June 13: Strange love

The rabbis of the High Rabbinical Court have a heck of a lot of hutzpa for even contemplating the retroactive annulment of conversion.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
letters 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Strange love Sir, - Thank you, Hillel Halkin, for describing so accurately the plight of us Jews who have come to our people through conversion ("A rabbinic innovation too far," June 11). "The idea that a convert can be stripped of his or her Jewishness by fiat is outrageous even in traditional terms" - this is so accurate, so poignant, the idea so repellent to me and other sincere converts who have bound our lives to this nation by desire and faith alone. Who can have the right to know what was in my heart as I made my conversion and accepted the laws of our people? I think that the rabbis of the High Rabbinical Court have a heck of a lot of hutzpa for even contemplating the retroactive annulment of conversion. Shame on them! Three times the Torah commands us to love the convert. This is love? R. MISHORY Tel Aviv Listen up! Sir, - I want to thank Michael Freund for expressing what so many of us have thought for so long ("Israel's big-mouth syndrome," June 11). There is no need for Israeli politicians to prove their ineptitude and lack of character by blabbing things that would be better left unsaid. If Israelis listened as much as they talked, many of their problems would be handled. MICHAEL LOU AVERBACH Santa Monica Arms for oil Sir, - Aside from finding alternative fuel sources, the US has leverage of another sort - it can hold up its sales of armaments to oil-producing countries which refuse to increase production or lower the price of a barrel of oil ("With oil prices gushing, crude threats may not be the way to counter the Iranian menace" Calev Ben-David, June 10). DIANA ROSENBERG Kiryat Tivon Bean there... Sir, - Kol hakavod to Alon-Lee Green and his workers at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Cafe for organizing a union and getting their working conditions improved ("A tempest in a coffee cup," UpFront Cover Story, Aryeh Dean-Cohen, May 23). Green is proof that it takes only one determined person willing to stick with a cause to make a difference when the going gets tough. KATE HALLGREN Jerusalem ...(ain't) done that Sir, - One cannot help but be impressed by Alon-Lee Green's intelligence, perseverance and courage. No doubt these qualities could be put to good use in the IDF. However, while Green was waging war against Coffee Bean, thousands of young Israelis his age were fighting Israel's enemies. Their meager monthly allowances amount to under a tenth of NIS 20 per hour, and instead of dreaming of refunds for taxi rides home, they hope to simply go home twice a month. They are our true heroes. Excessive glorification of an unapologetic draft-dodger, however praiseworthy his social activism, can only detract from efforts to convince Israeli youth, many of whom debate between joining the IDF and avoiding the draft, to elect to serve. YAKIR LOEWENSTERN Beit Shemesh