A Thousand More

I hope other readers were as intoxicated as I was with the heavenly aroma, the spirituality, the enthusiasm and the heroism emanating from every line, every word and every syllable in Miryam Yerushalmi's beautiful and refreshing front-page essay ("How a Shabbos in Chevron Changed My Life," May 2).

Ms. Yerushalmi's masterpiece was music to all of us who harbor that inner spark of Ahavat Eretz Yisrael (love for Israel) in their hearts .It was a breath of fresh air in a contaminated atmosphere of indifference toward Eretz Yisrael that sometimes brings us to despair

Miryam Yerushalmi: you have restored our faith in our youth. With your visit to Chevron you proved to our enemies that no suicide bombers, no intifadas, and no Kassem rockets can break our spirit.

Hashem, give us a thousand more Miryam Yerushalmis. Please.

Bezalel Fixler

Kew Gardens, NY

Transformative Experience

Miryam Yerushalmi's May 2 front-page essay magnificently and picturesquely captured the essence of today's Chevron - the emunah-laden existence of its residents. It's a powerful tribute to those who live lives of joy and meaning as well as an illustration of the impact that Shabbosim in Eretz Yisrael can have on a student studying in seminary.

As her account clearly demonstrated, there are opportunities for spiritual growth awaiting the seminary student outside the environs of the classroom. Some of those studying in Eretz Yisrael will return to settle there, but for those who do not, Shabbosim such as the one she described can have a transformative effect on lives lived in chutz l'Aretz.

Far more than a mere interesting experience that eventually fades into oblivion, it can impart the seminary student with a perspective or an appreciation of holiness that not only becomes part of her outlook on life but becomes part of the bayis neeman b'Yisrael that she, God willing, will build. The title of her article - "How a Shabbos in Chevron Changed My Life" - is not an exaggeration.

Ester Bach,

Brooklyn, NY

China Olympics

Re "The China Olympics Boycott" (editorial, May 9):

The argument in favor of boycotting the Beijing Olympics certainly has its merits, but political reality dictates otherwise. While China can easily condemn Israel for building settlements in the West Bank, Israel has no power to condemn China for doing the same in Tibet.

For the Jewish community, condemning China is also a difficult proposition, because unlike the Soviet Union, China has historically been very tolerant to Jews. Today, it is no longer difficult to find kosher food and rabbis in cities like Pudong or Guangzhou. Jewish cemeteries are being restored, Jewish studies programs are thriving in Chinese universities. Trade between Israel and China is at its highest point in history.

Of course, if conscience dictated policy, China would be held accountable for its relationship with Sudan, Myanmar, and North Korea; Taiwan would have a seat at the UN; and Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama would be able to return home in peace. Finding a viable way to coax China to address human rights is difficult. Hopefully, the world's participation in the Olympics will provide the much-needed momentum for change.

Sergey Kadinsky

Forest Hills, NY

Pro-Arab Jews

I am always amazed, but not surprised, when a letter writer such as Howard B. Lenox (vice chair of Jewish Voice For Peace), professing to be Jewish and associated with an organization having a Jewish name, assaults Israel verbally and condemns that nation for its policies against the "innocent Palestinian Arabs" (Letters, May 2).

These Jews and their pro-Arab organizations have no concept of history, religion, morals or ethics as they convert terrorists into oppressed individuals and the murderers of Jewish citizens into peaceful individuals. I would think at the least they would have the decency to state that their connection to the Jewish religion and the Torah is nebulous and that instead they are propagandizing for the Arabs more effectively than any Arab organization because of some tenuous connection to Judaism.

They only elicit contempt in any real Jew and are a disgrace to their professed, but probably not practiced, religion.

Nelson Marans

Silver Spring, MD

Rice's Scenario

How would Condoleezza Rice react if the international powers decided to end racial discord in America and pressed the U.S. to surrender land to the Ku Klux Klan to establish a white supremacist state? In the interim, they grant the KKK billions of dollars and train and arm its white militias to form an army. Simultaneously, to show good faith, a housing freeze is demanded in all areas of the proposed new state where blacks reside while whites build unhindered.

