Blaming Antisemitism’s Victims Is Irresponsible Opinion writer Ralph Seliger begins his impressions of the recent conference on contemporary antisemitism at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research by complaining that despite the many distinguished speakers, “little light [was] ultimately shed, and no real heat generated” (“Reconsidering Antisemitism,” May 23). As one of the participants in that…
Organizations Stand Up To President’s Proposals The Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring joins the Jewish Labor Committee in opposing the “Family Time Flexibility Act” before Congress and in calling on the Orthodox Union to reconsider its support for the legislation (“Orthodox Union Blasted by Labor Group,” May 16). This bill is another example of the Bush administration’s…
Protecting Death Camps Helps Shoah Education I am pleased that the Forward is giving coverage to the continuing international efforts to protect and preserve important Jewish cultural, religious and Holocaust-related sites in Europe, including the most infamous death camps and killing fields (“‘A Place… Close to Our Heart’: Millions Raised To Fix Up Camps,” May…
Heschel’s Views on Dialogue Distorted In his explication of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s views regarding Jewish-Christian dialogue, opinion writer Meir Soloveichik misrepresents the views of my father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the major Jewish figures in the ecumenical movement (“How Soloveitchik Saw Interreligious Dialogue,” April 25). Meir Soloveichik claims that my father, in…
Understanding of Poles Includes Remembering I was surprised to read opinion writer Wladyslaw Bartoszewski calling for a new understanding between Jews and Poles (“On Warsaw Ghetto Anniversary, A Pole Calls for Understanding,” April 18). My mother told me she hid in a neighbor’s cellar with her family during the pogroms in Poland. She was a…
Neo-Chasidism Aids Continuity Efforts I read with interest Allan Nadler’s stinging impressions and astute observations of a recent Jewish Renewal conference (“Can New Agers Channel the Old Rebbes’ Spirit?,” April 18). I would like to remind him that Jewish illiteracy is a far-reaching communal problem and is hardly limited to Jewish Renewal. The causes of…
Mideast Assyrians Are Aramaic’s Only Hope Your article about the pro-American troop rally in Chicago (“Iraq War Pushes Little-Known Assyrians to Fore,” April 4) showed once again that as the Jewish community becomes more educated to the situation of medieval and contemporary Assyrians, it will be less subject to the biases and myths that many…
Calling War a ‘Failure’ Is Premature Speculation Yes, war is hell (“Why They Call It Hell,” March 28). What is new about that? And what military expert could possibly come to the ridiculous conclusions, a week into the war, that “our troops were not prepared for this” and “the trouble is that this war has…
Technion Taps Women’s Leadership Potential There are at least six and very likely several more than the five organizations with women at the helm mentioned by opinion writer Shifra Bronznick in her analysis of women’s advancement in American Jewish organizations (“Unleashing Women’s Leadership Potential,” March 21). The American Technion Society, the leading American organization raising…
Bush, Not Doves, Has Betrayed ‘Our Side’ I disagree with the notion that there are, when push comes to shove, only two sides to the current conflict between the United States and Iraq, and that “George Bush is leading our side” (“Our Side,” March 21). I deplore the policies of Saddam Hussein. However, I do…
I am unable to fathom the journalistic justification for the strange way in which the Forward reported the story of my decision to ask the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly to review its position paper on homosexuality (“Foe of Gay Ban Won’t Head Conservative Panel,” March 7). This…
