May 17: WATER PROPULSION

All the pictures showed women paddling, not rowing.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
Letters 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )
Letters 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )
WATER PROPULSION
Sir, – I read “Rowing for life” (Feature, May 3) with interest, and suspect that the sport and exercise involved is undoubtedly of benefit to the participants.
However, all the pictures showed women paddling, not rowing.
Rowing is performed by pulling on an oar, which is pivoted in a hinged oarlock on the side of the boat. The rower faces backward. The muscles used, primarily in the legs and torso, are very different from those used in paddling. Paddling, a less efficient method of propelling a boat, is performed facing forward and involves mainly the arms and shoulder muscles.
Having spent many happy hours paddling a canoe in Canada, I know whereof I speak.
STEPHEN COHEN Ma’aleh Adumim
MEDIA CONTROL
Sir, – At long last, somebody has been found who is willing to criticize the leftist film industry in Israel (“Filmmaking fascism,” Film, May 3). Unfortunately, though, the leftward leaning does not only involve the film industry, but all media, written and electronic.
I have a young friend who is a film director and has for years been trying to obtain funds to prepare a film showing the positive side of Israel.
This friend has been told quite openly that nobody would help him unless he wanted to produce a film showing the negative side of Israel.
At frequent meetings with Likud members of Knesset and even ministers, we have brought up this matter. Nobody can help, as all funds for these purposes are controlled by leftist activists.
TZEMACH BLOOMBERG Hod Hasharon
EXCEPTIONAL LADY
Sir, – Kudos and thanks to Seth J. Frantzman for his illuminating portrayal of Amal Najami-Abu-Sif (“A rare voice,” Interview, April 26).
Abu-Sif is an exceptional lady whose vitality and intelligent reasoning is a beacon of light and inspiration – which is so commendable and definitely needs to be internalized within our disparate communities.
It resonates with my own firm conviction that violence and abuse against women must be exposed, shamed and punished severely.
GISH TRUMAN ROBBINS Pardesiya
RELUCTANT ANTI-ISLAMIST
Sir, – As stated by Lawrence Rifkin (“The blame game,” Grumpy Old Man, April 26), perhaps there is a good reason many of us pointed to Muslims after the recent bombings in Boston.
Although one might not think it fair to profile and mark an entire community, common sense leads us in that direction. Starting with the Munich massacre in 1972, the bombing in Lebanon in 1983 and the Achille Lauro incident in 1985, and on through a huge list, Muslims were involved.
Yet Muslim communities remain rather distant from condemning these atrocities.
I, for one, am unfortunately beginning to think of myself as a reluctant anti-Islamist.
SANDY WASSERMAN Plainview, New York
DANGERS AT THE WALL
Sir, – Gil Troy, relying on Arab objections in 1928 (and before) about Jews bringing portable partitions to the Western Wall courtyard – which evolved into murderous riots in 1929 – states that the “horrible incident proves that the Western Wall was not ‘always’ a synagogue as some claim” (“Elevate Robinson’s Arch – but not physically,” Opinion, April 19).
From that set of historical facts, all we can conclude is that Arabs opposed any religious expression there by Jews, and continue to do so today.
History, more properly, could teach us that the Eastern Wall was, for a few centuries, a site of Jewish prayer, especially during the Geonic period. It could teach us that the Ottoman rulers prohibited not only screens, but benches and other instruments of prayer, or that following the 1929 riots the British banned the blowing of the shofar there.
None of this relates to whether or not non-Orthodox sects should be able to import into that plaza alterations of prayer services in dress, movement or voice. What I suggest, in a practical sense, is that wherever non-Orthodox Jewish females pray near the Wall, they keep an eye up above since, on occasion, the Muslims on the Temple Mount throw stones down at Jewish worshipers below.
Those deadly implements do not distinguish between Jew and Jew.
YISRAEL MEDAD Shiloh