By Elliott Magalnick, , Denver, Colo
In response to the article by Knate Stahl (“Between myself and God,” Aug. 16), I found this article offensive. He seems to know so much of Yom Kippur for someone who totally rejects it by holding a program to help the needy. Offering free food that has been donated and doing so on Yom Kippur is an embarrassment to the Jewish community at large. If he were a gentile doing this on Yom Kippur and it wasn’t his own personal holiday, then it is another story. But being Jewish and not claiming ignorance of the importance of this holiday, but doing an essay on the holiday and its importance to Jewish life and then personally ignoring it is a slap in the face to the Jewish community.
Not observing Jewish holidays is not new to Judaism; it has been done for centuries. That in and of itself is not a reason to write a letter to the editor. What has rankled me and caused me to open up is the fact that he is doing a program that collects food from a supplier and redistributes it to those who are needy. If Mr. Stahl has made an effort to take orders from those who are observing Yom Kippur and made provisions to have their orders delivered to these people on Sunday, after Yom Kippur has ended, then fine, do your thing. But if you are not making an effort to accommodate those people then you are punishing Jews for observing Yom Kippur, and that is your sin.