Lucky tenant
“We sounded the shofar today in order to knock down the walls of apathy, exclusion, silencing and discrimination .... ” All noble goals, but none that have anything to do with prayer at the Wall. The shofar is sounded in the month of Elul as a conversation between God and the Jewish people, to arouse Jews to repentance before the High Holy Days and awaken within God His mercy and forgiveness of our sins.
The Western Wall is not Montgomery, Alabama, and the women coming there to pray ought not think of themselves as Rosa Parks challenging segregation. The Kotel is hallowed ground.
All women, Jew or gentile, religious or secular, need to conduct themselves at the Wall with dignity and respect as befits the customs and traditions of such a holy site. Those unable to comply are welcome to choose another location. After all, God is everywhere. LILA LOWELL
Jerusalem
I felt sad when I read Leah Aharoni’s “The mouse that roared.”
The statistics were taken from the numbers of congregations, the numbers of people signed up and the wealthy donors. But what about the man in the street? There are far more of them. They haven’t signed up because they don’t want to identify with lifestyles that jar them.
In America, “belonging” involves money – or opting out. In Israel it means acquiescing in many ways that are not agreeable, either Jerusalem
The August 29 issue of The Jerusalem Post carried a letter criticizing the environmentally inappropriate external appearance of a new hotel in Jerusalem (“Inside and out”).
When I made aliya 12 years ago, I had an initial chat with my new family doctor, during which she commented that I was living in a new and attractive block on Hebron Road, not far from where the new hotel is. Taking her lead, I inquired as to where she lived, and with a somewhat apprehensive expression, she said “the Holyland buildings.”
Anyone with a ha’porth of taste knows that those building resemble a charging herd of hippopotamuses or rhinoceroses, so she seemed quite surprised when I commented on how lucky she was.
“How’s that?” she asked. I responded: “From your flat, you can see my building and you can’t see your own.” STANLEY COHEN