Ever since a lecturer came to campus the other week to talk on the need for Jews to accept Jesus as their savior, I have muzzled my desire to "speak my pique" because of my belief in open forums and free speech. But the Mar. 31 letter to the editor by a N.C. State University instructor, responding to an earlier letter on the subject, has pushed me over the edge.
Three-quarters of Aaron Jungreis' answers to charges against Israel levied by the previous writer, Hatem El-Sayegh, are a rambling exegesis on Israel as a religious state. This much I can ignore.
But the final paragraph levies Jungreis' own charges against the Jewish people, whom this writer calls his own people: the Jews' rejection of Jesus as Messiah amounts to disobedience toward God and has resulted in 1,900 years of persecution. The final sentence of this letter exhorts Jews to accept Jesus so that they can be saved.
I would entreat this writer and others like him to spare me their misguided attempts to save my soul. I find them arrogant and offensive, to put it mildly. I doubt very much that God countenances such wholesale denigration of peoples and religions, even if this behavior is practiced by one of "my own." (By the way, Mr. Jungreis, I would be happy if you disowned me. I think you really already have.) I'm sorry that The Chronicle has to allow proselytizing of this sort in the name of free speech.
Judith Ruderman
Director, Continuing Education and University Summer Programs
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