THE DUBIOUS LEVANTINE

As a Sephardic Jew who has no use for groundless antisemitic cliches, I found Frank Rose’s review of “Skin Tight” by Christopher Byron (April 12) deeply offensive.

The article starts out by distinguishing between . . . Americans who “like to think there’s a rational explanation for everything,” and foreign-born garment-business operators who appeal to “primitive emotions” and “short-circuit all the high-minded institutions of Western Civilization.” . . . Rose’s tirade goes on to describe a protracted legal battle between two Sephardic garment-business families. As ugly as this fight seems, it certainly doesn’t appear more unethical, dangerous or primitive than, say, the Charles Keating trial. Nevertheless, Rose goes out of his way to make statements about these two families like: “They treat business as a form of Middle Eastern politics, with . . . depositions that go off like car bombs.” What is the time-worn, emotion-laden stereotype of the dubious Levantine doing popping up in an article by such a rational, presumably pure-blooded American?

ANNIE KAPLAN, LOS ANGELES