Dear Senator Sanders,

At a time when many Jews are increasingly uneasy about their place in America and around the world, the words of influential leaders carry unusual weight.

This letter is not an appeal for you to agree with every Israeli government policy. Democracies deserve criticism, and Israel is no exception. It is an appeal to reconsider whether your judgments of Israel have reflected the full moral picture at a moment when the Jewish people face extraordinary challenges both from those who seek Israel’s destruction abroad and from rising antisemitism at home.

Like many Jews, I have watched your increasingly harsh condemnations of Israel with a growing sense of dread. The anguish comes not only from what you have said, but from who is saying it. You are one of the most influential Jewish voices in American public life. When you accuse Israel of genocide and portray it as uniquely immoral, your words carry extraordinary weight. They shape how millions of people understand the Jewish state, and they deepen the sense among many Jews that someone they once regarded as an ally has turned against them.

I am writing to ask you to reconsider your repeated accusation that Israel is committing genocide and, more broadly, your judgments of the Jewish state. 

I once admired you enough to volunteer for your campaign. I believed in your vision of a more just society. Your insistence that health care should not depend on wealth, your concern for ordinary working people, and your willingness to challenge entrenched interests inspired me. I saw you as someone who measured politics not by what was expedient but by what was right.

I also remember a senator who defended Israel against unfair attacks. I remember hearing you explain that no country could tolerate rockets raining down on its citizens. I remember you acknowledging that Israel, like every sovereign democracy, had both the right and the obligation to defend its people from terrorism.

Then something began to change. I cannot point to a single speech or a single vote, but I remember listening to your comments about the 2014 Gaza war and feeling a profound sense of disappointment. I heard you repeatedly describe Israel’s actions as disproportionate and cite casualty figures that were exaggerated. For the first time, I wondered whether the careful moral balance that had drawn me to your politics had begun to disappear.

As the years passed, your criticism of Israel became harsher still. Today you routinely accuse Israel of committing genocide—an accusation that, after following this war closely and considering the assessments of respected military experts, I have concluded is unsupported by the evidence. 

You are one of the most influential Jewish leaders in America. Millions of people who know little about Israel trust your moral judgment. Many assume that if a lifelong progressive Jewish senator believes Israel is committing genocide, the evidence must be overwhelming. 

I have often wondered what changed. 

Did your understanding of Israel genuinely evolve after hearing evidence that persuaded you? Or did the political landscape around you change? Over the past decade, criticism of Israel has become increasingly common—and increasingly rewarded—in progressive political circles. Defending Israel has become more........

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