Madam, - It is unfortunate that Carl Nelkin of the Jewish Representative Council should defend the harassment of non-Zionist Jews inside Irish synagogues (December 14th). Many Jews in Ireland are not Zionist and indeed there is talk of establishing a group affiliated to Peace Now, the Israeli anti-occupation organisation.
There is something clearly awry when observant, non-Zionist Jews are tarred with the anti-Semitic brush. Had Mr Nelkin attended Prof Rabkin's lecture he would have learnt more about this growing movement of non-Zionist - and even anti-Zionist - Jews both in Israel and the Diaspora. He would have better grasped the distinction between Judaism and Zionism, and the importance of disentangling the two if there is to be peace in the Middle East.
Prof Rabkin described those Zionists who harassed him as having beliefs centred more on the worship of a secular state than study of the Torah. That the Jewish Representative Council should encourage their behaviour is disheartening. - Yours, etc,
DAVID LANDY, St Thomas Road, Dublin 8.