Readers critique the Exponent’s front cover, Israelis’ opinions on Obama and spirituality and wellbeing.
Judge the Exponent by its Cover
It was distressing to see last week’s front page article of the Jewish Exponent, winner of countless Rockower awards. Surgical transgender reassignment (“Discovering Identity From the Outside In,” March 31), though a current subject, would be more appropriate in a health section than on page one.
Major issues of importance to our local Jewish community, Israel or world Jewry, for example the article on the Pew Report (“Counting the Bombshells in the Pew Israel Study,” March 31), should be the ones to be featured prominently.
Janet Zolot | Bala Cynwyd
Better Off? Try Worse Under Obama
This is in response to the letter of Marvin Bograd, “Israel Better Off Under Obama” (March 31).
Why don’t Obama supporters ask Israelis what they think about President Obama? Half of 160,000 eligible American voters living in Israel voted in the 2008 election — 85 percent of the votes went to Mitt Romney and only 14 percent to Obama. Many of these 14 percent were from the Arab sector.
In recent poll, 63 percent of Israelis named Obama as the most anti-Israel president in history, four times more than Jimmy Carter, the famous Hamas advocate and one of Israel’s chief critics. An additional 12 percent couldn’t tell who the worst is.
Congress, not the president, was instrumental in securing funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system, a sound investment for Israel and U.S. security. Obama simply had no choice but to approve it, just as he didn’t have a choice regarding vetoes in the U.N. Security Council.
But watch him for the two and a half months between the November elections and Inauguration Day. Israelis already fear that he will go to the Security Council to try to impose his vision of what peace between Israel and the Palestinians should look like. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already shared these concerns on television, without mentioning Obama by name.
Or you can just go to Google to get endless lists of Obama’s anti-Israel actions.
Anatoly Vinokurov | Huntingdon Valley
Though Trendy, Spirituality a Traditional Path
Kol hakavod to Congregation Beth Sholom for its Center for Spiritual Well-Being. I personally am a huge fan of Dan Gottlieb (“New Outreach Initiative Hopes to Re-Engage Unaffiliated Jews,” March 10).
However, the ideas behind the center are nothing new. Temple Har Zion in Mount Holly has been a spiritual haven for decades. Rabbi Richard B. Simon has infused Kabbalah and spiritual practice into our Jewish Renewal services for more than 30 years — long before it was “trendy” to do so. We have ongoing classes in spirituality and Rabbi Simon gives personalized spiritual direction.
The nondenominational Renewal movement borrows music and dance from the roots of Jewish worship, some meditation styles from Zen Buddhism and even some prayer styles from Sufism. But it’s not New Age; chanting, meditation, song and dance have always been a part of Judaism.
Darcy Grabenstein | Burlington, N.J.
