Overlooked in Israel
In your article “$4 Billion Man” (November issue), Hanan Sher wrote that Hezbollah “concentrated their rocket fire on larger targets,” implying that smaller potential targets were mostly ignored. However, Kibbutz Gesher HaZiv, located close to the Mediterranean coast and four miles from the Lebanese border, was hit frequently—on one day 48 rockets hit. Ironically, on that day that kibbutz was visited by a delegation of United States Congressmen. These sparser areas received little press coverage.

Incidentally, if, as you wrote, Ma’alot is a short drive west from the coast, that would put the town underwater—the coast is Israel’s western border.
Dr. Gerald Schoenfeld
Via e-mail

An Ayin for an Alef
For the first time, I found a typo in the Hebrew in one of Joseph Lowin’s columns (“How to Attack a Problem,” November issue). This mistake is made too often by Israelis. At the end of the 5th paragraph, Lowin writes “ha-no’em,” which should be hey-nun-vav-alef-mem but Lowin writes hey-nun-vav-ayin-mem.
Beny Neta
Monterey, CA

Biblical Interpretation
In Norma Rosen’s “Commentary: The Bible as It Was” (November issue), it might be noted that “Jonah…lived inside a whale” is not the way it was in my copy of the Bible. “Big fish,” not a whale, was Jonah’s temporary residence.

Also, it may not be right to assume what is meant to be learned from Jonah, or any book of the Bible. We may learn different things at different times from the same words.

When my son was slowly dying of cancer, I would look out of my bedroom window at large orange flowers on the fence of my unplanted garden. After shiva for my son was over, I went to the fence and found that gourds were growing there. At that time I felt the gourds were telling me that, like Jonah, I, too, should recognize that it is God who decides who lives and who dies.
Leah Silver
Highland Park, NJ

The Right of Teens
As creator of fully subsidized teen trips to Israel in 1996, the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation fully understands the impact the Israel experience has on enhancing Jewish pride and connecting young adults to Israel (“Trip of a Lifetime,” November issue). We believe the community-based Israel experience during the mid-teen years is more effective, as it provides prime opportunities for meaningful pre- and post-trip programming, in addition to strengthening Jewish identity at a critical stage, better preparing young adults to deal with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments on college campuses. The free teen Israel experience provides more bang for the buck.
Deborah Coltin
Executive Director
Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation
Salem, Massachusetts

Corrections
In “Trip of a Lifetime” by Sara Liss (November issue), we omitted the name of Alicia Post, who was one of the organizers of the kick-off event for the Israel Baseball League.

In Charles Jacobs’ review of The Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders (December issue), we regret that a word was erroneously changed in the editing. The sentence should have read “Edward Alexander and Paul Bogdanor have collected essays about”—not by—“more than a dozen of the most prominent critics of Israel.” In fact, the essays were written by such lovers of Israel as Cynthia Ozick, Jacob Neusner, David Roskies and Alvin Rosenfeld