah Pearce, who refuses to treat the word Zionist as a dirty word any longer (May 12 "Zionism — our word not theirs").

Judea Pearl, the father of Daniel Pearl, has said that when confronting anti-Zionist speakers, he asks them, "Are you willing to go on record and state that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a conflict between two legitimate national movements?" The answers were often telling.

We must educate ourselves and our children about our Jewish religious, historical and legal ties to Israel because, unlike Arab Muslims who have 22 countries today (Palestine will be 23 when it happens), Israel is the only state we Jews have.

Sheree Roth | Palo Alto




'Waste of time'

A major Jewish organization, the New Israel Fund, to which some of the most prominent members of our community belong, held a major banquet, "Guardians of Democracy," to which many notables — senators and representatives among others — lent their names.

The stated purpose of the organization is to "strengthen Israel's democracy and to promote freedom, justice and equality for all Israel's citizens."

The clear implication of that is that those qualities are absent in Israel. But that is nonsense. Democracy, freedom, justice and equality prevail in Israel.

One must suspect that those lofty aims are rather code words for the mollifying of the Palestinians and for making further "concessions" to them in order to bring about peace. The reality, of course, is that Israel is engaged in an existential struggle with mortal enemies, whose declared goal is the destruction of the Jewish state — wiping it off the map.

Nothing that Israel could possible do — except of course committing national suicide — could appease them. Any feel-good activities, such as "strengthening democracy," are not only a waste of time, effort and money but play into the hands of Israel's dedicated and irreconcilable enemies.

Gerardo Joffe | San Francisco




Snuff out the fire?

The Yeashore Community has been holding bonfires at Ocean Beach for 10 years, and a proposed bonfire ban could bring San Francisco bonfires to an end.

The National Park Service is taking comments on the matter until May 31.

You can send yours online from

saveoceanbeach.org/stopthefireban. (Save Ocean Beach is a Web site created to oppose the ban.)

There are very specific rules for bonfires at Ocean Beach, but many people do not follow the rules and make a mess. The National Park Service wants to ban the bonfires even though these rules are not posted at the beach and are very hard to find on the Web.

It seems foolish to ban something based on people not following the rules, especially when those rules are unknown to most beachgoers.

Rather then ban the bonfires, there should be education on the rules, and big signs posted like those in Santa Cruz, which have very specific rules, with icons, so everyone who goes to the beach knows what is OK and what isn't.

Jeff Haas | Berkeley
co-founder, Yeashore Community

Help sought

In 1995 I received a call from the Jewish Children's Adoption Network: "Do you know anyone who wants a week-old baby with Down syndrome?"

JCAN had already brought us together with a child who has D.S. It was working out wonderfully, though we weren't planning to adopt again. I asked every Jewish person I knew, to no avail. So, Jacob joined our family.

Mitzvah or mistake? We love Jacob! He is charming, sociable, easy-going, active, healthy and especially happy. He is also far more developmentally delayed than anyone could have predicted. Think: a 55-pound toddler in diapers, some odd behavior, but no tantrums! Jake continues to slowly learn and grow.

He is fun and exhausting. We need help.

We thought we were stepping up in a positive way. Were we simply idealistic and foolish? Services for children with special needs are shrinking. Above all, we desperately need some weekend and summer breaks without Jake at home. Maybe a part-time foster family, big brother, substitute aunt?

Jacob needs a village. We are turning to our Jewish community. If this letter inspires a few people to help, perhaps we can create new models for others in similar situations.

Dafna Jo Simon | Santa Rosa




Wrong venue?

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco should be ashamed of itself.

While we know that San Francisco is known for its acceptance of all lifestyles, which by the way, I have no problem with, I object to the discussion of G-spots and orgasms, and the viewing of Annie Sprinkle's pictures, which j. felt were inappropriate to show in a family newspaper (May 12 "Gonzo prophets look for God").

This burlesque show could have been shown anywhere else, but not a place where children and families go to enrich their Jewish identities.

I hope that the JCC will show more class and decorum, and provide the future Jewish leaders of the community a better role model than the "Gonzos."

Allyson Rowen Taylor | Valley Glen




'Classic antic'

I've seen Rabbi Shmuley Boteach perform miracles — meeting Christianity on its own turf, so to speak — for families on his program, "Shalom in the Home," and am not surprised that he's successful in his own home with his numerous children (May 12 "When having babies isn't exactly a blessing").

His argument weakens, however, when he claims his family is subject, because of size, to "the last acceptable prejudice in our society" (of all places to print such an obscenity, in a San Francisco paper!).

This classic antic is a page from the story of the boy who kills his parents, then claims mercy as an orphan.

I, too, have problems with those who inflict their particular coercion on others. What his article reminds me is that I am particularly ticked by Jews who refuse to accept me as a Jew because I'm not of their "persuasion." That they are intent on cloning their bigotry through their tribes — kudzu style — is a personal threat to Jews who prefer other head coverings.

As for the stares he receives in the supermarket, if he tells them the kids are adopted, the insensitive starers will let him go to the head of the line.

Bernard A. Goldberg | Sacramento




Wrong answer?

Joanne Catz Hartman wrote a good article — "Unlocking a photo" (May 12 column).

Her daughter is a very smart 5-year-old girl. She asked her mother: Do you miss your grandmother? How did she die?

That is all about the Holocaust. And, that is good.

That is good because we have to teach our children and grandchildren about that terrible lesson that our grandparents went through. We have to educate them about it. Not only them but everybody.

I'm glad that her daughter asked her about it. I was shocked when Hartman's answer was: I don't want to explain the Holocaust to a young child. I'm not ready for her to know that jarring history yet.

That was the wrong answer. Everybody has to know about the Holocaust so it will never happen again.

Paul Shkuratov | San Francisco




A work stoppage

Richard Colman (May 5 letters, "Jews on strike") has a great idea: Let's have a one-day work stoppage. And let's do it this year on Oct. 2. That way those of us who stop work to celebrate Yom Kippur will be joined by our fellow Jews.

Marsha Cohen | San Francisco




Vision and courage

In a recent letters-to-the-editor column, Michael Harris attacks the very core of why the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has become the most successful of its kind on the planet. This is largely due to the vision and courage of the founders and current leadership of the film festival who have dedicated themselves to presenting a broad spectrum of films upholding the most intrinsic of Jewish values — morality, ethics, and as the rabbis taught us, questioning authority and the status quo.

What's next? Maybe Harris' group should advocate banning Jewish films portraying homosexuals in a positive light, or perhaps we should blacklist these filmmakers — oh how soon we forget ...

Jacob Mandelsberg | El Cerrito




Mistranslation?

I am writing to comment on the mistranslation of an Israeli caricature appearing in the recent cover story "In 'toon' with the times."

One of the cartoons features an "Iranian" driver, driving a car with a missile on its roof, inspected by a U.N inspector hunched over the driver's window: the Hebrew caption underneath said, "Open the trunk."

You, however, translated it as "Open the bags."

"Buggajh" is the transliteration of the modern Hebrew word as appearing in the caption. It is an "imported" term and means trunk, originating from the word baggage yet meaning trunk and not baggage.

Avishalom (Avi) Klammer | Oakland

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