Letters


Returning to the Oral Tradition

Harvey Hames’ analysis of the role of Halacha in the State of Israel offers an important perspective on this complex historic-religious conundrum (When Democracy and Halacha Collide, February 17). There is, however, another critique of the rabbinic tradition that is overlooked in Hames’ op-ed. Halacha is, in effect, the offspring of an oral tradition, the Torah shebe’al pe. The designation of a so-called “Oral Torah” is not simply a technical matter regarding the method of transmission — oral vs. written. It is a profound appreciation of the organic nature of Torah, that Torah is an ongoing revelation deeply embedded within the life of the human community.Read More

Just Ignore Them

Since my granddaughter attends the University of California, Santa Cruz, I have been following and supporting the efforts of Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, including her recent Forward op-ed on February 17 (“Why I Filed Title VI Complaint”).Read More

Good Books

On behalf of PJ Library, a program dedicated to giving the gift of quality Jewish children’s literature to families across North America and doing so at a rate of 95,000 books each month, I would like to respond to Deborah Kolben’s Jan. 31 column. “Where Have All the Good Jewish Books for Kids Gone?”Read More

Giving Back

For nearly 40 years, the Jewish Communal Fund has been helping our donors achieve their philanthropic goals simply and efficiently.Read More

Successes, Too

As the Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Northampton, Mass., I was certainly proud of the Lander Grinspoon Academy, our local K-6 day school, cited in a recent article as an exception to the trend of other Schechter-affiliated schools shrinking or closing (“What Does Schechter Decline Mean?” January 27).Read More

A Clear Problem

It’s disgraceful that Jewish college presidents are ambivalent about publicly condemning and combating campus anti-Semitism, or even acknowledging that this problem exists (“College Leaders Balance Israel and Speech,” January 20).Read More

Changing Poland

As a child of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland and the Ukraine, as well as an American Fulbright who lived in Poland for a year, I am encouraged by the Palikot movement and the radical changes evidenced in Polish politics, described in the December 9 article, “Not Your Grandma’s Poland Anymore.”Read More

Biology Shouldn’t Matter

A plea for gay rights should not be grounded in the genetic origins of homosexuality.Read More

Chrismukkah Redux

By providing Jordana Horn space to defend her controversial Kveller article about why Jews shouldn’t celebrate Christmas (“I Am the Grinch Who Stole Chrismukkah,” December 30), you’ve enabled her to repeat its offenses.Read More

Querying Kushner

In the Forward’s December 9 profile of Tony Kushner, he presents an alternative reality in expounding upon the “disgusting” circumstance of persons using “money to leverage power over non-profit institutions.”Read More


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