Impassioned Warning Or Confused Criticism? Former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg’s scathing critique of the present state of Zionism is as painful as it is true (“A Failed Israeli Society Collapses While Its Leaders Remain Silent,” August 29). Burg discloses what seems so obvious yet so unspoken in the Jewish media — that we are committing…
United on Immigration The Forward does a grave disservice to its readers in its story “Groups Rebuking Feds’ Move on Asylum” (August 22) in citing Stephen Steinlight of the Center for Immigration Studies. He has been used as a source for several stories relating to immigration — always as the opposing voice when covering this…
Stand Up for the Roma I read with great interest George Soros’s article on the situation of the Roma in Europe (“In Ever-Richer European Union, Roma Still Live in Abject Poverty,” August 15). While this issue is not widely known in the United States, it remains a difficult challenge for European society. Even the dark…
Film Festival Promoted By Top-Notch Publicists As one of the publicists for the Israel Film Festival in Chicago, this year and last, I would like to extend an invitation to Forward film critic Daphne Merkin to call us anytime (“Exporting Homegrown Culture: Can Israeli Cinema Go Global?”, August 8). I am sorry she had a…
Specter: Mideast, Court Stances Stand on Facts I was surprised to read in a July 18 article a Democratic activist quoted as saying that, “Specter says [to the Jewish community], ‘I’m Jewish. Vote for me’” (“Specter Squeezed from Left, Right”). I have never and would never take such a presumptuous position. With some familiarity with…
Accident Symptomatic Of Neglect in California I lived in the Santa Monica area for about five years, and it is a complete illusion that it is some kind of paradise (“Soul-Searching Follows Farmers’ Market Tragedy,” July 25). That is the lie that Santa Monicans like to tell themselves, but, as is the case in Los…
Call Presidential Bigotry By Name: Antisemitism The Anti-Defamation League’s national director, Abraham Foxman, has yet to grasp the central fact that should be guiding discussion about the antisemitism of American presidents: We are Jews in America (“Harry Truman, My Flawed Hero,” July 18.) Responding to the defamation of American Jews should be his first priority….
Israel Experience Vital Elan Ezrachi’s July 4 opinion article was a cogent reminder that for Diaspora Jewry, “it is more dangerous not to travel to Israel than it is to visit the Jewish state” (“Missing the Experience of a Lifetime”). He’s absolutely right. The growing indifference and alienation of the young can erode even Judaism….
Christian Jail Programs Instill Faith in Rebirth As a Jewish inmate in a federal prison, I have a somewhat unique vantage point from which to observe the success of faith-based programs (“Bush Plans to Introduce Christian Rehab Program In Federal Prison System,” June 27). “On the street,” to use the local vernacular, I was one…
Bring Ethiopians Home About three years ago, the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry arranged for Elimelech, an 11-year-old boy who had arrived in New York after escaping from Ethiopia, to live with us for a while (“Rabbis Urging Action on Ethiopian Jewry,” June 27). Before he came to our home, our parents were really…
Recognize Reform In Lutheran Church I was disturbed to read in an otherwise cogent opinion column by David Klinghoffer some dangerous and morally dubious generalizations about Lutheranism (“Keep Taboo on Conversion to Christianity, June 13”). It behooves us, especially in the shadow of Jewish historical experience, to at least fulfill Hillel’s dictum, “what is hateful…
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