Dear Editor,
VTDigger let a 14-year-old lecture Jews on what constitutes “real” antisemitism, giving her a platform that is especially inappropriate at a time of anti-Jewish hate crimes, which have surged since Oct. 7, 2023. Just as people without lived experience should not define racism for Black Vermonters or homophobia for gay Vermonters, neither should they define antisemitism for us. Only Jewish Vermonters can identify that prejudice.
Criticizing Israel is not inherently antisemitic. Our letter never said it was, nor did we call Zoya Bianchi an antisemite. No one is more critical of the Israeli government than Israelis themselves, a hallmark of a thriving democracy.
To Bianchi and Oscar Vulte, who also wrote to VTDigger recently: We believe you mean well. But good intentions do not change the nature of the acts of telling Jews which antisemitism is “real,” dismissing Jewish concerns as political cover for Israel and turning the Holocaust against Jews.
Whatever Vulte intended, his analogy asks readers to view stopping Israel’s alleged conduct through the historical lens of stopping Nazi Germany in 1941. A Nazi analogy cannot be used without invoking the memory of the Holocaust. Six million Jews were murdered in under four years, and 81 years later, our population has yet to recover. Since 1948, the Palestinian population within historic Palestine has grown fivefold. Using our attempted extermination to frame the Jewish state is Holocaust inversion.
Bianchi cites a Syrian state news agency post for 73,381 deaths, omitting that the Hamas-run Health Ministry does not distinguish civilians from combatants. That framing misleads readers into seeing every death as an innocent civilian.
Nor has an international court found genocide in Gaza or Lebanon. The U.N. commission is not a court. Its Gaza statement is a nonbinding legal opinion, and it made no finding concerning Lebanon. The International Court of Justice case is pending.
Like most of the people signing this letter, I was bullied for being Jewish as a young person, and in the wake of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, I am still bullied as an adult. Some of us have been physically assaulted. All of us have endured verbal abuse and antisemitic taunts.
Israel is not beyond criticism. Jews are not beneath respect.
Mark Treinkman
Athens, Vt.
and the undersigned Vermont Friends of Israel:
Linda Coloumbe, St. Albans; Jan Feldman, Northfield; Rosemeryl Harple, Jericho; John Eckerson, Westford; Denise Gebroe, Proctorsville; Leesette Bengar, Brattleboro; Robin Maza, Burlington; Brian McDonald, St. Albans; Ethel Goldstein, Westford; Mark Leopold, Burlington; Giselle Aben, Essex Junction; William Simmons, St. Albans; Andrea Shader, Burlington; Ed Wolfstein, Burlington; Rachel Feldman, Moretown; Dr. Craig Rinder, Putney; Linda Rinder, Putney; Deb Wien, Colchester; Marlene Simmons Skulnik, Manchester Center; Ohad Yavkovski, Reading; Dani Shaw, Haverford, Pa.; Alice Berliner, Norwich; Sally Herschorn, Burlington; Tehila Marks, Putney; Tim Wessel, Brattleboro; Lorraine Westcott, Newfane; Beth Orlan, Westminster; Richard Orlan, Westminster; Arielle Kennedy, Townshend; Chelsa Roy, Springfield; Orly Munzing, Dummerston; Bobby Naimark, Springfield, Mass.; Levi Gottlieb, Ludlow; Steve Spett, Grafton; Cris White, Newfane; Nicole Reisman, South Hampton, N.Y.; Howard Prussack, Westminster; Rabbi Howard A. Cohen, Bennington; Gail Cohen, Bennington; Caleb Miner, Wilmington; Monica Schwartzbach, Ludlow; Mitchel Schwartzbach, Ludlow; Yaeko Elmaleh, Wilmington; Zohar Arama, West Townshend; Mark Berman, Athens; Rhonda Wainshilbaum, Leyden, Mass.; Penny Novak, Buckland, Mass.; Bruce Saul, Newfane; Heidi Fishman, Norwich; Molly Ritvo, Burlington; Michael Goldstein, Colchester; Cheryl Goldstein, Colchester; Joni AvRuick, Burlington; David Sokol, Burlington; Irvin Varkonyi, Brownsville; Lee Lichtenstein, Burlington; Shimmy Cohen, Milton; Joan Schillhammer, South Burlington; and Shayna Rose, Bellows Falls.
