Letters to the editor July 7

Sensitivity lesson

I received Jewish Pittsburgh Living and scanned its pages for familiar faces and regional Jewish highlights. I was surprised and disappointed however when I saw the Bistro19 Recipes & Reservations.

The featured recipe’s first item was oyster sauce and by mentioning the J Magazine one can receive complimentary calamari (squid)!

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Really? Is that the best your magazine can do? I would encourage more sensitivity to your readership and better proofreading of advertisements from eating establishments.

Dori Oshlag

Mt. Lebanon

(Editor’s note: The oyster sauce recipe also contained a referral to oukosher.org for kosher substitutes.)

Biker Jews story rapped

I was disappointed to read the June 30 article, “Jews on Motorcycles? Yes, and they’re Ridin’ Chai!” which paints a positive portrait of one of the most dangerous and lethal legal activities in which one can engage.

Hardly a day goes by that we do not receive accounts of fatalities and injuries sustained while one was riding a motorcycle. One can be the most skilled, defensive driver around, but all bets are off when one takes to the road in a vehicle that is devoid of the significant protection afforded by an automobile.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently marked Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. The campaign was misguided. If our government wishes to promote the greatest possible degree of safety and the reduction of health care expense, it will encourage individuals to be sensible and not to ride motorcycles.

Motorcycle riders do not have the same regard for their lives as I do, and I find it bizarre that the thrill of the open road is so breathtaking to some that they are willing to risk their lives to experience it. It would be my hope that anyone who chooses to engage in this often-lethal pursuit would be an individual who would not leave behind a family to mourn them if they did not return.

It is laudable that the motorcycle riding group depicted in the article has come together in faith, but if I were to seek camaraderie with fellow Jews, my choice would be to come together and mesh in a synagogue or at a kosher-style delicatessen rather than in a pursuit in which the odds of not returning from the gathering are too high.

Oren M. Spiegler

Upper St. Clair