Letters To The Editor - September 11, 2026

A Simulated Snapshot

There is no securely authenticated contemporary portrait of the Baal Shem Tov. The image in my Collecting Jewish History article, “The Rebbe and the Baal Shem Tov Centenary” (Sept. 4), was AI-generated, which I unfortunately failed to note in the caption.

Mea culpa to my readers, who may have been misled. I very rarely use AI – I don’t trust it – and, in this case, the punishment (my embarrassment about my error) fits the crime.

Saul Jay Singer

Grim Predictions for World Jewry

I have come to some conclusions after reading the August 14 article “The Political Mind” by Jack Simony. The world Jewish community – Israel and the entire Jewish Diaspora – is about to face the most virulent and savage attacks since the Holocaust. The worst people in the world – the radical leftists, the extremist Muslims, and even some lunatic right-wingers – will rampage through the streets of cities around the world, including in the United States, beating and slaughtering Jews with impunity. These leftists and Muslims now control the Democratic Party.

Israel will not survive because the anti-Jewish hatred will eventually bring Israel to destruction by depriving it of the means to defend itself from its enemies. Every country in the world, including America, will cheer on its destruction. The schools – K through 12, colleges and universities – will have succeeded in brainwashing and indoctrinating the entire world to hate the Jews. These students will be the murderers of the Jewish people. The media, especially the internet and social media, will amplify the triumph of psychopathic Judeophobia. The governments of the world, including America’s, will all be run by rabid Jew-haters. Hitler will finally be victorious posthumously. That is the direction to which the world is rapidly moving.

The Jewish leadership is almost totally nonresponsive. That must change now! All the various Jewish organizations and leaders must come together and become unified in purpose. Jewish leaders, both political and communal, have failed miserably to stop the massive surge of psychopathic Jew-hatred. We need tough young leaders who will turn the Jewish community into a very militant corps of warriors who have the will and the means to fight those who are determined to mass murder the Jewish people.

Jew-hatred is much more widespread now than it was prior to the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust and World War II. We have to fight this as never before. This is not a time for piccolos. It is a time for trumpets! If we fail, the Jewish nation will perish from the earth.

Jerry Zolton

Hermitage, Penn.

Reason for Optimism – and Action

America has been a great haven for Jews for many years. That refuge is coming under severe pressure with the explosive rise of antisemitism recently, as you have reported (for example, “Jews Victims in 64% of U.S. Religious Hate Crimes Last Year,” Aug. 21). Compounding this problem is the concomitant rapid rise in anti-American activity by a combination of radical Democratic socialists and Islamic extremists. The situation now looks grim and many American Jews are very apprehensive about our future here. However, before we sink into complete despair, a look at history may give a ray of hope. We’ve been in dire straits before, and we have prevailed.

In its 400-year history, starting with the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620, America has suffered a series of severe shocks and has always rebounded for the better. In 1776, the original 13 independent colonies banded together, and with a ragtag army and primitive weapons defeated the great British army to attain their independence, and prospered after that.

In the 1800s, great differences in economy, culture, and slave policies literally tore the nation apart. Only after a long and bloody Civil War did the country again reunite and go on again to prosper further.

In the first half of the 20^th century, the country suffered a devastating economic depression and a great agricultural dust bowl calamity, and had its Pacific fleet destroyed by a Japanese surprise attack. Again, however, it rebounded spectacularly, and during what has been called “The Greatest Generation,” emerged as the most powerful nation on earth.

After that, America continued to be severely tested by a long string of serious issues. We endured McCarthyism (1947-54), the Korean War (1950-53), the Cold War (1954-62),violent race riots (1964-69), the divisive Vietnam War (1955-75), and the Watergate fiasco (1974). Throughout all these trials, America fought through its difficulties and emerged as the single greatest world power.

The Jewish people have survived for so much longer throughout their history. From the Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks to the Spanish inquisitors, Russian pogroms, Nazi Holocaust, and Arab expulsions, and now in modern-day Israel, the Jews survived them all.

That brings us to today’s troubles and how we view the future. It is common for writers at this point to conclude with the phrase, “Only time will tell.” However, that is not the message I want to send. We Jews and Americans can either succumb meekly to our adversaries and lose everything we fought for over the years, or we can fight like our predecessors and continue our magnificent climb through history. And history is on our side. America has triumphed through four centuries of struggles, while the Jews have survived through three millennia of adversity and are still a people to be reckoned with. 

However, survival requires fighting for it, as it did in the past. Remember the injunction we read at the Seder: “In every generation, they rise against us.” Our destiny is in our own hands. Passively watching events go by without our input is a recipe for failure. Actively fighting is the only path to continued survival. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, “The price of freedom is eternal struggle.”

Max Wisotsky

Highland Park, N.J.