I GUESS that I am only one voice as an American Jew at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, but my husband and I love history.

We just came back from a battlefield tour of Normandy Beaches (including Pegasus Bridge), Waterloo, Verdun, Bastogne, etc. But my interest is mainly Judaica and I know York's Clifford's Tower is very significant in English Jewish history. My husband is an American Civil War buff and there are constant battles about commerce encroaching on historic sites. But once the powers that be are told the significance of the site, the preservationists tend to win. Please give the tower the honour it deserves. The memory of those who perished deserve no less.

Suzanne Bermant

Los Angeles, California.

...AS a frequent visitor to York and as an ex-patriot English Jew I must protest at the plan to minimise the standing of Clifford's Tower in your fair city. I am sure you are aware that the tower was the site of one of the the first major English pogroms - it is a focus of pilgrimage for Jews throughout the world and a site of cultural tourism.

The site should be preserved to prevent such occurrences of hatred being repeated by future generations. I suggest you contact the Very Reverend Stephen Platten, Dean of Norwich, who, a few years ago memorialised in a very wonderful way, a similar situation where history had been largely forgotten.

David Welsh,

Calabasas,

California, USA.

... AS an Anglophile and frequent visitor to York, I have just heard the appalling news that it is your intent to tear down the Clifford's Tower. I can understand your desire to gentrify the area but I am certain, with your usual British ingenuity, you can determine a way to accomplish your goal without destroying this historic and most important part of Jewish history.

Andrea Shapiro,

Beverly Hills, California.