Dear Editor: We are writing in response to the advertisement that ran on Friday, June 12. The advertisement, paid for by David Richey, candidate for Alaska’s U.S. House of Representatives seat, is a disturbing litany of antisemitic propaganda under the guise of legitimately “educating” the reader on what is really going on in Washington.
Antisemitism is one of the oldest forms of hatred known to human history. Insidious and mutating over the millenia to disguise itself as righteousness, antisemitism “encompasses hatred of Jews on the basis of their existence as human beings…. [and] envisions Jews as both excessively powerful and as weak…” (ADL, 2026).
Richey dips deeply from this poisoned well while attempting to deny his antisemitism by repeating that he is merely anti-Zionist. Anti-Zionism is not, as Richey would have you believe, legitimate criticism of Israel.
Zionism is the millennial old movement for Jewish self-determination, statehood, and security. We can and do take issue with the current Israeli administration while still upholding the right for Israel to securely exist as the Jewish homeland.
Richey’s obsession with Israel and the fantastical conspiracy theories and irreconcilable claims without actual scholarly evidence reveals his so-called Anti-Zionism as the latest form of classic hatred of Jews and Israel. Richey’s treatise contains all the classic antisemitic tropes repackaged as legitimate political discourse: blood libels and dehumanization; conspiracy and control; collective guilt; Holocaust inversion; and irrational double standards for Israel.
Antisemitism is not just a “Jewish problem”; it is a barometer on the health of our fragile democracy. As antisemitic incidents are exploding to historically high levels nationally and globally, it is incumbent upon all of us to speak out when we witness this ancient and cancerous hate. We encourage you to learn how you can help interrupt antisemitism by going to #translatehate.
Gretchen Clarke,
David Avraham Voluck,
Thomas Clarke, Sitka
