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By JERUSALEM POST READERSLetters 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )Work of many womenSir, – Congratulations to Oshrit Gur and the Nika store for contributing to the Hebrew- language breastfeeding information on the Internet (“This woman’s work,” Startup Spot, May 9). However, the article implies that menika.co.il, founded in 2010, is the first and largest Hebrew-language website about breastfeeding. This is not correct.Since 2001, La Leche League (LLL) Israel has maintained a large Hebrew site and forum at www.lllisrael.org.il. LLL Israel is the local branch of an international organization for mother-to-mother breastfeeding support. In addition to Hebrew, the site provides information in Arabic and links to Russian, French, Spanish and other languages.My wife is one of the site developers. I can vouch for the hundreds of hours that LLL volunteers spent during the past year to update the site with the latest scientific and practical information.DAVID SHAKED JerusalemThe downsideSir, – The review of Ofer Shiff’s The Downfall of Abba Hillel Silver and the Foundation of Israel (“American prophet?” Books, May 9), which asserts that the book possesses a “major failure,” could have helped us better understand the author’s intention in using the term “downfall” in the title. Indeed, what was Silver’s downfall? The subject of much study, Silver was rather unusual on the American Jewish scene.Not only was he a leading Reform rabbi and also a leader of the Zionist movement, but unlike another Reform rabbi, Judah L. Magnes, he was strongly nationalistic and even right-wing, although identifying with the Histadrut. As A.A. Green noted in Abba Hillel Silver and American Zionism, his vision of the Land of Israel was an area “from the desert and the Lebanon unto the great river, the Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea will be our boundary... on both sides of the Jordan.”In a 1998 article, Dr. Rafael Medoff pointed out that Menachem Begin, as Irgun commander, met with Silver in 1947. Begin, in his book The Revolt, wrote that he heard from Silver “words of encouragement for our struggle instead of the usual denunciations.” Shmuel Katz, a member of the Irgun’s high command, met Silver in New York in 1948 and heard him say he “wholeheartedly favored” the Irgun’s war against the British forces in Mandate Palestine.On the obverse side, Nahum Goldmann considered Silver “sympathetic to [the Irgun’s] activities and often condoning them,” while at the ZOA’s 1946 convention, the Reconstructionist stream of American Jewry opposed Silver for not condemning Jewish violence against the British.Could those stances have led to his downfall? YISRAEL MEDAD ShilohThe writer is director of information resources at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.So many reasonsSir, – Barbara Sofer’s “66 plus 1 – reasons I love Israel” (The Human Spirit, May 2) was superb, as her columns always are. Each year she warms our hearts with good things that happen here in Israel.Thank you, Barbara, for constantly building up our pride in our beloved country and its inhabitants. Having people like her makes 66 plus 2 reasons I love Israel.SARALE COHENJerusalemSir, – Here’s one Barbara Sofer might have missed: The shells of the eggs sold at my supermarket are stamped with the words hag sameah (happy holiday)!JESSICA FISCHER \MichmoretSir, – Reason 68: Reading Barbara Sofer’s wonderful list before Independence Day. Thank you!LEE GLASSMANJerusalem
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