Your Focus on Las Vegas Victim’s Beauty Is Offensive

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
To the Forward,
Of course I have every sympathy for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. But when I read the line about what a young man told his Jewish mother when he met his wife for the first time (“She’s so beautiful, I can’t believe she’s Jewish!”), I couldn’t believe I was reading a Jewish publication. The article would have been fine without that statement about Mr. Grumet’s views of beauty.
Would the Forward or Mr. Feldman have included a statement if a Jewish woman had said “He’s so handsome, I can’t believe he’s Jewish!”? And would that viewpoint have bothered anyone on staff who might have hesitated before publishing it in an otherwise sympathetic article?
Janine Baer El Cerrito, California
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
