Letters

Nerd vs. Activist

I was disappointed with the superficial column Marlene Adler Marks wrote in the Feb. 25 issue. I know and respect Marks and would have expected a more accurate and fair evaluation of the candidates. Because of the size of our community there, the most important race in the state to the Jewish community is the 42nd Assembly District.

I have had the pleasure of working side-by-side with Councilman Paul Koretz, one of the Jewish community's most effective legislators for almost two years. If Marlene wants to label someone a "nerd" who has dedicated his life to improving our community, who drafted the first ban on "Saturday Night Specials," fought the NRA and won, and beat big tobacco, then my hope is to one day be labeled a nerd as well.

Scott J. Svonkin,

Chair ,L.A. County Health Care Task Force, Former Chair, JCRC Valley Alliance

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I saw Marlene Adler Marks' column about State Assembly candidate Paul Koretz that referred to him as a "nerd." This same term has been applied to me often, without rebuttal.

For 25 years I have worked with Koretz for gun control, a woman's right to choose, improved education and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

During those 25 years no one has ever confused either of us with Paul Newman. But no one ever doubted Koretz's passionate, principled dedication to social progress and Jewish values

Marlene can refer to Paul Koretz as a nerd. I know he's a mensch. No wonder Zev and I support him so strongly.

Congressman Brad Sherman

Woodland Hills

Matrilineal Descent

I am appalled and disheartened to have read the article "Ramah's Policy in Black and White" (Feb. 25). How do you determine "like-minded Jewish kids"? Is it by their accent, color of hair or shape of nose?

For heaven's sake, I would expect my grandchildren to mingle with all kinds of Jewish kids so that they can be made aware and respectful of all attitudes. (Both of our children were Ramahniks, and my father was on the committee that purchased the land for Ramah.)

What an opportunity for children to learn how great it is to be Jewish: regardless of whether or not their parents are halachic Jews. I am disappointed that Ramah has taken this position.

Miriam Barnett Freedman

Sherman Oaks

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Sadly, the Camp Ramah system is acquiescing to the modern day absurdity of matrilineal descent by accepting only a certain type of Jewish child. Out of its concern for Jewish unity and a response to some overzealous parents, this shining light of the Conservative movement has been dimmed by its choice to focus on the question "Who is a Jew?" rather than "What is a Jew?" or "How should a Jewish life be lived?"

What a poor lesson to be teaching campers that Jewish lineage and inheritance are the ingredients that determine whether a person possesses a Jewish ne'shama ( soul ). Shame on my alma mater if there is even one child barred from attending camp because he or she does not have the "proper" Jewish papers!

Elliot Semmelman

Los Angeles

Secular Jews

While the article on OLAM (Feb. 11) is fresh and interesting, our organizations found it quite glaring that there is no mention of secular Jews in the OLAM constellation. We would anticipate that OLAM seeks to celebrate the unity of all Jews -- which clearly should include those who are secular and cultural Jews. As is readily observed, the vast majority of Jewish people in Los Angeles (as well as nationally) are non-affiliated Jews whose sentiment regarding religion is lukewarm at best. These Jews regard themselves as Jewish, but often feel no strong religious impulses. While this situation may be upsetting to some, it is welcomed by others.

For many decades, our organizations have articulated the sentiments -- and need for community -- of secular and unaffiliated Jews. The omission of secular Jews from OLAM's "Ashkefardic, ultrarefoconservadox" slogan is striking. A perusal of OLAM's online magazine offers some articles that flirt with the "loss of meaning and identity" felt by many American Jews (both young and old). However, not one of these articles entertains the idea that dealing with this loss may resonate with secular Judaism.

Yes, there are many people who feel it is possible to be "Jewish" without being "religious." Our organizations are living proof of that. We are ready to support OLAM's desire for unity -- if that unity includes the secular Jew.

The Sholem Community

The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring

The Society for Humanistic Judaism

Feel the Sunshine

In reading Jordan Elgrably's nattering neutrinos of negativity against OLAM (Letters, Feb. 27), I was reminded why we started OLAM in the first place: to add, among other things, a little surprise sunshine to the Jewish conversation. With OLAM magazine, 25,000 unifying words of Torah were distributed to a million readers worldwide. After only a few months, over 500,000 hits on our Web site and thousands of uplifting e-mails suggest we're having an impact at the grass-roots level. When Elgrably is ready to lower his impeccable standards and come down to the grass roots, maybe he'll feel the sunshine, too.

David Suissa

Editor and Publisher OLAM Magazine

The System Is Like Pharaoh

Several years ago I worked with a group of Black and Latina mothers who had come together to fight discrimination and abuse in the criminal justice system in Los Angeles. The founding members of the group all had a son or husband, brother or friend caught up in the system.

More than once I heard the Exodus narrative invoked: "The system is like Pharaoh, trying to kill our sons."

I write about this now because with the growing revelations of criminal misconduct within the Los Angeles Police Department, there's more chance that Jewish Journal readers will not dismiss these stories as fabrications. I write about this now because Proposition 21, the draconian "Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Initiative," looms on the March 7 ballot. I write because many Jews feel that all this is the realm of the other and has nothing to do with us.

If the youths being beaten, incarcerated and killed were Jewish, what would we think?

The deafening silence in the pages of The Jewish Journal on this crisis speaks more directly to the intense segregation of Los Angeles that Journal Editor Gene Lichtenstein recently wrote of than personal stories of integrated seder tables (welcome as such stories may be) printed in the Letters column in response.

Prop. 21 would greatly augment the ramifications of current police power to label black and brown youth as gang members.

I attended a spirited demonstration of several hundred Latino, Black, and Anglo youth against Prop. 21. Each youth I talked with was energetic, intelligent, and forthright in the demand that society put more resources into education and development for youth, rather than the vast sums that Prop. 21 would entail for more incarceration.

No one can say that we don't know that more money for prisons means less for health care and housing and schools. And can we pretend any longer that police shootings have nothing to do with race, that only the guilty are sent to prison, that Black and Latino youth are in trouble and not our youth because we are the righteous ones?

Michelle Gubbay

Los Angeles

Breaking Jewish Silence

The still-burgeoning Los Angeles Police Department scandal reaches into every aspect of our law enforcement and criminal justice system. The Los Angeles Jewish community's deafening silence in the face of this political and civic outrage is as deplorable as the failure of our city's leaders to promptly, strenuously and categorically denounce the illegal and despicable behavior that appears to have infected far more than the precincts of the LAPD's Rampart Division.

The Progressive Jewish Alliance joins those who are calling for an independent, U.S. Justice Department investigation of the complex and deeply entrenched patterns and practices of police abuse. The investigation must include a thorough exploration of the extent to which any LAPD officers have engaged in unjustified shootings, beatings, drug dealing, false arrests, witness intimidation, perjury and the planting of evidence. Such an investigation will yield much more than the dismissal of the tainted cases of 99 defendants called for by Police Chief Bernard C. Parks.

Such a sweeping probe cannot and must not be entrusted to those local authorities who have already abused the power we vested in them. We must resolve collectively to allow this investigation to reach as far, wide and high as warranted. The LAPD's own motto "to protect and to serve" demands nothing less.

Joan Patsy Ostroy, President

Douglas E. Mirell, President-Elect

Progressive Jewish Alliance

Los Angeles

THE JEWISH JOURNAL welcomes letters from all readers. Letters should be no more than 250 words and we reserve the right to edit for space. All letters must include a signature, valid address and phone number. Pseudonyms and initials will not be used, but names will be withheld on request. Unsolicited manuscripts and other materials should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope in order to be returned.

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