Letters to the Editor
Israel—Lighting the Way

A Bad Education
I was offended by the movie An Education and the review in the April/ May issue. In the film, “the Jew” villain, David, is shown stealing a painting and bringing a black family into a white neighborhood so he can purchase the homes of the white families who choose to move. It is not acceptable for your reviewer to call this a “stunning, memorable film.” Instead, you should have rejected the story as anti-Semitic trash.

Phyllis Cypes
New City, NY

Praise for Elson
I was so pleased to read the profile of Rabbi Irv Elson in the April/May issue. My husband and I had the pleasure of meeting him while he was the chaplain at the Naval Academy—the first year the Jewish chapel was completed. It was during that year that my daughter’s husband was deployed to Iraq. She and our then-14-month-old granddaughter were welcomed into Rabbi and Fran Elson’s family without hesitation. My husband and I can never thank them enough.

Arlene Burns
Wilmington, NC

Timeless Meals
I am involved in fund-raising for the Rochester (New York) chapter and I wanted to thank Adeena Sussman for the article “Kitchen Zionism” she wrote in the February/March issue, which featured the Rochester Hadassah Cookbook. I worked on the cookbook, and I sell them. We have sold over 7,600 since they were printed. They sell for $21, $26 to Canada. If anyone is interested, they can e-mail me at melkin16@gmail.com, and I would be happy to send them.

Marlene Elkin
Rochester, NY

Spread the Light
“Medical Light Unto Nations” in the February/ March issue perfectly documents the work of Israeli medical teams on a global scale, wherever called for in case of disaster or other emergency needs.

However, your readers are well aware of the selfless work of Israel’s medical personnel, even in countries that do not have formal relations with Israel. May I suggest you send this article to newspapers around the United States to enlighten them [about] how helpful Israel can be. All you see in the media and newspapers are articles blasting Israel.

Unfortunately, Israel has never had good public relations to advertise their superb technology, their advances in medicine and, above all, the help Israel gives in dire emergencies like floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides and other disasters. Israel was first to send teams of specialists to Haiti, as it did to Chernobyl when Soviet Russia did not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Mary Marley
Boca Raton, FL

Fight and Flight

I read with interest "Giants in a Quiet Corner" in the April/May 2010 issue. However, I believe that there is a minor factual error when the author
refers to "war surplus B-17 fighter bombers...." B-17s were not fighter bombers. They were, instead, heavy bombers, which, along with the B-24
Liberator aircraft, were used for daylight and night multiple-aircraft bombing raids over Europe.

George J. Van Emden
Glenview, IL

Creating Classics

"Letter from Paris: Presence of Absence" in the April/May issue really caught the long lasting personal effects on a child caught in the disorientating and alienating crimes of the Holocaust. It is a classic.

Joyce and Ken Robbins
Potomac, MD

Reunion in Israel

Barbara Goldstein's touching article, "Jeremiah's Neighbors," in the February/March issue brought back memories of the 2005 Hadassah mission in which my husband and I participated. We, too, felt the presence of Jeremiah as well as other prophets and kings from our history.
Barbara was our guide at many of the sites, and her knowledge and love of Israel were an inspiration. Besides all the wonderful tour experiences, only in Israel could we meet a cousin we never knew before and have him marvel, "Who would have imagined that, 100 years ago, our grandfathers were brothers in Romania, and here we are, their grandchildren, sitting together in a café?"

Adrienne Fishman
Fairfield, CT

Defining Hadassah

I am a proud third-generation life member of Hadassah and have been saying for quite some time that the magazine is getting better with each issue. But, the article "Defining Moments," in the February issue, was amazing. Every time I turned the page I thought the article was to end. But, no, like our accomplishments, the stories kept going.

Doris Schyman
Northbrook, IL

A Dedicated Associate

Your article regarding Hadassah Associates (February/March issue) was particularly meaningful to my husband and me, as Hadassah has always been a family affair. I am proud to point out that my husband, Alvin F. Friedman, attorney, former banker and activist within the greater Chicago Jewish community, was the first president and one of the founders of the National Committee of Hadassah Associates in 1994. In addition, my husband has served as the associate chairman of the North Shore Chapter in Illinois for over 25 years, with Associate numbers growing to over 1,100, becoming one of the largest Associate groups in the country.

Shirley Friedman
Chicago, IL

A Lifetime of Hadassah

Finally, now that I'm at the threshold of adding a year to the 100 I have lived, I want to tell about my first experience with Hadassah.
In Hazelton, Pennsylvania, at the age of 10 or 12, I became a member of Junior Hadassah. I remember the first Sunday afternoon, thrilled by the
prospect of knocking on the doors of the Jewish families, asking for a contribution to Hadassah.

Through the years, I was always aware of Hadassah's presence in small town Jewish life. Good and bad years, Hadassah always seemed to grow, a reflection of the senior women whose wisdom and strength let nothing deter them.

Hadassah Magazine, how I waited every month to read of the achievements in that sliver of sand, which was finally given as a state to the people whose history began there, the untiring work of the halutzim who came from every corner of the world to help build a home visualized by Hadassah women. Hadassah presidents and their staff spread the news of their achievements through their beautiful magazine.

The wonderful things Hadassah is doing in the world.... How my gall rises when the world press gives so little recognition. No matter, we know what we do. Whatever the situation, I count myself in and burst with pride. So you ask: Why and how could you not have given more of yourself? No excuses. It's enough, now, that I'm in my very old years, the youthful thrills of knowing a whole wonderful country grew up in my century.

Rebecca Singer
Scranton, PA

Corrections
In Yosef Abramowitz’s “Where the Local is Global” (February/March issue), Faye Schenk’s name was misspelled.

In our Brief Review of the exhibit “Tobi Kahn: Sacred Spaces for the 21st Century” in the December 2009/January 2010 issue, the reviewer wrote that “His latest project is the interior design of a Milwaukee synagogue....” In reality, Kahn created an installation of eight murals and ceremonial objects for the sanctuary of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun in River Hills, Wisconsin. It is Phillip Katz-Project Development (PKPD) that is responsible for the design of the improvements entirely and, specifically, for designing the sanctuary.

Rahel Muselah's article, "Letter from New York: Practical Revolutionaries" (February/March issue), incorrectly labels what is now Israel as Mandate Palestine in 1909 and 1912. The British Mandate began in 1917.