East Bay JCC on the right track
It was great to see the recent article regarding the resurgence of the JCC of the East Bay (“East Bay JCC has ‘steadied the ship’ after fiscal turmoil,” Dec. 11). Indeed, there had been some substantial challenges for the organization. However, Sally Flinchbaugh, other leadership and staff, and a number of community members have stepped up to meet those challenges, and have done so successfully.
Our children went to the preschool and are now in the CenterStage afterschool, we’ve attended many holiday and other events, and we’ve volunteered substantial time to support the JCC. Throughout we’ve been thoroughly impressed by the community’s dedication to make the center a place where everyone’s welcome, encouraged and supported.
For all they are already doing and for their ambitions for what more they can do, the JCC of the East Bay is well deserving of financial support from the community and other generous donors.
Jon Meyers | Albany
Swiss justified for banning minarets?
In regard to the ban on minarets in Switzerland (“Swiss anti-Islam vote draws protests from Jews, others,” Dec. 11), if you’ve ever been to a Muslim country you know that the “call to prayer” is sung and broadcast from the minarets five times a day. The religion literally permeates the soundwaves and the community.
Minarets are not just structures atop a mosque. They have a voice and remind everyone of their religion and duty. If you aren’t Muslim you still hear the call to prayer five times a day. Perhaps the Swiss, a Catholic country, didn’t want this type of intrusion on their secular life. No other religion imposes itself to this degree.
So let’s not be “holier than thou” and call the Swiss bigots without realizing the full impact minarets would’ve had on their daily life and culture.
Kathi Twomey Wahed | Moraga
Jewish law supports pro-choice stance
In response to the article “The Great Divide: Conservative pundit ponders why so many Jews feel it’s right to be left” (Dec. 4), I’d like to address that being pro-choice is a very Jewish concept, contrary to the opinion of the two people interviewed who claim to be knowledgeable about Jewish law.
Being pregnant and going through childbirth is considered life-threatening to a woman and therefore, Jewish law places the requirement to “Be fruitful and multiply” on the man, not the woman. I was also taught that traditionally life begins as the head crowns at birth.
The mother’s health is always more important than that of a fetus. Birth control is allowed once you’ve had one boy and one girl or in cases where it would be of mental or physical harm to the mother, including, by many, in times of extreme stress due to economics.
In order to be able to allow abortions, the Jewish community is, in fact, required to be pro-choice to keep abortions safe, legal, and accessible, since in the Orthodox world, there are times when an abortion is allowed or even required for the sake of the mother’s health.
Judith Gottesman | Berkeley
Support federation
We are saddened to read the constant drip-drip-drip of hostile criticism aimed at the Jewish Community Federation.
The federation should be held accountable and subjected to scrutiny — like our schools — as shepherds of this Jewish community’s resources, both human and financial. But recent, persistent attacks on federation go too far and threaten to swallow up the extraordinary amount of good achieved by federation — and are divisive to our community.
We appreciate the federation addressing the compelling issues that demand communal attention: articulating support for Israel as a fundamental value; supporting families and agencies struggling through this downturn; developing initiatives that engage and inspire our young and future leadership; and ensuring Bay Area Jewish life continues to thrive in a proud tradition of pluralism.
Our schools support Israel and develop in our students a lifelong connection with Israel. For example, thanks to the support of federation and others, our two schools will be sending to Israel this year more than 150 students and faculty.
Federation deserves our support, and appreciation, even when we strongly disagree with actions taken by one of its beneficiaries.
Chaim Heller | San Francisco
Brandeis Hillel Day School
Rabbi Howard Ruben
San Francisco Jewish Community High School of the Bay
Pro-Israel or bust
“Proposal to quell the ‘Rachel’ fires: Expand the size of the SFJFF board” (Dec. 4) was the latest in a string of op-eds warning that the SFJFF and now the Jewish Community Federation will be defunct if they do not get on the pro-Israel censorship train, and defaming the film’s co-presenters, Jewish Voice for Peace and American Friends Service Committee, as anti-Semitic or otherwise beyond the community pale.
I understand that recently the board of Jewish Voice for Peace requested the opportunity to write their own op-ed in j., in response to the multiple op-eds that distort their position. They were refused. That was before the “Proposal to quell…” was published.
JVP has 90,000 supporters nationally, thousands of them in the Bay Area. J. is shutting this constituency out, while repeatedly giving their detractors a pulpit to keep the “Rachel” fires burning on their own terms.
Instead of censorship and intimidation as a strategy for “quelling” the controversy, how about an open and inclusive forum as a strategy for healing our community?
Carol Sanders | Berkeley
Phony voice for peace
This letter is in response to Dana Bergen’s letter about the “Jewish Voice for Peace” (“JVP speaks up,” Nov. 13). In my experience, JVP is none of the three things she claimed they were.
“Jewish Voice for Peace” has provided a fig leaf of respectability for truly hateful anti-Israel and pro-terror organizations that deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state at various public events.
As to Jewish aspect, I note for example, that Paul LaRudee, the local head of the International Solidarity Movement that sent Rachel Corrie to be a human shield for terrorists, and brags about having met with Hamas, etc., is a proud member of JVP.
Other than the participation of some small number of unaffiliated, naive Jewish people, I fail to see what makes “Jewish Voice for Peace” particularly Jewish. It seems to me that the word “Jewish” is added solely for the purpose of making their endless Israel bashing that much more caustic.
Lets all just recognize the “Jewish Voice for Peace” for what it really is, a fake peace group that uses the hollow rhetoric of the “peace movement” to further an anti-Israel agenda.
Rfael Moshe | Hayward