28 Nov SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER

QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL KIDS
Dear Vues Master
Hundreds of “radicalized” kids rampaged
through the halls of a Queens high school
this week for nearly two hours after they
discovered a teacher had attended a pro-Israel
rally — forcing the terrified educator to hide in
a locked office as the teen mob tried to push its
way into her classroom. We are living in scary
times. It’s horrifying. It’s time for us to pack
our bags & move to Eretz Yisrael.
IV
Vues Master’s Note: We need moshiach now!

GUILT
Dear Vues Master
It seems like every night of Chanukah there
are parties going on this year. Should I feel
guilty going to all these parties over Chanukah
when there is a war going on in Eretz Yisrael
& people are dying every day?
PD
Vues Master’s Note: No. There is a time for
everything.

THE SOFER
A sofer returned to work after Simchat Torah
and called customers to pick up their orders
of Tefillin. One order caught his eye – the
customer was from Nir Oz. He texted the
customer, Rina, to ask how she and her family
were doing. She responded that her son, Yagil
Yaakov, was taken hostage in Gaza, and he is
supposed to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah in one
and a half months. While holding a tefillin bag
embroidered with the name Yagil Yaakov, he
tells how he felt awful and told her he would
refund her order. Rina responded, “Noam,

you aren’t refunding me a penny. Yagil will
come home and we’re going to make a big
celebration. We’re going to need the Tefillin
for his Bar Mitzvah.” Yesterday, Yagil Yaakov
was released!
Vues Master’s Note: Great story.
מִי יִתֵּן מִצִּיּוֹן- יְשׁוּעַת יִשְׂרָאֵל -בְּשׁוּב ה‘- שְׁבוּת
עַמּו-ֹ יָגֵל יַעֲקֹב- יִשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל
תהלים יד:ז

SHANDA
Dear Vues Master
I am a very big fan of Beri Weber but I was
very disappointed in him when he went online
last week & apologized for leading hallel at
the White House. Someone clearly got to him
& he caved. Lipa lost a job in Kiryas Joel but
he didn’t back down. He said that he thought
what he did was right and continues to do what
he thinks is right.
EG
Vues Master’s Note: From the outside this does
not sound good but you should never judge
someone when his living depends on it!!

GOOD VERSUS EVIL
Dear Vues Master
Ya know, the distinction between good and
evil in this war could not possibly be any
clearer. No matter how you want to slice is
and what you want to look at, there are not
two equal sides here. There is good and there
is evil. You can look at the protests. One side
sings songs of unity and peace. The other side
chants of genocide and murder. You can look
at the hostages/prisoners. One side longs for
their children and wives to unite with their
families. The other side demands the release

of murderers and terrorists. One
side does everything it can to ensure
their hostages come home safely
and are treated accordingly. The
other side parades its prisoners
around the streets while calling
for violence. One side mourns its
casualties and yearns for peace. The
other side celebrates the death of its
people and yearns for destruction.
One side goes to extraordinary
lengths to minimize civilian deaths.
The other side does everything in its
power to maximize civilian deaths,
which they then use as a PR tactic.
One side can put down its weapons
and achieve an instant end to the
war. The other side can put down its
weapons and be annihilated by the
enemy. One side has a charter (the
Torah) that puts peace and human
life as the highest value. The other
side has a charter that glorifies
death and genocide. One side tells
the truth even when inconvenient.
The other side has a propaganda
machine that spreads lies and
blood libels all day every day. The
point is, if you see the two sides as
good vs evil, congratulations, you
are a moral person. If you don’t
see the clear difference, if you
compare the two sides, if you make
an equal sign between innocent
hostages and murderous prisoners,
congratulations to you. You are
morally bankrupt and an accomplice
to murder, rape, abduction, and
decapitation. Israel has always been
and will always be the moral side of
the Middle East conflict. The other
side represents radical Islam and
proudly declares that Israel is only
its first stop. In order to navigate the
challenges the world will face as a
result of radical Islam spreading like
a cancer, the first thing they need is
a compass. If you compare Israel to
Hamas, you have no moral compass
and when radical Islam comes for
you, you will not know where to
go or who to turn to. If for no other
reason, you should stand with Israel,

because Israel is fighting this war so
you don’t have to. The top: Who
Hamas took and still hasn’t released
The bottom: Who Israel arrested
and has now released If you can’t
see the difference, you are a lost
cause.
Hillel Fuld
Vues Master’s Note: Send this letter
to the New York Times.

