Dear Terry Gross,
I am a huge fan of Fresh Air. I listen to every episode. I greatly admire your interviewing skill and your obvious in-depth preparation for every interview.
Having said that, I was extremely disappointed by your interview with Lawrence Wright. (more…)
Here’s today’s update on the suffering inflicted upon my family by IsraelSims.com:
Do not do business with IsraelSims.com unless you enjoy being ignored, misled and lied to, and you think it’s OK for the SIM cards you ordered for your trip to Israel not to arrive until after you’ve already left.
I periodically post about organizations which can’t handle one of these two simple requests: (1) don’t spam me; (2) don’t send me junk mail. If an organization is incapable of implementing effective policies and procedures to accommodate these two straightforward requests from donors, they are probably also incapable of implementing effective, efficient policies and procedures for doing the work for which donors are sending them money.
I’ve had run-ins of varying magnitude about this with numerous organizations over the years. The ones that I post about here are the worst of the worst. They have either overtly refused to accommodate my requests, or claimed repeatedly, but falsely, that they had done so.
Today, I am forced to add Yad Sarah to this disreputable bunch. I am sorry to do this, because the work Yad Sarah claims to do is important, and because they appear to be respected by other organizations which I respect and tend to trust. However, after my experience with them, I must wonder how efficiently and effectively they use the money entrusted to them by donors to perform their mission.
I’ve posted some price comparisons and comments about the Kosher food selection at the new Waltham BJ’s on this page.
Executive summary: You can save a lot of money on the stuff they carry, but the Kosher food selection is bad.
I’m going to keep updating this page with additional pricing information and any changes to the Kosher food situation, and I’d appreciate pricing updates from others, so send ‘em in if you’ve got ‘em.
Dear Mr. [elided],
I enjoyed your recent letter about the direct and indirect ways in which CJP has positively affected your life. Many in the Jewish community don’t realize how pervasive and beneficial CJP’s influence is, and I think it is extremely valuable to occasionally remind people. Your letter was an especially persuasive and effective reminder.
Having said that, I have a minor complaint I would like to share with you. I expect the merchants and organizations which I support to respect people’s privacy. There is one particular marketing / PR strategy which demonstrates an overt lack of respect privacy, and I was very sorry to see that your letter employed it.
I am speaking of the tactic of sending promotional materials in unmarked envelopes, sometimes even with handwritten rather than printed addresses, in an effort to fool their recipients into thinking that they contain personal rather than promotional correspondence.
There is only one reason for an official letter from the CJP, on CJP letterhead, to be sent in an envelope without any CJP markings on it, and that is to circumvent the fact that some recipients will discard a marked envelope unopened. That is their right, and intentionally circumventing it is akin to a traveling salesman’s foot in the door. Frankly, it’s just plain rude.
I hope that the CJP will reconsider the use of this technique in the future.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Kamens
The flood of news coverage about the suicide of Phoebe Prince has set me to thinking about what makes kids into bullies.
My children attend JCDS, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School. Students at all academic levels are admitted to the school. JCDS is less concerned about intellect than about whether the student, and his or her parents, are compatible with the school’s culture.
In the 6½ years I’ve had children at JCDS, only a few families have chosen to leave. Some of those departures were due to academic needs the school could not fulfill, but others were because their kids simply didn’t fit in.
I’m sure many of you just cringed. We all know what “didn’t fit in” means, right? Kids that are brainy, nerdy, funny-looking, or too fat. Kids who do their homework and care about getting good grades. Kids who would rather play D&D than football. Right?
Nope. At JCDS, fitting in isn’t about any of those things. Rather, it’s almost entirely about one thing and one thing only: treating others with respect. Kids with an “attitude” just don’t fit in at JCDS. What’s most interesting is that usually, their parents don’t either. (more…)
Many of you have probably heard by now about the Kentucky-bound US. Airways Express flight that was diverted last week when the flight crew was alarmed by a Jewish teenager putting on tefillin (New York Times).
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Israelis do not use racial profiling for airport security (“European response mixed to new U.S. security demands,” Jan. 4). They use profiling, which includes patterns of behavior, coordination of intelligence and sophisticated modeling of which country of origin as but one factor. Interviews at the airport are by trained army personnel and they are watching and listening to everyone, even Florida snowbirds. They are just doing it right.
Of course the U.S. should be profiling instead of harassing passengers and crippling the industry, but our technique of rounding up suspicious black men won’t catch Nigerian bombers, and it certainly won’t catch British ones.
- A… Kamens, Brighton
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