May 8, 2009
Same Old Story, From Jersey to Pennsylvania
The story you told in your excellent article “On the Jersey Waterfront, Jews Return, but Jewish Community Still Struggles” is not in any way an isolated one (April 24).
I live in Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill County, within this state’s anthracite coal regions. Here we once had a number of thriving Jewish communities with the resources to support synagogues in our county seat of Pottsville as well as in the smaller coal towns of Mahanoy City, Shenandoah and Frackville.
In the adjacent County of Northumber-land, there were Jewish congregations in the towns of Mount Carmel and Shamokin.
They are all gone.
As in Jersey City, these synagogues were not only places of worship but also communal centers where both young and old shared a community, celebrated their culture and nourished their common identity. Your article quotes the explanation of Raylie Dunkel, a member of a Jersey City synagogue, as to why younger people show little interest in joining a congregation: “The truth is, people want a Jewish experience but not necessarily a religious experience.”
I would suggest to these younger people that they cannot long sustain a meaningful Jewish identity without this same religious experience.
Tom Mathews
Auburn, Pa.
Pick Up That Fork!
Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of the J Street lobbying group, expresses dismay over the democratic election of Benjamin Netanyahu (“On Israel, a Fork in the Road,” March 27). He writes that American Jews have reached “a fork in the road” when it comes to Israel. Ben-Ami, however, needs to confront several facts.
First, the role of pro-Israel lobbying groups is to garner support for the Jewish state. It is not their job to try to change or pressure the government of Israel. The Israeli government has been elected democratically and represents the people of Israel; it was not elected to represent the values of Americans.
Second, those of us who support Israel do so not because we believe in or agree with every decision made by the Israeli government. The pro-Israel community is, in fact, quite diverse. But we are united by an unshakable commitment to Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself against those who would destroy it. We also support Israel’s right to make decisions as it deems fit for its own citizens, decisions that may be different from what Ben-Ami or I might like.
If Ben-Ami is truly interested in seeing Israel become a society more in line with his progressive values, his response should not be to pressure from without but to pressure Israel from within. Simply put, Ben-Ami should move to Israel. When Ben-Ami is there, living with the existential threats with which Israelis live, he should vote whatever way suits him. But it seems disingenuous to pressure Israel to adopt policies regarding peace, the treatment of Arabs or anything else when one is not personally affected by those crucial decisions.
I would quote Yogi Berra, who once said, “If you reach a fork in the road, pick it up.”
Rabbi Neil Cooper
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El
Wynnewood, Pa.
Who Will Bear Witness?
I am one of the youngest child Holocaust survivors. I was fortunate to be saved by Raoul Wallenberg. With regard to Michael Berenbaum’s April 24 article “When the Last Survivor Is Gone,” may I suggest that a database be created of those survivors who are still with us, so that we can be called upon by schools, houses of worship and organizations to give further evidence against those who deny the Holocaust.
Though documentation of the Holocaust is a vital tool in the fight to never forget and to make sure it never happens again, words from witnesses who felt the fear, saw the atrocities and faced death will always be more powerful than words on paper.
I speak to students in yeshivas, public schools and colleges, as well as to senior citizens, many of whom still need to hear of our horrific experiences. I am daily, painfully, consciously aware of the time I have left to tell my story. With each day that passes, I feel a stronger responsibility to reach as many minds and hearts as I can in the time God sees fit to keep me here.
Kayla Kaufman
Forest Hills, N.Y.
Michael Berenbaum concludes his essay “When the Last Survivor is Gone” with the following words: “We were not witnesses; we have lived in the presence of witnesses. Future generations will not even be able to say that.” Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, however, has expanded the notion of witness: “I firmly believe that whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness.”
James A. Goldman
Vice President
Jewish Historical Society of New York
Brooklyn, N.Y.
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