Letters to the Editor

Christian support for Israel strong

In July, my husband and I attended the Christians United for Israel Washington Summit. As supporters of interfaith Israel advocacy, we have worked with students from the University of Arizona CUFI on Campus club for two years. CUFI is a non-conversionary, non-proselytizing national organization that seeks to be the… Read more »

Israeli, Palestinian narratives are both right

It has been interesting to read the spate of letters in the last issue of the Arizona Jewish Post, mostly responding to letters in the previous issue disagreeing with Guy Gelbart’s opinions on the Steadfast Hope series. I always prefer for there to be open airing of issues, and… Read more »

Israel needs West Bank for security

As a recent high school graduate who will be traveling to Israel for a nine-month program of study, I feel the need to respond to the letter written by Mr. Julius Gordon, “West Bank, Warsaw ghetto alike.” Ever since 1967 and Israel’s acquisition of the West Bank, there has… Read more »

Palestinians still seek Israel’s end

Regarding the letters to the editor of July 1 about Israel’s disregard for human rights, I found them to be sad, naíve, totally untrue and with a complete lack of history about the Holy Land. Before the legal partition of 1948, the small Jewish population was subject to pogroms,… Read more »

Israelis value civil liberties for all

My wife and I are considering relocating from Northern New Jersey to the Tucson area. To learn more about Jewish life in Arizona, we subscribed recently to the Arizona Jewish Post. Letters from members of the Arizona Jewish community obviously are of great interest to us since they reflect… Read more »

‘Steadfast Hope’ series was promoted as dialogue

Guy Gelbart, community shaliach, was absolutely right in his June 17 column, “Billed as dialogue on Israeli-Palestinian peace, local series is pure ‘hate pill.’” The letter writers who responded to his column — and there’s no room to refute all their unfounded accusations — disingenuously suggested that the Steadfast… Read more »

Ghetto comparison distorts history

A July 1 letter to the AJP titled “West Bank, Warsaw ghetto alike,” inverts the Holocaust by claiming that Israel behaves like Nazi Germany. The letter was written with the aim of clarifying the “obfuscation,” “distraction” and “fabrication” the author found in the “Shaliach’s View” column of June 17,… Read more »

Letters attack with lies about Israel

I too attended the Steadfast Hope series referred to in the letters to the editor of July 1 and in Guy Gelbart’s “Shaliach’s View” column of June 17. The organizers’ synchronized letter attacks on Israel’s representative, Mr. Gelbart, who responded to the content of the presentations and the manner… Read more »

Jewish History Museum nonprofit status A-OK

We have received a few calls and e-mails inquiring as to the nonprofit status of the Jewish History Museum based on an article in the Arizona Daily Star on Sunday, June 19, 2011. The article directed the reader to a list of Arizona nonprofits that were being declassified by… Read more »

Gelbart wrong on ‘hate pill’ and limiting opinions

I was a participant in the Steadfast Hope series that Guy Gelbart refers to in his “Shaliach’s View” column in the June 17 issue of the Arizona Jewish Post. I really cannot disagree with him more on his characterization of the series as a “hate pill.” The series was… Read more »

Speakers never called Israel evil

Thank you to Guy Gelbart for informing the wider Jewish community about our series: Steadfast Hope, the Palestinian Quest for Just Peace. For people interested in the topic of Israel/Palestine, we will offer other, similar programs in the future. As one of the organizers and presenters of the series,… Read more »

West Bank, Warsaw ghetto alike

I am not part of the organizing team that presented the Steadfast Hope series, but I was a member of the audience, so I know that most of what the shaliach said after the event is pure obfuscation and distraction and in many instances simply fabrication. According to the… Read more »

Strauss-Kahn self-destruction sad

The sexual scandal in which Dominique Strauss-Kahn now finds himself embroiled greatly distresses me on several levels. First and foremost, any assault, sexual or otherwise, perpetrated by one human being against another is an outrage. On a Jewish level, many of us Jews living in the 2lst century can… Read more »

Tucson group welcomes atheists

This letter comes in response to the article in the May 20 issue, “A growing number of Jewish atheists look for their place in Jewish life.” There is already a group in Southern Arizona, based in Tucson, that offers a place for committed Jewish atheists as well as those… Read more »

Tikkun’s Lerner doesn’t connect Jewish mind to Jewish soul

Thank you for your recent column entitled “Michael Lerner Looks Back as Tikkun Turns 25” (April 21, 2011). I, for one, was heartened to learn that Tikkun’s circulation is dwindling and that a full 40% of its remaining readership is non-Jewish. It cogently confirms that Lerner’s “unapologetically utopian” vision… Read more »

Student seeks survivors, 2ndG

I am seeking Holocaust survivors and 2ndG people to interview who either were or are artists.  The information being gathered is for a college undergraduate level course being taken this summer at Prescott College, Tucson Center. Please respond to pcbresume@yahoo.com. —Patricia C. Bischof… Read more »

Comic irony in AJP letter

We read and thoroughly enjoyed Joel Chasnoff’s book (“‘Crybaby Brigade’ author to perform at men’s event,” AJP 4/8/2011). Mr. Chasnoff told his readers that he learned in boot camp that the IDF has a phrase for anything that goes astray or does not work out as planned: “A fukim.”… Read more »

Winery award shows it’s a small world

We were so pleased to read about the Golan Heights Winery award in Italy and particularly about Victor Schoenfeld (News Briefs — AJP, 4/22/11). We have been friends with the Schoenfeld family for many years as we all belonged to Congregation Ner Tamid in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. The… Read more »

Philly High School Plans reunion

Philadelphia’s Olney High School will hold its 60th anniversary reunion on Sunday, June 5, 2001 at Bala Country Club. For information, call 215-663-1743. —Irv Segal… Read more »