The writer is president of Vermont Friends of Israel.
ATHENS-In response to Bert Picard's criticisms that my most recent letter makes "dangerous" and "wild accusations," I ask, does Mr. Picard also take issue with Richard Evers' claim that "the majority of American Jews...are worse than the Germans of the 1930s"?
Was he offended when Kate Casa proclaimed I am a "genocide supporter" in those same pages?
Perhaps he was bothered to read Adian Smith accuse Tim Wessel of "dehumanizing and racist thinking" or when Edward Morris wrote that Tim "shamelessly responds to Jewish bullying tactics and would bully his own people on behalf of Jews"?
Maybe he missed Susan Odegard's Oct. 18, 2023 letter, in which she justified the Hamas attack and preemptively defended against accusations of antisemitism by declaring it a "form of censorship [that] is intellectually and morally weak."
Mr. Picard was concerned only when it was a Jew defending against this, not when Jews were forced to read in this newspaper disgusting antisemitic inversions, baselessly accusing Israelis of heinous crimes that were, in reality, committed against them.
Jews are all too familiar with the reason why, and we refuse to be bullied into silence.
Bert Picard speaks for himself, and he is spreading Jew hate. The Commons speaks to the community, and they are amplifying Jew hate. The community itself speaks when something matters to them, and too many are silent while antisemitism flourishes in our town.
Mark Treinkman
Athens
The writer is president of Vermont Friends of Israel.
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
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