.

To Whom It May Concern

a common spelling error: “Isreal.”

“Woe to those who say of the evil that it is good
and of the good that it is evil; who present
darkness as light and light as darkness, who
present bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter.”
—Isaiah 5:20

Admit it, Israel is real—
upset as you may be by that.
You hoped that she would disappear,
because the Jews are good when dead,

because you like them on the pictures
in Babiy Yar, in Auschwitz, and
when an exquisite movie features
a Jewish child, killed at the end.

These days, when that—again—does happen:
a baby shot in father’s hands
or butchered in her cradle, you’re napping:
those are just everyday events.

Alas, they are too small to make it
to the front page of what you read.
Too few are dead for that to matter—
there’s no excuse for that, admit it.

It is unsettling, on reflection,
to see the live and fighting Jews:
they have the right to self-protection,
but that’s a right they should not use.

If only they laid down their weapons
and let the world decide their fate…
That’s always worked, and would be helpful
to mollify the world’s Jew-hate.

And if it does not—not to worry:
it’s not like this is something new—
could make a touching bedtime story
before the killers come for you.

.

.

Michael Vanyukov is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Psychiatry, and Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. He immigrated to the United States 30 years ago as a refugee from the Soviet Union.

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21 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Well said and meaningful statement of today’s detractors and critics. Pefect Bible verse!

    Reply
      • Steve

        Thank you, Michael. Your poem “To Whom It May Concern” is the poem I had to read. Who could I possibly share it with? Not my tribe as they are more concerned with being loved by those that you correctly state ” Jews are good when dead”. Perhaps for them death through hyper assimilation, a name change or eating white bread with mayo is a small price to pay if being loved by those who are repulsed by their very existence will tolerate them and but find them pathetically useful. I thoroughly enjoy reading your poems.

  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    Vanyukov is seeing things very clearly — a lot more clearly than protesting sentimentalists in the West.

    I predict the following: after the four-day pause in fighting in Gaza ends, Mainstream Media and all of its mouthpieces world-wide will rise up in a massive chorus to scream “Don’t start up again! If Israel resumes the attack after this, THEY ARE THE AGGRESSORS!”

    Then there will be the choreographed demonstrations in various cities, all carefully publicized by a sympathetic media, accompanied by plangent editorials and op-eds in the major newspapers, with a lot of whining about “the humanitarian catastrophe” and “the children.”

    And if Israel is stupid, or allows itself to be bamboozled by Biden and other Western weaklings, it will call off its attacks and become bogged down in pointless “negotiations” with fanatical terrorists.

    And this would be exactly what Hamas wanted from the beginning: to hurt Israel badly, pose as freedom-fighters, and get endless cease-fires to regroup, get resupplied, and attack again. (All they need to do is trade off hostages in dribs and drabs while they recruit more men into their ranks).

    And who will have made this possible? Stupid sentimentalist liberals and radicals in Western nations who think with their tear ducts.

    Reply
  3. Michael Vanyukov

    This is written in 2014. It could have been written in 1948. Or, I am afraid, in 2048.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      I thought you had written this in response to the latest attacks, but you’re right. As long as Islam exists, it will always devote everything to wiping out all other religions. I believe that Islam is an evil that needs to be eradicated, as did the Doctors of the Catholic Church: https://onepeterfive.com/what-did-the-saints-say-about-islam/

      This does not constitute a call for genocide against Muslims. Those are two different things.

      Reply
      • Michael Vanyukov

        Joshua, I cannot (yet) write anything on 10/7: it’s too painful and close and has not even ended yet. Half of my family is Israeli, and I hope I’ll be too as well, sooner rather than later. I hope, another poem from before I have just submitted will be published.

      • Michael Vanyukov

        Joshua, there is this well-known account of Churchill’s, from his “The River War” (the first, 1899, edition; the text was changed in later editions; p. 248-250):

        “How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property — either as a child, a wife, or a concubine — must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science — the science against which it had vainly struggled — the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

  4. Brian A. Yapko

    This is a painful but very accurate poem, Michael. You correctly identify the fact that people on the left only love dead Jews as in those poor victims in Schindler’s List, or Jews who do not fight back. Bravo for calling them out as the antisemitic hypocrites that they are.

    Reply
    • Michael Vanyukov

      Dear Brian,

      Thank you for the good words. From how the events develop, it seems even the dead, raped, mutilated, and burnt Jews no longer evoke sympathy in the world. Witness the pro-Hamas demonstrations by the students of elite universities, future leaders of the “free world” (quickly becoming a misnomer), and demands that Israel should stop coming from from the UN, Spain, Ireland, France…

      Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Brian, here’s some news from New York City. There was a riot at Hillcrest High School in Queens County, where students went berserk because they found out that a teacher at the school had posted a pro-Israeli comment at some social media site.

      They rampaged through the school, screaming antisemitic insults, and sought to track down the teacher and attack her physically. She was only saved by fellow teachers who managed to lock her into a classroom for safety, while the police were called.

