Affordable schools needed

Rabbi Dow Marmur lists low birth rates, intermarriage and anti-Semitism as some of the factors that could eventually lead to the extinction of the Jewish people (“We need more Jews,” Oct. 30).

There is, however, a factor not mentioned on the esteemed rabbi’s list. Until our first two children became of school age, we would never have thought of it, but it relates to another ongoing discussion in the Jewish community that The CJN has covered widely.

Specifically, we have had several friends who have two children tell us that they would like a third child but the cost of Jewish schooling renders this financially impossible or impractical.

We are blessed with three children. Our house is wild and crazy, but as our baby approaches two years old, we often wonder about having a fourth child. There are many reasons why we have chosen to stop at three, and frankly, the cost of Jewish education is one of them.

The Jewish community has done an excellent job of promoting Israel, for example, through philanthropists who have funded the wonderful Birthright program. What is urgently needed is a similar type of philanthropic endeavour to assist with Jewish day school funding.

There are many Jewish people who want more kids, but decide to limit their numbers because Jewish schools are too expensive and this is very sad, especially given that, as Rabbi Marmur says, we need more Jews.

Leigh A. Lampert
Toronto

Women must run mikvahs

In the 1980s, I tried without success to find out who ran the mikvah in Toronto that I used, to learn what measures were in place (proper chlorination, etc.) to protect women using the facility from risk of infection or disease of any kind.

It was a fruitless, frustrating exercise, and for my trouble, I was criticized by a prominent Orthodox rabbi, who said I was making this a “feminist” issue, as if the health and safety of a wife and mother is somehow related to gender politics.

I don’t know what, if anything, has since changed in the administration of local mikvahs. But in light of recent allegations of mikvah voyeurism against a Washington, D.C., rabbi involved in the conversion process, it’s time to recognize that women must be in charge of their own mikvahs. And by that, I don’t mean buying the towels and replenishing the soap dispensers. 

Mikvahs for women should be run by women. Each mikvah should have a board of directors that meets regularly, with at least one health-care professional at the table to provide expert guidance on health and safety practices and to ensure their compliance. The latter is especially important when pools of water are repeatedly used by numerous women immersing nude in the course of a single night.

An all-female executive would also be readily accessible to any mikvah user with concerns of any kind, whether related to privacy, cleanliness of the premises or quality of the toiletry supplies. 

The use of a mikvah is the most private, personal engagement a Jewish woman has in religious life. It’s time for women to administer the one aspect of ritual observance they can claim as their own.

Dorothy Lipovenko
Westmount, Que.

Divorced from reality

Zach Paikin promotes the partisan fiction that Canada will remain Israel’s best friend on the world stage, no matter which party is in charge (“Jews should think twice about supporting the Tories,” cjnews.com). But this fantasy has no foundation in reality.

Canada stood by silently and often participated in votes hostile to Israel during the Liberal years. Recently, when federal Liberal candidate Darshan Kang appeared as a speaker at a pro-Hamas rally, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was silent.

When he speaks about Israel, Trudeau calls for a return to the honest broker tradition in Canadian foreign policy. We all know what he really means, that between Israel and Hamas, Canada should seek a “middle ground.”

By contrast, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have steadfastly supported Israel the entire time they have been in power. Israel ultimately needs friends with backbone willing to support her whenever the international community isolates and condemns her.  

David Posluns
Toronto

Lice are not the problem

Your article on “lice ladies” (“Lice ladies remove stigma of annoying pests,” Oct. 8) deserves some comment to more accurately describe some of the issues.

First of all, I do not believe that it is necessary to hire anyone to treat this condition. Proper application of some of the standard remedies are extremely effective and extremely safe. In 38 years of practice I have never seen someone react to this treatment. There is almost no evidence that natural products are effective in the treatment of lice.

There is absolutely no need to remove a child from the classroom when the diagnosis is made. It only stigmatizes them. Proper treatment renders the child non-contagious, and there is very little evidence for the need to remove nits prior to return to school. 

Lastly, if “Nurse Shelley” is indeed a nurse, she does not show up on the registry of the College of Nurses of Ontario. I believe that “Nurse Shelley” should dissuade people from calling her that, lest they think she is really a nurse. 

Dr. Howard Bargman

Associate professor of dermatology,
University of Toronto

Thank you, Lauren

The story that profoundly touched my heart was Lauren Kramer’s “The warm buzz of memory” (Oct. 23) as she eloquently describes the long-gone image of her beloved parents, an image that resonates with many readers who have also lost loved ones.

It is a powerful reminder, as she says, “that life, though fleeting, can be very, very good.” Thank you Lauren.

Vivianne Silver
Montreal

A letter to Malala Yousafzai

Dear Malala,

You are a remarkable young woman by any standard. At 17, you have the distinction of being the youngest person to ever have received a Nobel Peace Prize – for your activism and bravery on behalf of girls’ education.

Word has it that you have decided to donate your $50,000 award money to help build schools in Gaza. (The CJN, Nov. 6). This is indeed a noble idea, and in keeping with your life’s mission of bringing education to children who are deprived of such by oppressive regimes.

You yourself were brutally shot in the head at the age of 15 by the Taliban, for whom your activism for girls’ education in Pakistan was a crime. You risked your young life for your ideals, and captured the admiration of the world with your quiet dignity and fearless tenacity.

You became the champion of girls and women the world over in your selfless and relentless quest to bring education and equality of opportunity to your sisters who are deprived of these basic rights, and ultimately you were awarded the highest honour, the Nobel Peace Prize, World’s Children’s Prize.

We were thrilled and couldn’t have chosen a more deserving person. We watched with delight as you were feted by world leaders and interviewed on prime time television for all the world to admire.

You are even set to receive honorary Canadian citizenship and have millions of dollars of funding from Prime Minister Stephen Harper allocated to educational projects that you support.

What could be more in tune with your character than the decision to use your prize to fund education for those who have no schools?

Sounds perfect.

Except for the fact that there is more to a school than bricks and mortar. Many countries have pledged millions of dollars to rebuild the schools of Gaza, many of which were reduced to rubble only a few short months ago.

Schools that were used to store missiles, that were used as launching pads for these missiles. Many loads of cement were earmarked for construction of these schools, usurped to build terror tunnels into Israel.

Schools that, according to a curriculum dictated by Hamas and Fatah, taught children hatred, racism and genocide of others. Schools that taught that it is honourable to be used as a human shield, that kidnapping and murdering other children is honourable.

Until this hateful curriculum, which is facilitated by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), is reworked to reflect tolerance, promote equality and teach respect for diversity, no amount of money will be able to build a school of any value at all.

What a wonderful opportunity there is now to take your gift, together with millions of dollars donated by the world, to build shiny new classrooms in which to teach Gaza’s children all manner of life skills, so that they can bring their society into the openness, the hope and the prosperity of the 21st century.

But I’m afraid, Malala, that until measures are taken to ensure that the funds for these schools are not diverted by Hamas to buy missiles, and that the materials earmarked for their construction are not used to rebuild dozens of terror tunnels into Israel, your donation will be a dangerous and destructive one.

Until these schools are revamped from the inside out, your precious, hard-earned and well-deserved prize money will only help to build a worthless, empty shell inside, which will continue the wretched indoctrination of perpetual hatred and self-destruction.

You and the children of Gaza are worthy of so much more.

Randi Skurka
Toronto