‘As-a-Jew Anti-Zionists’
Jonathan Braun is a well-respected columnist who usually expresses himself quite clearly. However, his column “Some Consolation in 2026” (Jan. 9) was completely muddled in its message. Braun acknowledges that there are many “as-a-Jew anti-Zionists” who are anti-Israel and, through intersectionality, support others who share their views. But Braun does not condemn them, and takes consolation in the fact that they stop short of overtly demonizing Jews themselves.
I find that he is hiding behind semantics, and that in his position, he is threading such an extremely fine needle that it is meaningless. If one aligns himself with those who support Israel’s destruction – which can only come about by killing most of its Jews – then one is clearly anti-Jews. How can Braun take consolation in the fact that supporting the killing of Jews is not as bad as demonizing them? Certainly, it is worse.
His premise just doesn’t make any sense at all.
Max Wisotsky
Highland Park, N.J.
Jonathan Braun responds:
I appreciate the reader’s attention to my column – and the kind opening compliment. Let me be perfectly clear: I unequivocally condemn “as-a-Jew anti-Zionists” who align themselves with movements and ideologies that seek Israel’s destruction. That destruction, as the letter correctly notes, would necessarily entail the mass murder of Jews.
The point of my column, however, was not to excuse or minimize that betrayal. It was a limited –and admittedly sardonic – observation about degrees of moral collapse. More than a century ago, Achad Ha’am took a grim measure of consolation in the fact that even the most self-loathing Jews of his era had not yet adopted the medieval blood libel as their own. My argument was deliberately analogous: that while today’s Jewish anti-Zionists eagerly repeat the most grotesque falsehoods about Israel, they still stop short of endorsing the core lies of Nazis and Holocaust deniers.
That observation is neither praise nor absolution. It is an attempt to measure how far the descent has gone – and how much further it could still go. If the irony or sarcasm of that distinction was unclear, I regret the misunderstanding. But the moral judgment itself should not be in doubt.
A Kosher Baseball Memory
I saw Irwin Cohen’s article about Sandy Koufax (“Sandy Koufax at 90: From Bonus Baby to Baseball Immortal,” Jan. 9) and thought I would share the following with you. I have been reading The Jewish Press for the last 50 years. I enjoy the reporting and many of the special features. Your reporting on Israel is informative and resolute.
I am a Chicagoan and a lifetime White Sox fan. I attended the 1959 Sox-Dodgers World Series. It was the last game when the Dodgers clinched the series from the White Sox. I believe Koufax pitched that game.
Chicago was quite excited about the possibility of winning the World Series. When the Sox clinched the American League title in a night game from the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland, the air-raid sirens were sounded! The Dodgers dominated and the rest is history.
My father and I came to the last game because the hot dogs of the family company, Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Company, were sold at the Sox park known then as Comiskey Park. (See accompanying image.) My grandfather on my mother’s side was Sol Lazar, the founder of Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory.
Fred Waltzer
Chicago, Ill.