Regarding Iris Borman’s letter (April 13), she objected to including certain groups in the Salute to Israel parade. There may be political rationales for including them in the “big tent.” However, even though these groups love Israel, they persist in spanking as a way of correcting the behavior of this wayward child.

Israel, however, is not a child. It is a democratic country with many voices, and a democratically elected government that must strive to respond to consensus.

Unfortunately, the editor stated that these groups are trying to make Israel more democratic. That is often coded

language that means more accommodation to Arab demands. But the rhetoric often included with these demands denies Jewish rights to any of the land — denies that there was any Jewish history there before the Holocaust (when they admit there was a Holocaust) — and refuses to acknowledge Israel’s existence.

For peace and democracy to flourish those views must change.

That is where pressure belongs, not on Israel’s flaws. The fixation on Israel’s flaws has already resulted in both anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism that has become global.

What a treat to view the cover by Flora Rosefsky! (March 23, 2012).

I led seders for over 40 years and appreciated her attention to the table.

The silver candlesticks we used were from my granddmother, Golde Eisen, given to us over 50 years ago for my wedding.

The only thing missing from the painting are red wine stains, unless they are hidden under one of the haggadot. Please ask the artist about this detail.

By the way, the word “Passover” was invented by William Tyndale, an English minister who was persecuted for translating the Bible from Latin to English. Much of his work is found in the King James version of 1611, after his death.

Kathe Pinchuck is not the president of the School, Synagogue and Community Center Division of AJL, as was reported last week on page 12 (Focus on Issues). She is the AJL’s secretary. Joyce Levine, the director of the library at North Shore Hebrew Academy High School, is the current president.

The satirical student publication targeting a Jewish student and falsely claiming he had authored an op-ed entitled “What About All the Good Things Hitler Did?” is merely the latest in a series of problems that Jewish and pro-Israel students have faced at Rutgers University (“Rutgers Under Bias Fire,” April 15, 2012). Jewish students have been threatened, harassed and discriminated against on campus, and the university has largely ignored these problems.

Consider how Rutgers responded to a campus program sponsored by an anti-Israel student group called BAKA. The program, entitled “Never Again for Anyone,” absurdly and offensively equated the Nazis’ genocide against the Jews with Israel’s defensive polices toward the Palestinians. The program’s content aside, the admissions policy discriminated against Jews and supporters of Israel. BAKA was never held accountable by Rutgers.

Rutgers knows about all these anti-Semitic incidents, but its response has been abysmal. When Jewish students complained, officials refused to even listen. Instead, the Jewish students were treated to a lecture about Islamophobia. They were made to feel like the aggressors, even though they had been victimized.

When speakers and programs demonize Jews or Israel, university leadership must publicly condemn them as anti-Semitic, and also condemn the perpetrators. In addition, Rutgers should enforce its own policies, so that when Jewish students are threatened or discriminated against, the wrongdoers are held accountable.

Rutgers needs to educate its staff and students about the meaning and effect of anti-Semitism, and finally recognize that it’s a problem on campus that the university is committed to remedying.

The Jewish Standard can always be counted on for conveying information on Jewish events. That is why it is very disappointing that you have not reported on the scandal that is occurring with this year’s Israeli Day Parade. For the past several weeks, it has been known that extremist anti-Israel organizations are being allowed to march in the “Celebrate Israel Parade” on June 3 in Manhattan. These groups — including such as the New Israel Fund, B’Tselem, Partners for Progressive Israel and Rabbis for Human Rights — promote the boycott of Israeli products produced over the so-called “Green Line.” B’Tselem has publicly called for “effective sanctions” against Israel and has also been featured in videos that were shown at “Israel Apartheid 2012” events being held at universities and colleges worldwide.

Answers should be demanded of parade organizers as to why this is happening. All of the positive things that this parade accomplishes will be compromised by the presence of such organizations.

I hope that the Jewish Standard’s readers will demand that parade organizers reverse their decisions. If they do not, then people should donate their hard-earned money to organizations that actually promote Israel.

The Jewish Standard responds: E-mail boxes throughout the country are being filled with Spam-like messages regarding the inclusion of such groups in the annual Israel parade in Manhattan. Actually, it is the New Israel Fund that is participating, as it did last year, and other groups are marching under its banner, as they did last year. These are not “anti-Israel” groups, but they do oppose Israel’s continued presence on the west bank. Last year, in a letter to the editor of the New York Jewish Week, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg and Blu Greenberg wrote that the inclusion of such groups in the parade “make clear that the tent of our pro-Israel community is wide enough to encompass many groups striving to make Israel even more democratic and pluralist than it is. Their statement also signals to those on the left that they are welcome and needed in the total effort to uphold Israel; and it signals to those on the right the folly of excluding any group that has such strong Zionist feelings.” We second their sentiments.

Here in Israel, we feel that the American Jewish Community can help in ending Jonathan Pollard’s outdated prison sentence, for a crime for which he alread has paid for dearly. Leaving him one more day in jail, especially as his health worsens, is a slow cruel, death beyond the realm of justice.

In the working of the American justice system, all other prison sentences handed out to people who perpetrated similar or worse breaches of national security ended with the offenders out of jail in considerably less time than Pollard has already spent. The U.S. administration cannot justify keeping Pollard incarcerated forever.

Key figures in U.S. political life, including former attorneys-general, have advocated for Pollard’s release. As Jews, we are commanded to have “one law for you and for the stranger within your gates.” As such, we are obligated to stand for equal justice under the law for all citizens of the United States, which itself subscribes to this principle.

As the presidential election nears, the Jewish community must unite on this issue, using its political potential to demand Pollard’s release. Then, we may say, “And the people redeemed Jonathan and he did not die” (1 Samuel 14:45).

Apparently, The Jewish Standard finds reference to Judah and Samaria not politically correct, and turns logical somersaults to come up with exactly the right name. The newspaper’s response indicates that because this territory is under dispute, therefore biblical Jewish names are inappropriate. By The Jewish Standard’s logic, Jerusalem, which according to our Department of State is under dispute, should be referred to not as Jerusalem, its biblical name. Perhaps you would prefer it to be known as al Quds.

(Actually, we said nothing about biblical names. We did say that we prefer to use a term, “west bank,” that reminds everyone that the Arab states illegally seized territory and prevented a Palestinian Arab state from coming into being in 1948.—Ed.)

Please let me state my disgust with your decision to reprint the article from JTA regarding Aryeh O’Sullivan and his association with the Confederate flag. It is a slap in the face to our African-American neighbors. It is even more reprehensible that it appears one week before Passover.

First of all, contrary to O’Sullivan’s assertions, the existence of slavery in the South was a major cause of the Civil War. It is no accident that the war started with the election of Abraham Lincoln, who vowed to curb slavery and allow for its eventual abolition. The soldiers who fought that war for the South fought to maintain the enslavement of African-Americans. To say otherwise is comparable to ignoring the Holocaust in discussions of the Second World War.

Secondly, the Confederate flag itself for the last 147 years has been associated with Jim Crow laws and white supremacy. This is not something of which either O’Sullivan or Sons of Confederate Veterans should be proud. Jews would be outraged if a group was formed of the sons of the Luftwaffe or the Wehrmacht, and paraded around with Nazi flags. Can we expect our African-American neighbors to feel any different?

In short, there is plenty for the American South to be proud of. The Confederate flag and the Confederacy are not among them. Let the stars and bars be left to either a museum or a battlefield recreation. Aryeh O’Sullivan and his fellow members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans ought to realize that the year is not 1912, but 2012.