Respect Differences of Religions

I read with interest Pamela Warrick’s article on “Meeting Faith to Faith” (April 13) describing her family’s dual observance of Easter and Passover.

While the need for people to learn about different religions is something that can only improve relations and foster better understanding among groups and individuals, it seems to me that families’ observation of the rituals of different religions is offensive to both.

It is unauthentic when a Jew casually observes Christmas or Easter and a non-Jew does the same for Yom Kippur or Passover. It is only when individuals convert to Christianity or Judaism that the beautiful rituals belong to them as well. Without formal acceptance or commitment, reducing Easter and Passover to ham, Easter eggs, gefilte fish or matzo diminishes and trivializes both.

Unfortunately, too many people of goodwill don’t want to let people be different. They feel compelled to put philosophy, ideas and rituals into a spiritual Cuisinart and create a bland sameness that everyone can embrace. But the beauty is that people are different--religions are different--and these differences should be glorified and respected.

RABBI MOSHE J. ROTHBLUM

North Hollywood

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“Meeting Faith to Faith” makes a mockery of both Jews and Christians who celebrate their respective holidays with any degree of religious or spiritual depth.

Passover celebrates freedom from slavery in Egypt, and the survival of Jewish life over the forces of religious and cultural persecution. The main thrust of the Seder is not “it’s only food,” but rather a ritual retelling of the Exodus through prayer, story and song.

And, to my knowledge, Easter still has something to do with Jesus Christ, and is a major religious holiday on the Christian calendar.

The deification of Jesus stands in absolute contradiction to the very core of Jewish belief in one God. But perhaps this is just a small example of the “liturgical inconsistencies” to which the writer makes reference.

I don’t know which is more offensive: the article’s pathetic attempt to gloss over differences between two systems of belief and ritual, or the superficial focus which reduces both holidays to food fests, some kind of watered-down, borrowable cultural artifacts.

RENA ORENSTEIN

Sherman Oaks