Letters (August 7, 2009)
Letters published in the AJN print edition of August 7, 2009
A distant memory?
A RECENT news broadcast on the ABC mentioned World War II and the “mass murderer”, but named neither Hitler nor the Nazi regime in Germany, nor the six million murdered Jews and the millions of others exterminated by the Nazis.
People speak of the Holocaust, but less and less is said of the fascists, and the men, women and children who died under their onslaught. The title comes too easily, the fearful details are obscured.
Is that not a form of forgetting?
Leon Sztajer
Melbourne, Vic
Misleading conversion
RE “Show us your Jewish Credentials” (24/07), Naomi Levin writes that “I believe conversion is a ‘virtual impossibility’. I wonder if she read any of what I wrote, or simply scanned for a few controversial words.
In a lengthy article (www.chabad.org /3002), I explain that “conversion” is a misleading translation of “giur” — which means an entry into the Jewish people. We are a people before we are a religion. To imply from this that I am opposed to giur is irresponsible journalism. On the contrary, the Talmud teaches that “the Jewish people were only exiled among the nations in order to collect gerim”.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
Thornhill, Canada
Drivel and hatred
BINYAMIN Alexander (AJN 31/07) defends Rabbi Chaim Ingram against¬† accusations of “hatred and drivel”. The simple fact is that an opinion based on a simple outline of Jewish law may well be hatred if its only basis is a man-made interpretation of the supposed wishes of a man-made divinity.
When the self-righteous accuse those who practise what they consider abhorrent to be guilty of immoral behaviour or behaviour against Jewish law, that is hatred.
No amount of special pleading by Rabbi Ingram or any religious authority can convert drivel into intelligent opinion, unless they can prove that there is a supreme being that is the very basis of Jewish law. They cannot.
The charges of “drivel and hatred” as stated are thus accurate.
It will be interesting to see the convoluted logic from Rabbi Ingram and Binyamin Alexander to justify God’s will as an expression of love and not hatred, which caused the two deaths at the gay community centre in Tel Aviv this week.
Ian Bersten
Roseville, NSW
Missing the point
THE AJN’s editorial “Burying Bad News Is No Answer” (31/07) seems to have completely missed the point. Those who criticised The AJN for its deplorable front-page cover of a rabbi in Adelaide some weeks ago aimed their criticism not at its actual publication per se, but at the ill choice of publishing it on the front page for all to see.
No-one is suggesting that The AJN “turn a blind eye to Jewish figures” or “bury bad news”, but rather that news of this nature be printed anywhere from page two and on in the newspaper. This way, the Jews who purchase The AJN can be well informed and indeed hold these public figures up to account, while our non-Jewish neighbours, who have no need for this information, can be spared the gory details.
Mordechai Weiner
St Kilda East, Vic
Sad and scandalous news
AFTER the mourning and reflection that comes with Tisha b’Av, which commemorates the many tragedies that befell our people, it was sad to hear the scandalous news of the alleged trafficking of human organs that a few of our rabbis and leaders were arrested for.
It is fodder for those who never miss an opportunity to downgrade our righteous stance.
Let us be aware of adding to the scandal by making it a subject for gossip. However hard it may be, let us try to find empathy for those who could not find the strength and the will to avoid falling into the trap of the Yeirzar Hora. We are taught that the law of the land we live in must prevail. They gave this scant attention.
Let us not be their judges, jailers or executioners. But neither should we try to sweep it under the carpet.
I pray that this was not a case of self-enrichment, and that wherever possible the poor donors, who should have been the recipients of charity rather than the donors, be recompensed.
The commentaries of this week’s parshah assure us that Hashem will forgive the sinners who do sincere and honest teshuvah.
If, found guilty, the parties will have much time to do so.
Cookie Seskin
Bondi, NSW
Confused in New Jersey
I PRESUME the US rabbis accused of selling kidneys were members of a rabbinical organisation. Perhaps the word “organ-isation” confused them.
Jill Rosenberg
Caulfield South, Vic
Waste of time
I FAIL to understand why Jewish community representatives waste their time with interfaith meetings with the Islamic community.
I believe at these meetings with so-called moderate Muslims, that most contentious topics, such as the Israel/Arab conflict, Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Semitism and threats to the Jewish community from extremists, are all forbidden subjects.
