MAIL PROBLEMS I was intrigued to read Ruby Ray Karzen's letter about mail delivery (“Snail mail,” Letters, May 8). The service at my post office is always so bad that I didn't even realize there was a slowdown. We hardly ever get mail more than twice a week, and sometimes only once. I have been getting mail very late for years. A few weeks ago, the mail carrier brought me a first and second notice about a package on the same day, 11 days after it was stamped as having arrived at the post office. When I complained about it at the branch, they offered to give me the mail carrier's phone number and said I should complain to him. When I said it was the employer's and not the customer's responsibility to tell an employee to work properly, they just shrugged their shoulders, as if it was not their problem. Is there really a nationwide problem? Does anyone know whom to contact about it? Naomi Goldblum Jerusalem I am upset that In Jerusalem has not advised its Anglo readership as to the reasons for the disruption in mail delivery and collection in the city. Mail from abroad takes five to eight weeks before it is delivered; in some cases, residents have received four weeks' mail in one delivery. There appear to be only two deliveries per week. As if to add insult to injury, most of the red postboxes, a holdover from Mandate times, have been sealed and pasted with the label “Inactive Box,” but we have not been informed where to post our letters. The lines in the local post offices – those that are still open – are exceedingly long, with waiting periods of over 50 minutes. Large items under a kilogram are not delivered as they used to be; instead, a note is placed in the mailbox for collection, leading to additional delays. Some of the post offices that remain open keep changing their opening hours without prior notice to the customers in their area, and in some cases there are no facilities for disabled parking, let alone regular parking, in the vicinity. Is there nobody in charge? Why has this important topic been ignored by In Jerusalem? Judith Barnet Jerusalem BIGOTRY BY ANY OTHER NAME Peggy Cidor's May 1 article “Getting their house in order” seemed to me an appalling display of bigotry, of the sort that makes one's mouth drop open. It's no wonder that the individual quoted asked to be “off the record” for saying, “Haredim never remain alone for long. After one or two families move in, we will see attempts to open a haredi kindergarten, a yeshiva, and so on, and we cannot let it happen.” Try replacing the word “haredim” with “shvartzers,” “Moroccans,” “Ethiopians,” or “Arabs,” and see if it still remains a palatable statement to make. After the terrible incident of the policeman beating up an Ethiopian soldier, and the protest that followed that event, you'd think Cidor would show a bit more humanity about her choice of subject for a weekly column that goes under the title “Corridors of Power.” Of course, it's not Cidor's fault if the people of Beit Hakerem are bigots. I just didn't like reading about nasty people's prejudices on my day of rest. Maybe that's just me. Varda Epstein Efrat ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE FIRST DEGREE Thank you very much for such a heartwarming and refreshing article concerning our young people (“Degrees of difficulty,” May 22). It was a pleasure to read what Or Rapoport and Tomer Doron are accomplishing. I wish the article could have been written in time to nominate them for the Education Prize. Kol hakavod that you wrote so positively about their efforts. I am sure they will succeed in what they are doing and will go a long way toward implementing a spirit of brotherhood and fraternity within our people. Tallulah Mendlowitz Jerusalem
