In Lenore Skenazy’s November 26 column, “Why I Go Caroling,” she marvels that the “caroling oeuvre… is so old,” and asks, “When else do people spontaneously sing songs ripped from the Middle Ages?” I’d encourage her to learn some of the many beautiful Shabbat table songs, known as zemirot or piyyutim. While the lyrics are…
I loved your dreidel article (“‘Oh Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel,’” November 26). However, you did not mention my favorite dreidel. For some Jews, the Braille Dreidel or “Braidel” is the only Hanukkah joy they can actually “see.” Jews who are blind can easily play dreidel because the letters are printed in Braille! Rabbi Lynne Landsberg Senior…
In your November 19 editorial “Whose Jerusalem?” you accurately point out that, from 1948 to 1967, much of East Jerusalem was part of the “West Bank.” However, the editorial draws the wrong conclusion from this important piece of history. In 1947, U.N. Resolution 181 created not only a Jewish state out of the British Mandate,…
Abraham Foxman is one of the best known and one of the most formidable of Jewish communal leaders (“As Some Retire From ADL, Will Abe Be Next?” November 5). A Holocaust survivor, Abe manifests a visceral understanding of the requirements of Jewish leadership. He never wavers in his commitment to the welfare of the Jewish…
It’s troubling that a professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Davis, would disparage the federal government’s new policy affording Jewish students the same civil rights protections that have been guaranteed to other minority groups for close to 50 years (“Federal Civil Rights Policy Expanded To Protect Jewish College Students,” November 12). David…
A Bribe for Which Both Parties Will Pay Your December 3 editorial, “A Dangerous Link,” is right on target. The Obama administration’s offer of military assistance to Israel in return for an Israeli commitment for a three-month settlement construction freeze is “not beneficial to either nation.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears bent on extracting…
Your Nov. 18 article, “Terror Expert Emerson Feels His Own Heat Over Finances,” continues to repeat the mistakes made last month by the Tennessean concerning the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation’s structure and finances. It perpetuates the fiction that Steve Emerson is somehow collecting more than $3 million for his private purposes and doing nothing…
Abandoning the Ezra Vision I was pleased to read your article about Project Ezra and Misha Avramoff, my friend and colleague at Project Ezra for almost 30 years (Old-School Jewish Activist Faces the Future as Project Ezra Prepares for Merger, November 12 issue). The article, however, missed the central part of the story. It did…
A Long Road Toward ‘Leading in a Jewish Way’ How sad that the Forward did not include a category for Jewish education in your list of leaders (“The Forward 50,” November 5 issue). So it goes in North America these days, as we continue to undervalue the very component of Jewish life that is essential…
Violence is an Obstacle to Modeling Jewish Behavior In Reza Aslan’s interesting op-ed piece, “Muslims: Make Like the Jews,” in the Nov. 5 issue, he correctly argues that education about Islam, alone — that is, acquiring facts about the religion — is insufficient to alter the negative perception most Americans appear to have about Muslims….
Opposed to Happiness? It is one thing to oppose gay marriage, but it is quite another to oppose the happiness of gay people. Your article “N.J. Jewish Paper in Knots over Gay Nuptials,” in the October 15 issue, identified an incredibly disconcerting trend among those against marriage equality. Not only do some oppose gay marriage,…
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