Reflection, please

I read with utter dismay about Rabbi Lev Taylor describing God as a “notorious homosexual” (Rabbi’s ‘God is gay’ post sparks heated debate, August 11). Describing Hashem as having any sort of sexuality is both absurd and blasphemous.

I have been both the chairman and lay minister of a progressive synagogue for almost thirty five years and am very proud of the inclusion of LGBT people in our community, but l cannot stay silent when people who should know better make statements that open us up to ridicule.

Debate about the nature of God is nothing new to Judaism, but statements describing God as a “notorious homosexual” should come out of the mouth of anyone — let alone a rabbi. May l suggest that Rabbi Taylor uses the coming month of Elul to reflect on what he has said and do teshuvah.

David Young,
Bedfordshire Progressive Synagogue

I am the daughter of founding members of South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue. I was most intrigued to read of Rabbi Lev Taylor’s revelation that God has a human body and its concomitant proclivities — and that “wrestling with God” is identical to attributing our baser intentions to Him/Her.

God does not “appear” to anybody as gay, straight, trans or cis, since nobody since Moses has ever “seen” God, and no stream of Judaism has ever taught that God ever took human form — unless Rabbi Taylor knows, or has witnessed, otherwise. The only Jews with pretentions to religiosity that misused sexuality as a form of “wrestling” were the followers of such as Shabbatai Zvi and his “reincarnation”, Jacob Frank (long before the beginnings of Reform Judaism).

I find Rabbi Baginsky’s assertion that this is part of a tradition that goes back to Torah deeply puzzling. I also find Rabbi Helfman’s dismissal of those who refuse to toe the political line as “an angry minority” patronising. As one who “self-identifies”, to borrow the popular phrase, as a Reform Jew on the traditional end of the spectrum, I can only consider their comments to be jejeune and misleading at best. Derech eretz prevents me from describing them “at worst”.

Ruth Hart
Edgware HA8

Friendly advice

I feel bound to offer Joshua Rowe some friendly advice (Israel protests, Letters, August 11). Whatever you do, do not align yourself with the self-avowed racists and bigots in Israel’s current government and, furthermore, do not resort to maligning the integrity and sincerity of those with whom you disagree without offering substantive proof of your allegations — which you do not have.

Dismissing the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who spontaneously protested against the plan to neuter the supreme court as being politically motivated, not even allowing for the possibility that their motivation is the defence of Israel’s democracy, does not constitute anything even approaching a rational case to which one may give thoughtful consideration.
I accept absolutely your right to take a position different from that of a majority of the UK’s Jewish community. But resorting to the thoughtless mud-slinging, so beloved of those who have nothing better to offer, will not go any way toward to achieving a resolution of this, in my view, existential crisis.

Michael Lazarus
Northaw, Herts

Exaggerated claims

As a mother to one of the madrachim on the Norfolk camp (Youth movement summer camps ‘should be inspected’, August 11) I would like to tell you what my son saw.

Although some of the reported incidents were true, a lot were not or were exaggerated.
The messed-up bathrooms were due to the kids stuffing food down the sinks. The “condom” wrapper was a sauce sachet from a kosher noodle soup. The kids weren’t locked in their rooms as there were no keys or locks. One of the madrichim caught one of the kids selling on the lost property!

From the beginning, many of the boys weren’t going to listen to anyone. They were downright rude and wouldn’t pay attention.

I agree that there should be some sort of governing body overlooking these camps, but if kids are going to be rude from the start I don’t think anything could help.

Rochelle Mendelson
Manchester

Episcopalian Jew?

Rhoda Koenig identifies Barry Goldwater as Jewish (White House Jews, Letters, August 11). This is incorrect. Senator Goldwater had some Jewish ancestry on his father’s side. However he was a practising Episcopalian and could never be considered a Jew.

Mathew Suher
Southport PR9

Nowt to match a Zerma

Stuart Killen’s memories (Bagel broiges, Letters, August 11) of our family bakeries’ bagels are nostalgic and accurate.

Zermansky’s bagels were very special. I fondly (though not at the time!) recall as a teenager being schlepped out of bed at 5am on Sunday mornings by my late father, Isaac Zermansky, to help out at the bakery.

The first bagel of the morning, lavishly buttered with a huge mug of strong tea, was just wonderful.

But the secret of our wonderful bagels with their crisp shiny outer layer and dense soft inside lay not in the ingredients but the baking. Our six massive stone-based ovens stayed at a uniform temperature even when the oven door was opened. The bagels were baked directly on the oven floor and skilfully removed with a wooden peel. For the connoisseur, the bottom half was the prize — extra crisp and dense.

Incidentally, people speculate as to why bagels have a central hole. In those days bagels were boiled in a huge galvanised pan on a gas ring. They came to the surface when ready. Removing them from this bubbling vat for baking was facilitated by using a long stick through the hole to fish them out. Ee lad! There were nowt to match a Zerma bagel.

Arnold Zermansky
Leeds

Greenford memories

Many fond memories have been invoked on reading about Greenford Synagogue (Hindu temple on former shul site welcomes its ‘founding members’, August 11).

As a child aged six, I moved from Cardiff to Hayes, Middlesex, and my family were one of the first members of Greenford when it first opened. Until then, the fledgling Hayes Jewish community used to gather to daven in each others’ houses.

Greenford used to have a youth club on Sunday evenings and sometimes there would be a live band. On these occasions, other teenagers would come from Holland Park synagogue to join us. I am sure many of your readers will remember these days with nostalgic fondness.

Sheila Gewolb (née Woolfe)
Manton LE15

Differences attract

In disclosing that she and her husband have diametrically opposed preferences when it comes to weather — she cool and damp, he hot and sunny — Claire Calman is tapping into a universal law of nature: opposites attract (Why heat will always be a four-letter word, 4 August).

North attracts south, positive attracts negative. Virtually every couple I known obeys this law. My dear wife prefers the window open at night, allowing fresh air (and noise) into our room; I prefer a stuffy warm room without the dawn chorus and the first arrivals at Heathrow waking me up. My friend’s brother refuses to dine alfresco in summer because he has spheksophobia (a fear of wasps); his partner is an entomophile.

And yet anyone who’s watched Larry David or Woody Allen will realise that these personal perversities form the basis of so much marital, and ultimately Jewish humour.

Stan Labovitch
Windsor