July 10, 2026 Categories: In Print / Letters To The Editor
Letters To The Editor - November 7, 2025
Torah Delight
Ever since I happened upon Raemia A. Luchins’s September 5, 2025 d’var Torah in The Jewish Press, “Four Quiet Mitzvos: Mercy, Memory, and Moral Architecture in Parshas Ki Tetzei,” I eagerly scour each newly delivered Jewish Press for another article of hers in print. I felt transported to a higher plane of attachment to the gift of the Torah’s mitzvot after reading Luchins’s d’var Torah. Quite extraordinary.
M. Robeson Chicago, Ill.
Jews Are Their Own Worst Enemy (Ed. Note: This letter was sent in last week, before the results of the mayoral election.) Re: October 31’s cover article, “New York on the Brink: The Radical Threat of Zohran Mamdani,” by Jonathan Braun: Jews have been voting Democratic since the days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s-40s. In those awful times, Jews were enamored by his fatherly image and calming voice and chose to ignore the fact that he didn’t lift a finger to help a single Jew during the Holocaust. And they have been voting solidly Democratic ever since. Today, Jews are facing the biggest threat in their long and glorious history in America. The expected winner in the mayoral race in New York City – the greatest city in the world, the economic capital of the world, and home to the highest concentration of Jews in the world outside of Israel – is Democrat Zohran Mamdani, who is an avowed socialist and antisemite, and an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, pro-BDS advocate. The election of Mamdani would be a major step in President Barack Hussein Obama’s goal of the “fundamental transformation” of America from a constitutional, free-enterprise democracy into a totalitarian, socialist state. And even if Mamdani somehow manages to lose this race, the simple fact that a man with his credentials was a serious contender for such an important office should send shockwaves through every American and Jewish voter. The vast majority of Jews are again expected to vote Democratic in this election. Their main rationale, besides habit, is their visceral hatred for President Donald Trump in Washington, who has been the friendliest American president Israel and the Jews have ever had. Jews in New York City should have been more worried about Mamdani in New York City than Trump in Washington. Yet there were no rallies, no demonstrations, no organized campaigns, no protests by individuals or by our Jewish leaders and organizations against today’s existential threat to our very survival in what was once viewed as the “Goldene Medina.” Many of us may mourn the result, but how many of us really did anything about it? As Hillel cautioned, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”Max Wisotsky Highland Park, N.J.
Don’t Call Dead Hostages ‘Deceased’ A simple, but important, request for every media outlet to immediately substitute one word in their press coverage when referring to the dead bodies being returned to Israel: They are not merely “deceased hostages” – they are “murdered hostages” – and the world needs to be reminded of that whenever they are referred to. They were murdered – either killed by ammunition, or starvation, or having their medication withheld. “Deceased” refers to anyone who passed away, usually from natural causes. Let us pray together for the immediate return of our murdered brethren, Hy”d, for proper burial.Paul E. Brody, M.D. Via E-mail
Fighting The Genocide Allegation Hamas has already won the public relations war, having convinced many Americans and citizens of the world to believe the Big Lie that Israel is committing genocide. TV and videos show violence in real time, more graphically than the Nazi atrocities that were not witnessed even by most of today’s older generation. This is jeopardizing present and future military support of Israel and present and future economic trade. I respectfully believe that just as the military war now seems far from over once again, there is still time for the Israelis to win the public relations war or at least cut their public relations losses. I therefore propose that Prime Minister Netanyahu and every Israeli and Jewish spokesperson say virtually nothing else for public consumption except to quote or paraphrase the most relevant and authoritative findings and conclusions of John Spencer, formerly a U.S. Army officer and the current chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute, host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast at West Point, and a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare. Spencer concluded that Israel’s military did more to protect enemy civilians than any other army in history by routinely using both high-tech and low-tech in unprecedented ways to help Gazan civilians escape imminent harm, thereby saving more enemy civilians than any other army in world history. It has been widely reported that, by contrast, certain non-Israelis tried to prevent Gazan civilians from escaping in order to drive up the numbers of civilians killed and drive up the numbers of people available to serve as human shields. This is in addition to unprecedented quantities of food transported from Israel to Gaza and often hijacked by a certain group of Arabs (again that euphemism), thereby preventing much of the food from reaching ordinary Gazan civilians. Nothing else should be said in public speeches about the war, so the media will finally be compelled to cover these life-saving efforts of the Israelis and spread the word. Words can kill or heal. Let’s encourage everyone to simply place every action in context, in which case the allegations of genocide will be made only against the true perpetrators of genocide in this war, who did their most notable work on October 7, and were proud of it – who videotaped and publicized it (also pretty much unprecedented, showing real-time evidence), who would surely have continued had they not been stopped, and who pledged to do it again in the future, if given the opportunity.Ari Rice Via E-mail