      Some of these students have posted the teacher’s full name, address, and phone number on the social media site, encouraging anyone to harass and threaten her with violence for her views.

      I don’t even know if the teacher in question was Jewish. But does it matter? What the bloody hell is wrong with these stupid teenage punks?

      This is no different from Nazi Germany, where anybody who said the wrong thing could be beaten to a pulp. And this is right here in one of the most left-liberal cities in the United States.

      Reply
      • Brian A. Yapko

        Thank you for the report, Joe. I’ve looked the story up and I’m appalled by the mob behavior of high school students who might as well be rampaging Hitler youth off on a Krystallnacht pillage. Appalled, disgusted, terrified, infuriated. We now bear witness to how easily the paper-thin veneer of civilization can be sloughed off as civility degrades into barbarism — and all concerning socio-historic issues the rioters do not even understand. I see this as the inevitable consequence of irresponsible and radicalized leftist educational and social justice policy. This is what happens when racist CRT becomes enshrined doctrine. This is what you get when people cancel and/or rewrite history. Those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it. And that axiom is now a living, breathing, grunting, stabbing, screaming, murderous reality. I would never have wanted to admit it before, but when you say this is no different from Nazi Germany you are 100% right.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        I just saw the article myself. I’m afraid I have to agree that anti-semitism and silencing by violence in this country have both reached the level of Nazi Germany.

        https://www.bizpacreview.com/2023/11/26/jewish-teacher-in-queens-terrorized-by-high-school-students-who-storm-halls-1415220/

        I hate to sound like a broken record, but as I alluded to in my poem “A Leftist Rebukes Hamas,” I believe this is a direct result of our culture’s anti-life mentality that exists to justify abortion. It’s a lesson we should have learned from the Nazis: once you can justify killing some segment of the population on the grounds that they aren’t human, there is little to prevent justifying killing another segment of the population, and another, and another.

        I should have guessed that anti-semitism would be the next Current Thing… after all, Judaism is the foundation of Christianity, and Jews in the United States and Israel are white, Western, and successful. The left hates all these things, so all this is really no surprise. The only surprise is how quickly it all happened.

  5. Mia

    This poem has such an affect on me it is difficult to describe. I know though that only a great poem can do that. The sadness I feel when I read
    You hoped that she would disappear
    because the Jews are good when dead
    is overwhelming.
    I personally would like Israel to thrive. I would like to see the Temple rebuilt
    and a return to worshipping God in the way that He instructed.
    And yes I know that the killers are coming for us , as indeed Christians have been decimated in the Middle East.
    Are Islam and Christianity both to blame for anti-semitism?
    I take comfort in the fact that it was Christian Europe who fought Hitler
    and who tried to put things right by returning the Jewish people to their rightful home. I hope and pray that they will overcome.
    And that we will not be afraid to fight for what is right.

    Reply
    • Michael Vanyukov

      Dear Mia,

      Your words are the best reward one could get. And you are right that Europe both created the monster of antisemitism and fought it. While Christianity
      – at least, hopefully, most of its forms – has got rid of it, Islam never has. People who denounce Hamas and its genocidal covenant often forget that its promise to exterminate the Jews comes from the Muslim scripture, the notorious gharqad tree hadith that is viewed as an authentic prophecy of Muhammad’s. Just as is the Koranic promise that Islam will rule the entire world.

      Reply
  6. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Michael, I have read your thought-provoking and powerful poem several times. It’s a poem that gets straight to the point with its raw honesty and wake-up call of a devastating closing line. Like Mia, I am moved by your words, so much so that anything I have to say in the comments section will not do your much-needed words justice. I would just like to thank you very much for telling it like it is through poetry… impactful poetry that has far more truth in it than any of today’s news reports.

    Reply
    • Michael Vanyukov

      Dear Susan,
      It is so extremely gratifying to read your reaction. I view the poetic word, unoriginally I am sure, as a way to record emotions, much like as a vinyl music recording is made: if done correctly, it should invoke the same feelings as those felt by the writer. If, judging by your and Mia’s words, I got close to that, that’s all that was needed. Thank you so much again.

      Reply
  7. Dave Whippman

    Well expressed. The left’s view of Jews is really that of the old South’s to black people: as long as they are powerless and know their place, no problem.
    For me, one of the most sickening aspects of the current wave of antizionism (ie thinly disguised Jew-hatred) is that some Jews, including, of course, the ultra-Orthodox, are marching alongside the haters, not against them.

    Reply
    • Michael Vanyukov

      Thank you, Dave. You are correct regarding the progressives, which are basically communists, within the boundaries that are determined by history. It is not quite correct about the “ultra”-Orthodox (I don’t use “ultra” as it connotes some abnormality): it is only a couple of marginal sects, Neturei Karta and Satmar in the US, that are anti-Zionist.

      Reply

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