When dealing with Islam everything is one way. There is no dialogue, only monologue. Why do so many Jews rush to have meaningless dialogue and exchange  platitudes with Muslims when Judeo-Christian understandings are diametrically opposed to Islamic ones?
Is it because of the  lucrative government grants our communities receive? What has been actually achieved by all these interfaith meetings over the years?
Interfaith is built on the premise of mutual respect and tolerance, yet the vilification of Jews disguised as anti-Zionism has increased, even while interfaith meeting by mainly naive, opportunistic do-gooder Jews have been taking place.
An influential Sydney-based Islamic political party, Hizb ut-Tahrir, recently published an article, “The Reality on Interfaith Dialogue”, ridiculing interfaith dialogue. It said: “Islam is the only deen [a complete code of life] acceptable to Allah. All other faiths and ideologies are ‘kufr’ ‚Ķ which signifies the rejection and denial of Allah.”
If our Jewish community representatives have so much time on their hands for interfaith dialogue, why don’t they develop closer relationships with Hindus, Buddhists, Baha’i and some Christian faiths not aligned to the Palestinians and Arabs?
At least we Jews have more in common with these faiths and they have no extremists that wish us harm.
Michael Burd
Toorak, Vic
Hate laws needed
THIS weekend we woke to the terrible news of the attack in the Tel Aviv gay youth centre. Unfortunately, “random” hate violence is all too common in the world.
But what was most chilling about this particular attack was that it was targeted at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) youth in their safe space. The attack was malicious and calculated. The damage was brutal. The scars will last forever.
It is imperative that the authorities track down those responsible and make them face the full consequences of their actions.
An example must be set that this is never to happen again. The government must ensure there is adequate legislation for all types of hate crimes, and specifically those against GLBT people.
The entire world is a poorer place as a result of this senseless attack.
Michael Barnett and Colin Krycer
Aleph Melbourne
Lunatic legislation
THE Howard administration anti-terror laws were so poorly thought-out and ill-considered, with numerous unintended side-effects that curtailed our civil liberties, that Labor pledged to review them if elected.
Instead of restoring our civil liberties, Labor’s Attorney-General Robert McClelland proposes to broaden Government controls by creating a new offence of “inciting violence against an individual on the basis of race, religion or nationality”, allowing easier prosecution of “those ‚Ä®who attempt to induce others, including vulnerable youths, to commit‚Ä® acts of politically motivated violence”.
Why is inducing “vulnerable youths” any worse than inducing‚Ä® “vulnerable adults”?
Why is inciting others to “politically motivated violence” any more heinous than inciting others to violent ‚Ä®crimes of any type?
What constitutes “inciting” and “inducing”? A spirited classroom debate about jihad, students advocating each side?
Who would be ‚Ä®prosecuted for “incitement” — the students? The teacher?
Would a rabbi’s sermon glorifying radical Israeli settlers and offering to ‚Ä®pay volunteers to join them be “inducement”?
What about the Serbs and Croats rioting at the Australian Open — will we indict them for carefully teaching their children “to hate all the people [their] relatives hate … before [they] are six or seven or eight”?
The Government is yet again reaching into our minds, attempting to control what we might say or possibly do. The side-effects are so far-reaching as to be incomprehensible.
As a member of a group too often targeted by “politically motivated ‚Ä®violence”, I fear the damage such a law would do to everything I ‚Ä®value about being Australian.
Judy Bamberger
O’Connor, ACT
Pushing the barrow
THE Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow is displaying an exhibit that encourages¬† “art lovers” to deface a Bible and that also “includes a woman ripping pages¬† from a Bible and stuffing them into her underwear” (“Word of God Takes a Beating”, The Australian 24/07)¬† The gallery is surely basking in its new-found international celebrity and congratulating itself on being at the very cutting edge of avant-garde risk-taking art.
Might I suggest that “artistic” statements such as this are nothing new — the Piss Christ photograph by Andres Serrano exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria being but one recent example of such “art”.
If this gallery, or any other gallery, really wants to push the artistic barrow, really wants to live on the edge and to take real, as opposed to imaginary, risks, I would suggest that they treat the Koran in the same fashion that they have treated the Judaeo-Christian Bible.
Dr Bill Anderson
Surrey Hills, Vic
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