Voices for unity
As longtime members of the Bay Area Jewish community and professionals involved in Jewish life and institutions on both sides of the Bay, we want to add our voices to the bold idea of creating a unified Jewish community of the Bay (“It’s time to merge S.F. and East Bay federations,” Feb. 6).
If crisis means opportunity, then the financial challenges facing all of us today call out for new solutions. But the arguments for a Bay Area–wide community are not only economic. Such an effort will mobilize all of the resources of our diverse and vibrant communities. We trust that our friends and colleagues in the West Bay share our enthusiasm for this project.
It is time to envision a new communal paradigm, based on democratic values and engagement with the issues of the larger Bay Area. The timing is right and we have the new leadership of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation to make this vision a reality. And we are ready to pledge our own energies for the task.
David and Rachel Biale | Berkeley
Don’t apologize for criminal Jews
I’ll bet 50 percent of the Jews in this country Googled the name Allen Stanford, the billionaire Texan/Antiguan who was charged this week with massive fraud, to see if he was Jewish. I did.
But while I was secretly hoping he wasn’t Jewish, I found myself saying “screw it, even if he is.”
Even if you fancy yourself a tough Jew, you’re still a Jew, and you will think like a Jew and worry like a Jew. We have 2,000 years of collective worry/memory. That’s an uphill battle by anyone’s definition.
But even though I was secretly worried, I’ll refuse to show it. I think it’s important to practice not giving a damn.
We are who we are, but we can change — and until we get that change deeply rooted into our new “muscle memory” we can act “as if,” just like they teach in the 12-step programs.
Act “as if” you don’t give a damn whether the next Bernie Madoff is a Jew or not — and don’t apologize to anyone for what one wayward Jew may have done, just because you too happen to be a Jew.
How many Texans or Antiguans do you reckon are frettin’ over Stanford?
Ian Zimmerman | San Francisco
Our own newspaper should be haven
I agree with Gerardo Joffe (Letters, Feb. 6). We get enough anti-Israel rhetoric from several other papers, news shows, etc. without having to read it in j. as well. It’s depressing enough from the rest of the world. We don’t need to add to it by publishing our own Israel-bashing letters, especially from our own people. Our community newspaper should be one place we can go to read the news without encountering yet more hatred and criticism.
Carrie Zeidman | Cupertino
Give credit to Germany
I was pleased to read your Feb. 13 AP report “Argentine seminary ousts Holocaust-denying bishop,” the foul-mouthed Bishop Williamson. But the story fell short by one significant detail.
The story gave the impression that responsibility for the turnabout in Vatican’s de-excommunication decision (and for the Argentinean seminary’s decision) is owed exclusively to one development: the entirely necessary uproar among Jewish organizations over the pope’s original decision to welcome Williamson (and three others) back into the church. Israel’s chief rabbinate, the World Jewish Congress, and the Council of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations are mentioned, properly so. But had the Catholic Church in Germany (the German Bishops’ Conference) not brought pressure on the German-born and -raised pope, we may doubt that this welcome decision would have been made.
Their stand was widely reported. As Jews, and as a Jewish newspaper, let’s give credit where credit is due. Let’s gladly welcome this assumption of responsibility by German Catholics and their assertion of the historical truth: the Holocaust cannot be denied. Their testimony and their act, at this time for this purpose, is itself historic and should be acknowledged in any account of this reversal.
Al Averbach | San Francisc
Speak out against Avigdor values
Rich Stiebel says “to ensure that the state remains Jewish, one cannot allow those who are not Jewish to vote in national elections” (Letters, Feb. 6). Can you imagine if someone wrote that to ensure that the U.S. remains Christian, Jews should only be allowed to vote in local, not federal elections?
I expected an angry response in the next week’s letters to the editor, but nothing,nada, gurnisht. Instead, there was an article about Avigdor Lieberman’s role as the “rock star of the Israeli election.” Contrast this with the headline in the British Jewish Chronicle, “Lieberman’s success shocks U.K. Jewish leadership,” followed by condemnations of Lieberman’s anti-Arab racism from all quarters of the Jewish community, including Orthodox leaders who called his opinions a betrayal of Jewish values.
Many of us smugly think of ourselves as living in this “liberal cocoon” called the Bay Area, but when it comes to mainstream Jews and Israeli politics the reality is quite disturbing, and j. should do more to condemn these extreme viewpoints.
Richard Weiner | Oakland
A courageous stance on weapons
Congratulations on having the courage to print such a worthwhile article (“Concealed weapons could prevent the next Mumbai,” Jan. 16)! Most Jewish periodicals and organizations would never have done this, although I can never understand why they don’t. The right to bear arms for self-defense is so fundamental and yet so many Jews (of all people!) don’t recognize it to be true.
Harold E. Friedman | Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Israel is a partner for peace
Alfred Lerner accuses Sheree Roth of playing “fast and loose with the facts” (Letters, Feb. 6). In his next sentence he says, “If Abbas is not moderate, I don’t know who is.” That’s pretty weird considering that Lerner also calls Abbas a “Quisling” at the end of his letter.
If moderate Palestinians are Quislings, then the rest must be anti-Israel extremists. I’m confused. How can Israel not be a partner for peace when the choice of negotiating partners amongst Palestinians is between Quislings and genocidal extremists? If “normal” (non-Quisling) Palestinians want to murder all Israelis, should Israel negotiate with them?
As for the “occupation” thing, anyone who understands that the 1948 war ended with a cease-fire, no peace agreement and no agreed boundaries for Israel would realize that Israel has every right to be in land it conquered in legitimate military action until it finds a real negotiating partner to determine its final boundaries.
The real problem is not that Israel won’t recognize the boundaries of a Palestinian state. It is that a majority of Palestinians won’t recognize the boundaries of Israel because they don’t accept its right to exist. So to suggest Israel is not a partner for peace is absurd.
Desmond Tuck | Menlo Park