letters

Think locally, don’t import from Israel

It was great to see how the kashrut movement is evolving to consider quality of life and sustainability (“Rabbi to address new kosher seal, ‘livable kashrut’ at PJCC,” Feb. 12).

In a similar vein, it would be nice if the JCRC could widen their view as well, or at least have j. be conscientious enough to provide both perspectives before blindly publishing JCRC’s push.

While at first glance it may give one cause to cheer that Costco is not boycotting goods from Israel, they ought to be reminded that it makes no sense from a globally sustainable perspective to import Israeli tangerines to their American stores when they could just as soon stock them with locally grown, organic tangerines, especially for us Californians who reside in the land of produce.

It’s not a case of pro- or anti-Israel, but a matter of further the quality of life (by reducing carbon emissions) for all beings on this planet.

Greg Lawrence   |   San Francisco

‘Disgraceful’ response to hate speech

With regard to Michael Oren’s talk at U.C. Irvine (“Protesters arrested at Irvine for heckling Israeli ambassador,” Feb. 12): What would be the reaction if the KKK openly and boldly organized at a U.C. campus, held rallies, received university funding and ranted about white supremacy?

Well, they do exist, except they are called the Muslim Student Association.

Our collective Jewish community response to what is happening is weak, appalling and disgraceful.  The usual pabulum from U.C. officials is nauseating.

If you think you can comfort yourself with the usual “Oh, they are small in number,” think again about the funny little man running around Munich in the 1920s. He too started with a very small band of fanatic followers.

At U.C., Oxford and elsewhere, screams of “slaughter the Jews” go unchallenged by the “proper authorities.” In fact, in England, it is becoming the officially allowed and sanctioned rhetoric!

Mike Levine   |   Moraga

Israel’s threat from the left

Contrary to the j. editorial of Feb. 12, there’s nothing new about one group of Israelis demonizing another. For many years, the left has waged a nonstop campaign of slander, defamation and incitement against those Jews who choose to base their lives on God, the Torah and the Covenant, and who insist on their right to build their homes throughout the whole land of Israel.

The same people who clapped and cheered when 9,000 loyal Jews were forcibly expelled from their homes in the Gaza Strip, with their communities destroyed and they themselves cast aside like rubbish, are now crying “persecution” because a little bit of criticism has come their way.

The main threat to Israel today comes not from the right, but from the left; not from those who embrace the core principles of Judaism, which have served us well for thousands of years, but from those who seek to undermine and destroy those principles. The ideology of the left, with its false and deceitful promise that we can have universal peace and abundance if only we abandon God and put our trust in men, will lead Israel to destruction, unless it’s firmly and resolutely opposed.

Martin Wasserman   |   Sunnyvale

Global warming truth needs to be told

J. published an article by Rabbis Steve Gutow and David Saperstein (“On Tu B’Shevat, we must commit to serious climate action,” Jan. 29), pushing the global warming hysteria agenda in celebration of Tu B’Shevat.

Ironically, you published this article just as the underpinnings of global warming hysteria have finally been exposed as a fraud. In the last several months, we have learned that global-warming alarmists actively suppressed opposing viewpoints, violated the law in Britain by refusing to release data, and pushed the idea that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, based on nothing but speculation by a student.

Now, alarmist Phil Jones has admitted that there has been no statistically significant warming since 1995, that the data allegedly supporting the “hockey stick” graph are missing, and that the climate may have been warmer in medieval times, despite the absence of industry or gas-guzzling SUVs at the time.

I suggest that an honest, unbiased observer of the issue would conclude that the science on this is at best mixed, and that it might be a really bad idea to cause significant damage to the economy of the Western world in the name of an uncertain proposition. When will you cover the other side of this issue?

Tom Freeman   |   Orinda