‘Wise’ move for CJM?
As a Bay Area rabbi and as an enthusiastic supporter of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, I read with a combination of acceptance and dismay the decision of the new CJM restaurant to not adhere to the laws of kashrut (“Wise Sons to open café at S.F.’s Jewish museum,” May 17).
Where better than the CJM could a creative response to traditional Jews and restaurateurs emerge?
Each Passover, the wise child asks, “What are the laws and the inheritance of our tradition?” Perhaps the deli’s wise sons and the museum’s culture rebbes will choose to affirm tradition’s place as part of “the diversity of the Jewish experience relevant for a 21st-century audience,” as the CJM’s mission statement commits.
Rabbi Menachem Creditor | Berkeley
Congregation Netivot Shalom
Get hate off our buses
The latest advertisements on Muni falsely alleging that Israel engages in apartheid are part of an ongoing series of hateful slogans that have been transforming San Francisco’s public transit system into an unsafe, unwelcoming environment for passengers (“New ad on Muni buses in S.F. has disturbing imagery, calls Israel an apartheid state,” May 17).
The Jewish Community Relations Council is grateful to Supervisor Scott Wiener for his leadership and work with six of his colleagues on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to strongly condemn this defamatory advertisement. Together, they sent a letter to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency urging that the proceeds be donated to the Human Rights Commission, as was done in the case of anti-Islam ads that appeared last year, which we also opposed. As of May 22, the SFMTA had publicly refused to do so.
There is no litmus test for hate speech. The anti-Islam ads were hateful, and these ads are hateful as well.
Now is the time to come together to keep our public transit system safe for everyone, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or political beliefs. JCRC encourages our community to contact Ed Reiskin, executive director of SFMTA at [email protected] or (415) 701-4500. Let him know that these ads alienate our community and tear at the social fabric of our city.
Abby Porth | San Francisco
Associate Executive Director, JCRC
Bring back Tygerpen
I have been a subscriber to j., and before that to the Jewish Bulletin, for about four decades, and I have never felt the need to write in.
However, after several weeks of looking for Trudi Gardner’s Tygerpen column, I found out that she is no longer writing for you.
Since the inception of her humorous, tongue-in-cheek column, I have been more committed to reading j. — going from back to front each week that she is published. Her humor, irreverence, the ability to make fun of our institutions and overall good writing quality was such an asset to your publication.
I really regret your decision to discontinue her writing and would appreciate a thorough explanation of your decision.
Sandy Anderson | Orinda