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Dear Letter to the Editor:
In August 1933 Dr. Max Neumann, the founder of Verband Nationaldeutschen – the Association of National German Jews, wrote in the Jewish Telegraph Agency that the Jews’ loyalty to the Nazi government was the key to their survival.
Sounds familiar.
Today much of the liberal Jewish leadership in the Diaspora — in the pulpit, academia or politics – embraces Hamas which calls for the murder of every Jew on earth, embraces the Palestinian Authority which calls for the murder of every Jew in Israel, embraces Zohran Mamdani who for years has celebrated the leadership of BDS who calls for the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state and the euthanasia of its Jewish population, etc, etc, etc.
Dr. Max Neumann preached that if Jews just assimilated enough, discarded the outward trappings of Judaism enough – that was so eastern European, just rejected Zionism enough, they would be fine …and the Jew-killing antisemites would accept them.
Really?
Has it stopped in Washington, D.C.? Has it stopped in Boulder, Colorado?
Of course there was a lonely opposition voice. He was called Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who believed in Jewish self-defense and killing the antisemites before they kill you. A Talmudic command rejected by Dr. Max Neumann then and today’s liberal Jewish leadership in the diaspora now.
Any Jewish leader in the Diaspora who has a scintilla of empathy for Hamas is a clone of Dr. Max Neumann. Any Jewish leader in the Diaspora who has a scintilla of empathy for the Palestinian Authority is a clone of Dr. Max Neumann. Any Jewish leader in the Diaspora who has a scintilla of empathy for Zohran Mamdani is a clone of Dr. Max Neumann.
For Jews to worship assimilation and anti Zionism and reject Jewish self defense was a path to Auschwitz. Nothing has changed. There is no grey. Every Jew today and every Jewish leader today must choose between Dr. Max Neumann and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. There was no grey then. There is no grey now.
Richard Sherman
Member of the Institute for the Critical Inquiry of Antizionism
Margate, Florida
