“Israel Apartheid Week” is an affront to Palestinian and Israeli moderates who seek to reach peace through compromise and mutual recognition. It opposes equality and tolerance by seeking to do away with the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that Israel, which he described as “one of the great outposts of democracy in the world,” has an “incontestable” right to exist.

I am the proud father of an American soldier, a volunteer.

During a period of an extended war, David Quentzel (Letters, Feb. 12) takes the time to write that “our military cannot be considered a volunteer military.” He offers a citation in “the most complete dictionary in the United States” and possibly hints that our armed forces may be more suitably called mercenaries.

“Our soldiers are not volunteers since they receive significant pay and benefits,” he writes. Could David Quentzel be looking for a pro bono military? Is he ready to include, as benefits received, by the thousands killed and maimed, a free plot of ground and allowances for beneficiaries?

Quentzel prepares what he sees as a safe approach to his foray into a shameful and worthless argument: “I couldn’t agree more that our military greatly deserve our respect and gratitude.” Yet, in the midst of a war with innumerable real concerns facing the nation, he engages in his wasteful encounter with vocabulary and shameful diminution of this same military.

For David Quentzel to become mindful of appropriate vocabulary when attempting to define the American men and women in our armed forces, I suggest that he return to his “most complete dictionary in the United States” and search the meaning of “draft” and contrast it with the meaning of “voluntary.” Then, tune in to his preferred TV news reports and pay careful attention to the environs of our military men and women in war zones to which they are sent.

And then, and then only, determine whether the meaning of a word is as important as the spillage of the blood of our American troops.

I don’t believe our troops will be running to the bank tomorrow morning.

It was distressing to learn that the historic 15th-century synagogue Etz Hayyim was damaged in two attacks in the Old City of Chania on the Greek island of Crete. In addition to the damage suffered by the building, fires also destroyed about 2,000 books, computers, and electronic files.

Police later arrested two Britons, a Greek-American and a Greek as suspects. Ecumenical Patriach Bartholomew wrote a letter to the Jewish community of Greece condemning these attacks on this historic synagogue.

In Tenafly I go to the Cathedral of St. John the Theologian, which is next to the JCC on the Palisades, of which I am a member, so negative information like this affects both of us.

I would like to remind the readers that March 30th is National Doctor’s Day. What a perfect time to let your doctors know how much you appreciate them and just say thank you.

To the doctors who showed and continue to show their humanitarian efforts, in time and money, to the thousands of people in need of medical attention in Haiti and in Chile.... To the doctors who devote each day to research in their never-ending struggle against disease…. To the doctors who serve in our Armed Forces and care for the wounded in the heat of battle, I say thank you.

It takes dedication and commitment to become a doctor and how lucky we are to have the world’s best doctors in America. Let us all salute our doctors for their courage, hard work, and sacrifice and wish them all a very Happy Doctors’ Day.

Imagine if someone forbade you from seeing your loved ones or banned you from visiting the graves of your grandparents. Imagine they told you that you have no right to come to your family home and your identity was simply a figment of your imagination.

Israelis deal with claims like these as a nation each and every day — constant charges that the Jewish people have no right to their ancient homeland.

The warmth emanating from the conference room of the Conti Hotel in Vilnius stood in stark contrast to the damp weather outside. Just steps away from the site of the Vilnius Ghetto, remnants of which can still be found, more than 30 young Jewish activists from across Europe were miraculously networking, studying and sharing their dreams for the Jewish future.

Of late it’s been a tough time for those working to prevent genocide. Darfur has been off the world’s radar screen for months. Then there’s the poor Armenians. It wasn’t enough that 1.5 million were murdered in a genocide perpetrated by the Ottomon Turks during the First World War. Turns out that for the sake of appeasing Turkey and its increasingly militant Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Obama is prepared to rewrite history and deny there was ever a genocide in the first place.

For better or worse — and on some days, with burgeoning anti-Semitism, it seems worse — Jews live all over the world. That is why Natan Sharansky’s call for the Jewish Agency to change its focus from aliyah to education makes good sense (see story on page 26). 

Over the past two decades, Jewish population surveys have shown that assimilation is a force to be reckoned with. Jews who don’t feel part of a “people” identify themselves primarily by country of residence, rather than by religious affiliation. And the number of such Jews is growing, particularly among our youth.

While, as some critics propose, the Jewish Agency’s new focus on “peoplehood” may be too amorphous a concept on which to base programming, it could still be worth a try.

For one thing, organizational leaders are defining the term as “an extended family with a mission.” Young people have shown themselves increasingly committed to mission-driven projects — whether preserving the environment or working with populations in need. Why not expose these same young people to the “Jewish angle” on the projects they have already embraced?

Learning about thriving Jewish environmental groups, for example, can only engender pride in Jewish teachings about our stewardship of the earth. Similarly, knowing more about Jewish outreach groups — for example, American Jewish World Service and MAZON — can show the unique capacity of our community to harness the power of both humanitarianism and heritage.

Jewish education does not have to be limited to textbooks or trips to Israel, although both are valuable. JAFI’s new mission demonstrates an understanding that young Jews may pursue many different paths on the way to greater Jewish identification — we need only to recognize them.

The Jewish Agency has said that the purpose of its new direction is to foster “connection.” Those young people working to help others are already demonstrating one kind of connection — an understanding that they are linked to others. And that is the essence of peoplehood.