Letter from Larry Shapiro, Calgary, to The Forward Challenging Walter Ruby's Call for Jews to Give Up on Zionism

June 8, 2026

Dear Forward,

Zionism for religious Jews means the yearning by Jews to return to the land of their ancestors to pray at the remnants of the Holy Temple. Zionism for secular Jews is the yearning to live in an independent strong Jewish country away for howling mobs shouting to globalize the intifada.

Democratic socialism is another clever way of taking Iran's position vis a vis the existence of the Jewish state, similar in duplicity to the naming of the organization Jewish Voice for Peace that never stands for peace but the destruction of the Jewish state, the only Jewish country in the world that has no problems with the existence of 56 Islamic nations.

The existence of Israel may be intolerable for the Palestinian Arabs who have refused multiple offers of peace, but when Jews start supporting this rejectionism, we are not talking about ethics, but pathology.

Walter Ruby talks about the region's needs. The region contains Iran and its proxies in Palestine, Gaza Lebanon and Yemen who want to see Israel destroyed. The region also contains Arab countries like the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco that have determined that they profit from having a relationship with the Jewish state. Which region is Walter Ruby supporting?

Larry Shapiro, Calgary