Jewish Home is a special place
I commend j. and writer Stacey Palevsky for her splendid story on spiritual caregivers at the Jewish Home (“Spiritual caregivers: Volunteers provide a ray of light to people nearing the end,” June 19). I sincerely thank Linda Kalinowski for her loving care to my aunt, Janice Monasch Newman. Kol Haneshama is a very worthy endeavor and the part of the story regarding my aunt was very accurate.
I also want to publicly thank the Jewish Home for the outstanding care and concern given to my aunt, her husband and my uncle, Melville Newman, and my father, David Monasch, Jr. during their final years of life as residents. The Jewish Home is a real credit to our Jewish community!
David Monasch, III | Burlingame
Important lesson
There is an important lesson everyone can learn from San Francisco’s first eruv (“License to carry: Eruv marks a San Francisco first,” June 19).
Rabbi Joshua Stulowitz was able to accomplish this feat because he was able to get along and cooperate with others for the public good. But if someone does his own thing, does not get along with others, is mad at the world, feels he is “the man” while others are mere boys, then the public suffers a great deal. The eruv shows what cooperation and not having a big ego can do. Congratulations to the rabbi for a job well done.
Neal Wohlmuth | San Francisco
The fight for rights must continue
Dan Pine was absolutely right (“Sick of hearing about Prop. 8? You shouldn’t be,” June 12). I can’t understand and I don’t believe that we took away people’s rights. It hurts.
What’s the difference between being LGBT and being straight? Nothing. We are all people from one God. I agree with Dan when he said that to those who voted for Proposition 8, to those who believe same-sex marriage will destroy civilization, to those who think the way to defend marriage is to deny it to millions. In other words, we took away people’s rights and happiness.
I’m going to march with the Jewish Community Federation LGBT alliance on Sunday, June 28. We will gather together at Beale and Mission streets at 9 am. The march will start at 10:30 a.m. “near the Grill Bar at Beale Street.” Those who show up will get a free breakfast and kippah. Please, come and join us. Show your respect and support for these people.
Paul Shkuratov | San Francisco
All is not ‘thriving’ in Poland
I enjoyed reading Tad Taube’s opinion piece (“It might seem unbelievable, but Jewish life is thriving in Poland,” June 19). But it was one-sided. Poland is not an anti-Semitic country. The article emphasized this.
However, it did not reveal that Poland treats the Holocaust interest Jews have in Poland as a business. I cannot even get my family’s possessions from Auschwitz that were allegedly identified. A French man lost his lawsuit to get his father’s own suitcase back from the camp. It remains on display in France.
Jews are not welcome to return to many of the rural villages, towns and small cities in Poland that they helped build and were driven out of from 1945-46. There were many lynchings, beatings and chasing away of Jews from these places. They found refuge in the larger cities like Krakow, Lodz, Warsaw, etc.
In Konskie, the locals buried many Jewish gravestones under a road in the 1970s and refuse to exhume them or restore the cemetery. Local government insists on keeping structures built of exclusively Jewish gravestones. Focusing only on the larger cities and ignoring the rural areas of Poland is re-writing history.
Mordechai Pelta | San Francisco
Giving suicide its due compassion
Thank you to Rabbi David Booth for his words of comfort after an apparent suicide and for speaking openly about suicide and fully comforting the mourners (“Some words of advice, after an apparent suicide,” June 12).
Forty years ago I experienced the legacy of shame that surrounded the suicide of my sister. It wasn’t until I studied suicide in the Jewish tradition as an adult that I learned that Jewish law historically had restricted the mourning rites in the case of a suicide. In the past few hundred years, however, Jewish law and practice has changed. We now consider someone who dies by suicide, in most cases, to be mentally ill at the moment of death and therefore without the intent to be held responsible for his or her act. Mourners of a suicide now have access to the full Jewish mourning rites and are treated with compassion.
However, in many cases shame is inadvertently passed on through the attitudes that surround mental illness. The more we speak openly about mental illness, the more people will receive the help they need and more lives will be saved. Those in crisis can use the excellent services of Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They also have resources for family members.
May their memories be a blessing.
Rabbi Chaya Gusfield | Danville
Beth Chaim Congregation
Fully consecrated
In reading the article you published about the consecration of the Gan Shalom Cemetery (“Consecration for Contra Costa cemetery,” June 12), I was pleased to see that this activity was being publicized.
