I have often remarked that wherever someone is on the religious spectrum, that is the correct place to be.

Everyone to your left appears to be little better than an atheist, and everyone to your right is, obviously, a religious fanatic. So it is with an enormous sense of irony that I read your March 28 editorial calling for Orthodox rabbis to "enforce the precepts of the Torah that call for fair treatment of employees." Are you prepared to follow the other "precepts of the Torah" that Orthodox rabbis regularly call for, such as those regarding homosexuality, or, perhaps, less controversial, the observance of the Shabbat? How about the one concerning the drinking of non-mevushal wine with a gentile or inviting a gentile to a Passover seder (many Orthodox rabbis say that’s a no-no)?

Although individually we may pick and chose which mitzvahs to observe, it is more than a little "chutzpahdik" for you to expect rabbis to follow the rules you feel are important and to enforce them as you deem appropriate. Perhaps a compromise could be reached; you follow a few more rules the rabbis feel are important and maybe they’ll give more credibility to your request.

I agree that the film "Fitna" (editorial, April 4) is provocative. However, it doesn’t matter what Wilders thinks of Islam or what "these people" portrayed in the film think. We also don’t know what the "silent majority" of Muslims feel or who is "silent" or who is the "majority."

I wonder if Harold Lerman (Letters, April 4) has heard any of the speeches of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Or is he judging the pastor’s entire career and calling on Barack Obama to repudiate a longtime friendship because of a few seconds of hyperbole that have been iterated and reiterated in the media. I have heard his entire speech and have some knowledge of his church and its good works as well as its excesses. For Lerman to accuse the church of preaching hatred for America, whites, Jews, and Israel is to indulge in the same type of misrepresentation as the Rev. Wright. Should we expect his friends and co-religionists to end their association with him?

As an 80-year-old woman I would have loved the opportunity to vote for a woman for president once in my lifetime. But this is hardly the year I would choose to do so. In the New Jersey primary I voted for Obama as the better candidate. When I compare Hillary Clinton to Obama I see someone beholden to and thriving on vested interests versus someone more independent and free to think outside the box, the same old same old versus youth and vision, a proponent of the status quo versus one who is not afraid to call for change.

Of course, on the off chance that Clinton wins the nomination, I will have to vote for her. A continuation of the likes of George W. Bush’s administration would be horrendous.

I take great exception to the April 4 letter entitled "Obama failed the test." It appears the correspondent is engaging in preaching of his own with respect to what "we Americans want and need." "Good inherent judgment," as well as integrity, honesty, and respect for our constitution have been sorely lacking in the executive branch during the past seven years. Has the correspondent exercised his indignation in response by protesting, writing, and calling his congressmen, or sending letters to the editor? I have. Has the correspondent ever attended an African American church service, in which it is not uncommon for black preachers and congregants to vent frustrations and to explore wounds in the safe setting of the church? I have. How can he, from his position of white male privilege, pass judgment about this?

I implore the correspondent to use his own "good, inherent judgment," and not be misguided by media-hyped diversion in the midst of one of the saddest eras in this nation’s history. This Jewish American voter is proudly supporting Sen. Barack Obama for president.

The April 4 letter "Obama Fails the Test" states: "I can safely say that the overwhelming members of white Americans would not attend a house of worship where religious leaders preached hatred for African-Americans and told evil lies about them."

The writer evidently doesn’t remember the hatred and killings of Jews because they were Jews, by people of the Catholic faith urged on by their popes and bishops.

The preaching of Martin Luther and its evil content as it pertained to the Jews were in the same vein. Not only didn’t their participants leave the church, but tens of thousands followed their preacher’s advice, and they were white.

The writer forgets Father Coughlin and his hate-filled churches, as well as the American slave owners and the Ku Klux Klan, and their white churches where the most atrocious hate sermons led to arson and hanging of innocent people, women and children included.

Senator Obama has strongly and overwhelmingly condemned the preaching of Reverent Wright, and that should end this attempt to derail Obama.

It is time to remember that the Bush administration has been a disaster for America, and to elect a clone as president in November would be a catastrophe.

I was excited to read Jonathan Rosen’s April 4 story "The cranes are flying." Mr. Rosen describes his first stop on his bird-watching journey in the Jordan Valley, at Kibbutz Kfar Rupin. My husband and I met and fell in love at Kfar Rupin while working and studying on ulpan between 1981 and 1982. The kibbutz was a very special place for many 20somethings from all over the world in those post-college years. Caught between the end of studying and "real life," a six-month stay in Israel on a kibbutz was just what we needed. They were, without doubt, the best six months of my life. Sadly, most kibbutzim no longer function as such anymore. In fact, on our first (and very sentimental) visit back to Kfar Rupin in January 2006, Jorge and I were sad to find our old rooms closed up, the cheder ohel (dining room) bringing food in from another kibbutz, the soccer field grown over, and most adults working outside of the kibbutz in regular jobs. However, our kibbutz has reinvented herself and now offers a wonderful bird-watching refuge, with lovely guesthouses for visitors passing through. Though I am sad that my own 20something children will never have the romance of post-college kibbutz life, I encourage everyone who travels to Israel to spend some time on Kfar Rupin or another kibbutz. The feeling you get when waking up to the sound of birds, the scent of growing fields, and smiles of those who remain on the kibbutz is worth the price of a trip to Israel.

Having often been exasperated in the past by Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer’s opinions, I went against my better judgment and read his April 4 rant: "We need to put Pesach back on track." For me, it is somewhat of a catch-22 to comment on his latest (and actually on all his) diatribe(s), because to do so risks portraying myself precisely as he does: as being controversial and negative. Yet I’m compelled to write because it troubles me that a learned man such as Rabbi Engelmayer consistently chooses to see and emphasize the negative, not the good. He chooses to divide, not to unite, and he influences others to do the same. This is not my Judaism. I have no quarrel with some of the facts and truisms that regularly fill his opinions, many of which, in fact, I agree with. Let me instead suggest another way — one that emphasizes the positive. Let us choose to see the glass half full, not half empty. Let us as Jews search not for what is lacking or flawed, but for what greatness and blessings we have.

It is true that one of our greatest attributes is to question, but I would respectfully submit that we do so to seek truths and to refine, not to bring us down. The decisions of our greatest thinkers throughout the millennia — for good and for bad — are precisely what has kept us alive. Their legacy is our Judaism, and it is awesome and beautiful. When we all, collectively, from the most secular to the most pious, recognize this and see this as greatness rather than as controversial, perhaps then each of us, in our own unique way, will see our Jewish identity with strength and inner pride rather than as dubious. Maybe then we will have the great merit to truly live up to our ultimate potential and goal of being the light (of HaShem) unto the world — with or without kitnyot on Pesach.