That unlikely scenario is precisely what Ms. Rice wants to impose on Israel. Regardless of the Gaza Disengagement debacle, she remains obsessed with the vivisection of tiny Israel and the creation of a contiguous (NO Jews allowed) state for unrepentant PLO mass-murderers. Her plan is not only blatantly racist but anti-Semitic. For this to be the stated policy of the greatest democracy in the world is intolerable and unconscionable.

Therefore, this policy must be immediately repudiated and totally rejected by the American public. Surely, Dr. Rice will have to concede that Jews are entitled to the same basic human rights as blacks, and that ethnic cleansing of any type is evil and must not be countenanced.

Chaim ben Zvi

(Via E-Mail)

Democratic Infighting

The political battle between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama includes a lot of name-calling, put-downs, and insults. This bickering not only harms the chance of either one winning the November election, it hurts the long-term interests of the Democratic Party.

The continued battle shows that each of them places personal political ambition above concern for the party and the nation. Such selfishness is damaging. What comes to mind is the biblical story of the two women who came before King Solomon. However, in this case both parties are more than willing to cut the baby in half.

Arthur Horn

East Windsor, NJ

A Letter The Times Didn't Run

Over the years The Jewish Press has distinguished itself among New York organs of opinion by keeping the memory of Gidone Busch alive. I hope it will play that honorable and indispensable role once again. On April 25, The New York Times published a list of people killed or injured by police "accused of using excessive force," omitting, as it has always done in such pieces, any mention of Gidone Busch. The Times declined to publish a letter I wrote challenging this omission. I enclose that letter, hoping the Jewish Press will find it of use:

To The Editor,

Re "Killed or Injured by the Police: Some cases in which New York City police officers were accused of using excessive force, causing death or serious injury" (news article, April 26):

The Times does a disservice to the memory of Gidone Busch - and to the historical record - by excluding this 31-year-old Hasidic Jew from the roll call of those who suffered "death or serious injury" at the hands of New York City police accused of employing "excessive force."

On August 30, 1999, in broad daylight, Busch was shot to death outside his Boro Park apartment by officers in a proceeding that one onlooker testified was nothing less than a "police execution." That Busch, unlike the others The Times mentions, was white, should not bar him from being cited in a context to which he too, sadly, belongs.

Harvey Blume

Cambridge, MA

Health Update From Mayor Koch

I will be hospitalized on May 18 to have an operation on my spine on May 21. Hopefully, I will be discharged from the hospital at the end of that week to begin two weeks of recuperation.

My medical condition, which I have had for about a year and a half, is diagnosed as stenosis of the spine, which involves arthritis, a narrowing of the spine and the impingement on nerves, causing discomfort and some pain when I walk.

The prognosis, I am told, is excellent with a 92 percent recovery rate and a very low mortality rate. So, all things considered, I am very fortunate and have little anxiety. I have some anxiety, of course, since surgery and general anesthesia are never a walk in the park and, at age 83, they are even more impacting.

When confronted with my current condition, I tried all the intermediary measures available - exercise and three epidurals, but they did not work and I found myself walking less in order to avoid the distress and pain from walking and tilting to the left. That is not the way I want to lead my life, hence the decision to have the operation.

God willing, in a few weeks I will be fully recovered.

Not to be melodramatic or alarmist, but I have had a wonderful sojourn here and if, for whatever reason, God takes me, I have no regrets and thank the Almighty for the opportunities I have been given.

Ed Koch

New York, NY

Read Comments (1)

Rabbi Boteach''s second reminder
Date 03:05, 05-15, 08

I had written a letter to the editor (which was published) agreeing with Rabbi Boteach that the "s" word be abolished, and I became the talk of the neighborhood!
In Rabbi Boteach's current article, it mentions "you don't live in a neighborhood where you have to be afraid, etc. Is this fellow Orthodox Jew "afraid" to be part of the Jewish People where mashgichim botch up the Kashrus, causing the Torah Commandment "Putting a stumbling block before the blind" where people ate treif, assuming it was Kosher, or a Rabbi's sons start a fist fight in a Shul on Yom Tov where it embarrasses us Jews?
Even though there is good and bad in every people, now is the time to abolish the "bad" once and for all.
Don't cover it up. One bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch. Rabbi Boteach's column is "repeated" for emphasis. Stop all hatred. Pay heed to it. David N. Rodgers
166 -14 73 Avenue Hillcrest, NY 11366-1244 (718)591-7257