I wanted to clarify one thing, having been one of the rabbis involved in the consecration. The article stated that we only consecrated the Orthodox section of the cemetery along with the future addition to that section. In fact, we consecrated the entire section of the cemetery that has been prepared to this point: Orthodox, Conservative and Reform.
I think that it is important for all Jews to know that, whoever they are and whomever they affiliate with, wherever they are buried in this cemetery, it has been designated as a Jewish cemetery. I again thank you for your fine reporting and look forward to continued excellence from j.
Rabbi Michael Davies | Oakland
More of same from Daily Planet
Amanda Pazornik’s column (“The Daily Planet’s bitter battle continues, three months later,” June 19) bravely exposes the liberties the Berkeley Daily Planet frequently takes with the truth, as it did when misquoting her.
Not only did the paper’s recent attacks on pro-Israel activists falsely identify me as a PR professional (I’m actually a publisher) and an ultra-right Zionist conservative (I’m an Obama Democrat who, like most Americans, stands by Israel), but the editors also refused to print my letter of clarification or to correct the errors — this despite the paper’s alleged policy of “printing every signed letter from locals.”
The Planet also falsely accuses its critics of practicing censorship and limiting debate. Nothing could be further from the truth: We believe in free speech and the right of the Planet’s publishers to print anti-Semitic hate speech. Long live the First Amendment.
But we also don’t think the Jewish community or the paper’s advertisers should support that kind of editorial with readership or dollars. We can only hope that Amanda’s coverage mobilizes even more support for our struggle in the East Bay.
Jim Sinkinson | Oakland
Be proud of Israel
We must stand together!
I am a Holocaust survivor. I was forced to wear a yellow star and to be isolated in a crowded ghetto. I was spat upon and victimized. I escaped with my life.
Now, 65 years later, I see the same hatred unleashed to Jewish people everywhere. In Budapest they desecrated the memorial to the victims who were shot into the Danube in 1944. How far can racism go?
In the United States, Jews are fighting each other. Pro-Palestinians are ready to take on the pro-Israelis. We are all Jews. We should stand united. We should be proud of the State of Israel, which fights for its right to survive. It is our homeland and Israel is a sovereign nation that should be allowed to make its policy decisions. It is not up to the U.S. left wing to dictate the course of action Israel takes.
We are American Jews and look at the bigger picture. If we don’t stand together we will be annihilated.
Agnes Rothblatt | San Francisco
Misguided notions about Orthodoxy
“Prayer and the non-believer: Rabbi recounts tale from Orthodoxy to Reconstructionism” (June 19) contained several misconceptions about Orthodox Judaism. We do not believe that “you’ll burn in hell” for your sins. Eternal damnation is foreign to Judaism. We do, however, believe that “you’re responsible for all of your sins.”
What, exactly, is the alternative to such a proposition? Personal responsibility for one’s actions isn’t religious, it’s just moral. Furthermore, the question “Why pray if it’s not to ask for something?” only makes sense if one is questioning belief “in the God you were taught about in Hebrew school.”
It’s just sad how many Jews have no religious education beyond their childhood, leaving them with the same simple understandings for the rest of their lives.
The only way to “be true to your spirit, and Jewish and intellectual curiosity” is by continuing one’s Jewish education beyond childhood. Religion is not a safe haven for those who wish to stop thinking. You wouldn’t be satisfied with a middle-school understanding of math, so why should you be satisfied with a middle-school understanding of religion?
The incredible nuance and sensitivity that can be found in Orthodox Judaism requires an adult mind to appreciate the complexity of the human soul.
Joshua Skootsky | San Francisco
Don’t forget Gilad Shalit
Now is an important anniversary that we must not forget. Hamas has held Gilad Shalit for three years after kidnapping him in an unprovoked cross-border attack.
The kidnapping occurred not long after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza when thousands of Israeli civilians gave up their homes as Israel worked for peace and the start of a Palestinian homeland. Instead of using this land to build communities of a future state, it was turned into launching pads for rockets fired against civilians.
Throughout Shalit’s captivity, Hamas has offered little evidence that he was alive. In violation of the Geneva Convention, the terrorist group has denied the Red Cross access, and Shalit and his family have been publicly mocked and taunted.
When the Palestinians abandon their desire to destroy their neighbor, and embrace a vision of humanity and co-existence, they will find an Israeli partner that will go very far to reach a peaceful resolution. Freedom for Gilad Shalit and an end to the nightmare that his kidnapping and detainment have caused him and his family would be a big step in that direction. The Western world must insist on it for peace to have a chance in the region.
Jan Ihmels | San Francisco