Martin Buber tells the story of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev. Before Passover, the great rabbi was inspecting the local matzo factory to make sure it was kosher. Afterward, he said, ”This factory is not kosher.” When the shocked factory owner said, “We have followed all of the laws of kashrut,” the rabbi explained: “The…
A column from March 21, “Only One Way To Change Hillel: Leave,” contains some gross inaccuracies that need to be corrected. It suggests that, in 2009, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco issued a “gag rule” regarding Israel-Palestine, and that we did so because “two major California-based foundations said that if one dime of…
In its editorial, compellingly titled “Protect the Children,” the Forward implores Mayor Bill DeBlasio to not “go wobbly,” urging him to “curtail” Metzitzah B’Peh (often referred to as simply MBP), a part of many ritual circumcisions, which has been asserted to cause Herpes Simplex (HSV1) infections. The editorial is misguided in its medical and policy…
In two recent columns, on November 16 and December 21, J.J. Goldberg has written of the Senate coalition that consisted of Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans from the prairie and mountain states that blocked efforts to admit Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s. He ignores, however, the actual men who were responsible for these…
In his recent piece “Who Benefits From Service Trips?” (November 16), Brent Spodek highlights an issue that has long troubled many of us in the Jewish volunteer world: Sometimes service-learning trips for Jews in their 20s and 30s focus more on cultivating “effective Jewish citizens” than on working with communities that could benefit from volunteer…
The December 21 front-page story on the American Jewish Committee inexplicably repeated an egregious error that the Forward published one year ago. When first reporting that contributions to the AJC totaled only $10 million in 2009, AJC immediately brought that fallacy to the attention of Forward editors in emails and phone conversations. The correct figure…
We were surprised and disappointed by the headline and thrust of your article (“Israelis Stunned By Lack of Help for Sandy Victims,” November 23). We came here, as a group of Israeli army veterans, to build bridges between ourselves as Israelis and the people who were so severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy in Far Rockaway,…
As a social work advocate, I was delighted to read Joel Berg’s article, “The Ethics of Street Giving” (November 16). Whether or not to give money to those who beg on the street is a dilemma many people confront frequently. The piece will help them make more informed decisions. A more important benefit of the…
As a Jewish climate activist, I was pleased to see the tight causal linkages drawn by the Forward between climate change and Hurricane Sandy in the November 9 editorial “Sandy’s Lessons.” The Forward, unlike many media outlets, clearly and responsibly informed its readers about the causes of Hurricane Sandy and illustrated how Sandy was a…
You omitted key information about the role of NEXT: A Division of Birthright Israel Foundation as an igniter of systemic change in the field of Jewish young adult engagement (“Birthright Reshuffles Follow-up Effort,” November 9). Furthermore, what you present as a reduction in funding from Birthright Israel Foundation was a result of many donors giving…
Jane Eisner’s comments on Monica Lewinsky (“Mulling Over Monica,” October 5) and her new book made me lose my breakfast. Coming off of the Yom Kippur fast, I did not need the loss of its nutritional value. In the contest between whose morality was lower, Clinton’s or Lewinsky’s, I would expect more from a married…
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