I just wanted to take a moment to share my appreciation for your June 8 article on the JCC program for people with Aspergers, “From Awkward to In Love.” I also wanted to share a bit about our program as I do not agree with a statement in the article asserting that Adaptations is the…
The September 7 story on the Jewish Federations’ Global Planning Table, (“Internal Gridlock Stalls Federation Giving Reform”), features a provocative headline but misses the real story of this ambitious initiative. The Global Planning Table is designed to re-envision the way Jewish Federations raise and allocate funds for global Jewish needs. This complex process requires collaboration…
I am saddened to see such an esteemed voice of Jewish culture and values promoting pornography and extolling the virtues of pole dancing for observant Jewish women! I would have considered either of these online articles an aberration, but two in the same week constitutes a trend. The blog post “My First (Jewish) Porno” (August…
Darren Kleinberg and Jerry Hirsch are right on the money about start-up/establishment collaborations (“Collaboration Holds the Key,” August 24). Today, the Joint Distribution Committee and Moishe House are doing this on a global scale. Firstly, we started from our shared vision for Jewish young adults around the world. Then a healthy dose of mutual respect…
I have a lot of respect for investigative journalism, making the world a better place, and commitment to the vitality of the Jewish people. That’s only part of the reason I have enormous admiration for the Forward, its editors, its journalists, and Rabbi Steven Wernick. (Full disclosure: I’m Jewish, a contributing editor to the Forward,…
Your August 3 article, “Circle of Pro-Israel Writers Rises,” mentions two former editors at Foreign Affairs, David Feith and Jordan Hirsch. What the article didn’t say was that each got his position, in subsequent years, through an extraordinarily competitive annual search for our junior editorial slot, beating out hundreds of other super-qualified candidates — and…
Your June 29 editorial “The Undeserving Poor?” argued that poverty in the Orthodox community is a “choice.” The premise is that Hasidic Jews refuse to go to work and earn an honest living. I beg to differ. I oversee a school where several hundred men and women are trained annually as junior accountants and about…
In the editorial of June 29, “The Undeserving Poor?” the source of Orthodox poverty seems primarily attributed to the “choice” of having large families. But perhaps a more accurate description should be that they are “programmed” for communal survival. Worried about the continued existence of their culturally rich community, Haredis fear and instinctually know what…
I’m surprised that the Forward, a Jewish newspaper, could have devoted a whole page to Alaska in its August 10 edition without once mentioning the great Ernest Gruening, who turned the territory into a state as one of the last territorial governors (1939-1953) and its first United States senator (1959-1969). The Vietnam War has faded…
Contrary to Larry Lerner’s remarks, expressed in his June 29 op-ed, “Time for a New Jackson-Vanik,” the Magnitsky Act now under consideration is not the “modern-day version of Jackson-Vanik.” Organized American Jewry lobbied for Jackson-Vanik, and Congress adopted it in 1974 with full support and after consultation with Soviet Jews — the courageous refuseniks who…
In his June 15 op-ed, “The Problem With ‘Free,’” David Bryfman criticizes free Jewish programs, for “devaluing Jewish experiences.” “Why would people want to pay for a Jewish experience,” he asks, if they know “they can get Jewish products for free?” Although he doesn’t mention it by name, there’s no doubt he’s including PJ Library…
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