PROUD TO BE A JEW
Dear Vues Master
Nothing you’re going to say,
nothing Hamas is going to do is
going to make me less proud to be
a Jew and an Israeli. Seeing the
videos and pictures of our beautiful
souls reunited with their families
gives me a profound sense of pride
and joy. Hamas can continue to use
psychological warfare. They can
keep telling their people that this
is a victory for them and that the
IDF isn’t winning. They are not my
problem. Not gonna lie, it’s not easy
at times, like when they delay the
release of our hostages, but I have to
keep reminding myself that we are
a beautiful nation of compassion,
and that for us, human life is the
highest virtue. Our enemies, on the
other hand, are savage, inhumane,
barbaric terrorists who view human
life as a tool to take advantage of.
I have to keep reminding myself to
ignore them because they lie every
time they open their mouths and that
their lies have zero to do with me
and my joy from seeing the hostages
return. This is a muscle I’ve been
training throughout this war. I call
it compartmentalization. I have to
work hard to separate the actions
of our enemies, the complicity
of all the so-called human rights
organizations, the silence of the
world, and our objectives in the
war, as well as our achievements on
all fronts. I have to keep doing my
part irrelevant of what the enemy
or the world does. I take them, put
them in a little box, lock it up, and

throw away the key. They can say
whatever they want but it won’t take
away the joy of seeing our loved
ones come home. I do the same for
G-d’s hand here and the natural state
of affairs. When something illogical
happens, like the world spreading
yet another baseless lie about us,
my instinct is to analyze it and let
it get me down. But I’m learning to
fight that urge and realize that G-d
is pulling the strings here and there
is no logical explanation. Putting
those events in that box too. The
ability to separate between us and
them, between nature and G-d helps
me make sense of it all and gives me
comfort. So, yes, I’m deeply proud
to be a part of a nation that will do
everything it can to save even one
life. I am deeply proud of our people
who are able to put aside our ego
and do what is right, what is moral.
No one and nothing can change that.
– A proud Zionist and Jew
Vues Master’s Note: Great letter!

SCHUMER THE FAKE
Dear Vues Master
Shumer is a complete fake. I’m
glad that you called him on his lie
last week. One minute he’s telling
everyone at the rally that he has
Israel’s back & the next he’s voting
against giving Israel the funds they
need. I’m sick of him & his Shomer
Yisroel speech already. How do we
get rid of him???
Vues Master’s Note: A politician
is worse than a lawyer. A lawyer
only lies when his lips are moving
whereas a politician is constantly
fake and lying just by his or her
actions. You will not be able to get
rid of him in New York.

CHAMAS
Dear Vues Master
There is a letter going around right
now by Rav Chaim Navon נבון
חיים. Here is the translation: “I
saw people wondering whether it
is possible to eradicate Chamas by

force. After all, Chamas is an idea,
and you cannot eradicate ideas. I
would like to remind people that the
original Nazis also had ideas, ones
that were even more sophisticated,
ideas that were supported by that

period’s leading intelligentsia-
like Schmidt and Heidegger. And

what happened? After the Allies
assassinated the Nazi leaders
and reduced Berlin to rubble. the
German people reconsidered the
Nazi ideas that had brought them to
that point. Maybe they weren’t great
ideas after all. The destruction of the
Nazis and their supporters served as
a weighty enough counterclaim on
the ideological plane as well.
Vues Master’s Note: May we merit
the same- speedily in our days.

RAV FELDMAN’S LETTER
Dear Vues Master
I read last week in the Jewish Vues
the letter that the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav
Aharon Feldman from Ner Yisrael
wrote about why he did not send his
Yeshiva to the Washington rally & I
had a very hard time understanding
it. We really need achdus during
times like this.
LG
Vues Master’s Note: Different
rabbanim have responded differently
on this topic. I’m not going near this
one.

MUSK IS NOT AN
ANTISEMITE
Dear Vues Master
Dov Hikind, the former NY State
Assemblyman and the founder of
Americans Against Antisemitism,
rejected claims that X and Starlink
owner Elon Musk is an antisemite.
“I can recognize a Jew hater from
a long distance, and let me be very,
very clear. Elon Musk is not an
antisemite, and you really know it,”
Hikind said in a video posted to X on
Monday. “He has made some serious
mistakes…but an antisemite? No
way. I know there is an agenda on

the extreme left to undermine him,
to hurt him and destroy him, but
the fact is that he is now in Israel,
meeting with the Prime Minister
and members of the Cabinet during
the war. You think that the Prime
Minister would be meeting with
an antisemite? I don’t think so,”
he added. “He’s made mistakes,
but I consider him a friend of the
Jewish people, without any doubt.
So let’s stop playing politics with
Elon Musk. He’s not an antisemite.
Not even close.” Musk commented
on Hikind’s video, responding,
“Thanks. Indeed, you are correct.”
Vues Masters Note: I find it
fascinating how the Israeli
government treated Elon Musk this
week like royalty.

