Dear Editor,
The New Yorker must condemn Masha Gessen and his column, What We know About the Weaponization of Sexual Violence on October 7, as virulent antisemitism in the tradition of Julius Streicher, Joseph Goebbels and Roland Freisler.
To give Gessen a scintilla of credibility in his calumnious attempt to scrub clean the murderous misogyny of October 7 is for the New Yorker to dismiss entirely the serious reporting of The New York Times, the Guardian and the serious filmmaking of Sheryl Sandburg.
( See: "Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct 7", NY Times, 12/28/23); Evidence Points to Systemic Use of Rape and Sexual Violence by Hamas in Oct 7 Attacks," Beth McKernan, The Guardian, 1/24/24; "U.N. Team Finds Grounds to Support Reports of Sexual Violence in Hamas Attacks", NY Times, 3/5/24; " Screams Before Silence", directed by Anat Stalinsky).
To even imply that the horrific Islamic sexual misogyny of October 7 was identical to Jewish self-defense in 1947-1948 is to have the New Yorker wallowing in every antisemitic perversity that Der Sturmer ever published.
Gessen's statement that "I do not need evidence and I don't want to go check facts" places him and the New Yorker, by publishing this antisemitic balderdash, with the identical mindless mindset as Roland Freisler. For the New Yorker not to condemn Gessen's putrid jew hatred--let alone publish it--demonstrates that the New Yorker lacks the research skills of a first-year journalism student and prefers the jew hating journalism of Julius Streicher.
Richard Sherman, Florida
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