NAZI
Dear Vues Master:
For years, I’ve denounced the
proliferation of Nazi analogies
in our public discourse. From
right to left, reckless politicians
and overheated pundits have
invoked Hitler, the Nazis or
the Holocaust in order to score
rhetorical points — and historians
like me have condemned them
for doing so. Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was
wrong to call US border facilities
“concentration camps,” and
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor
Greene was equally off base when
she labeled advocates of Covid
vaccines “medical brown shirts,”

which references Nazi storm-
trooper uniforms. Abortion is not

another Holocaust. The reason
such comparisons are wrong is
that they severely distort the facts,
both by implicitly minimizing Nazi
atrocities and wildly exaggerating
the actions of whomever the
current name-callers happen to be
targeting. But when a comparison
is valid — when a contemporary
villain does something which
indeed reaches the levels of Nazi

barbarism — then it needs to be
acknowledged. And that’s why
this time, it’s different. The
Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern
Israel has changed everything —
including aspects of our public
discourse. Obviously, the Hamas
attack on Israel was not identical
to the Nazi Holocaust. Historical
events are rarely the same. Yet the
points of similarity are undeniable.
Consider the mentality of the killers.
Of the 6 million Jews murdered by
the Nazis and their collaborators,
nearly 2 million were slaughtered
by gunfire at close range. And so
too were Jews shot dead for being
Jews on kibbutzim across southern
Israel. Scholars emphasize the role
of “eliminationist” antisemitic
ideology, the kind of genocidal
thinking prevalent in the media and
schools of Nazi Germany — and in
the media and schools run by Hamas
and the Palestinian Authority in
our own time. Dehumanizing Nazi
propaganda depicted Jews as rats,
spiders or lice. The only solution to
this “Jewish problem,” according to
the Nazis, was the “final solution”:
death. The Palestinian Authority’s
ruling faction, Fatah, celebrated the
Oct. 7 pogrom by posting a video
showing a boot with the colors of
the Palestinian flag squashing a
rat on an Israeli flag. Portrayals
of Jews as rodents, insects, and
various predatory creatures in
need of eradication are staples of
Palestinian Arab popular culture.
The Hamas killers echoed the
Nazis in another significant way:
By photographing their atrocities.
Nazi storm troopers amused
themselves by posing for photos
as they slashed the beards of their
Jewish captives or forced them to
grovel. Death camp commandants
delighted in assembling photo
albums that included scenes of
Jewish men, women and children
being selected for the gas chambers.
The album belonging to Treblinka

commandant Kurt Franz bore
the title “The Good Old Days.”
Today’s technology is new, but the
mindset isn’t. Hamas pogromists
used social media platforms to
broadcast themselves kidnapping,
torturing, and sexually assaulting
their Israeli victims. Some uploaded
their gruesome “trophy videos” to
social media in order to torment
their distraught families. Such
content was even livestreamed on
Facebook. The use of sexual
violence as a weapon on Oct. 7 had
its antecedents both in earlier Arab
pogroms and during the Holocaust.
Rape and mutilation were a
notorious part of Palestinian Arab
atrocities against Jews in Hebron
in 1929, according to survivors’
accounts. Arab soldiers and
Palestinian Arab terrorist forces
decapitated and sexually mutilated
Jews during the 1948 Arab war
against the newborn state of Israel,
according to numerous mainstream
historians. Likewise in the
Kristallnacht rampage in Germany
in 1938 — and throughout the
Holocaust years that followed—
there were numerous instances of
Nazis raping Jewish women. The
Shoah Foundation’s oral history
archive contains more than 1,700
testimonies by survivors detailing
sexual violence. In other ways,
too, one can detect similarities
between then and now. Again,
not identical—but worth noting.
Consider the prevailing attitudes
at many American colleges. In the
1930s, universities such as Harvard
and Columbia built friendly
relationships with Nazi Germany,
invited Nazi representatives to their
campuses, and organized student
exchanges with Nazi-controlled
German schools. Today, many
universities are looking the
other way as Hamas supporters
intimidate Jewish students; US
schools such as Bard College,
George Washington University, and

William Paterson University have
even participated in joint programs
with Palestinian Arab universities
where student branches of Hamas
operate freely. Or consider the
phenomenon of Holocaust-denial.
Today’s equivalent, Oct. 7 denial,
is already emerging. Queen Rania
of Jordan recently told CNN that
“It hasn’t been independently
verified . . . that Israeli children
[were] found butchered in an Israeli
kibbutz.” Officials of the Council
on American-Islamic Relations, a
leading Muslim advocacy group,
have claimed that the reports of
beheadings are “unverified” and
“war propaganda.” Fortunately,
the Jewish people today are not in
the same position of powerlessness
and vulnerability as European
Jews in the 1940s. Today there
is a sovereign Jewish state and a
powerful Jewish army. But when
it comes to the behavior of the
enemies of the Jews, have either
the mindset or the tactics changed
very much? The discovery of
an Arabic-language copy of Adolf
Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in a Gaza
apartment last week helps provide
the answer. The children’s room,
where the book was found,had
been taken over by Hamas as a base
for their operations. The copy’s
margins held notes written by the
terrorist who had been studying it.
Nearly a century after its release,
Hitler’s manifesto of antisemitism
and violence is still being used to
kill Jews as effectively as ever.
Rafael Medoff
Vues Master’s Note: Thanks for
your history lesson!