Dear Friend,

Yesterday, President Joe Biden made a powerful speech about Israel and the heinous Hamas attacks on our beloved Eretz Yisrael. It is paramount that he hears and feels our appreciation loudly – for speaking with moral clarity, for standing in support of Israel, and for sending Israel the military aid it needs to vanquish Hamas.

I urge you to take action and write to President Biden, thanking him for his unwavering support for Israel in her critical time of need and ensuring he remains resolute in this support. Please do so by clicking here to send President Biden a message of hakaras hatov right away.

If you wish, you may copy and paste from this sample text into the box that asks “what would you like to say” on the form:

Thank you, President Biden, for your strong speech yesterday in support of Israel in her war against Hamas. You spoke with moral clarity about how Hamas is evil and you expressed your full support for Israel’s war of self-defense against these vile terrorists. I thank you for your clear pledge of support to provide Israel with whatever it needs to fight this war to the end. Please stay strong and resolute in the coming weeks as Israel fights for her security and for the free world.

Here is a copy of my letter:

Mr. President: I must express appreciation and admiration for your remarkable words today voicing your unambiguous condemnation of the inexcusable and barbaric acts of Hamas to the cheers of Gazans, as well as your clear and unequivocal support of Israel and its right to defend itself.

I received a note today from a friend. He noted that this week was the 80th anniversary of the Rabbis March on Washington, an unusual event involving 400 rabbis who sought unsuccessfully to meet FDR during the Holocaust with the goal of urging the president and his administration to act to stop the horrors of the Holocaust. This friend’s father and my wife Mindi’s father were Holocaust refugees from Austria and he suggested pointedly that they both would have urged us to repeat that event today.

I did not agree.

My friend’s anguish is absolutely justified, as we the Jewish people experienced this week brutal horrors of a kind we have not seen since those horrific days our parents escaped together. Our fathers would certainly want us to galvanize every rabbi, every Jew, and every person with a human heart to respond to this barbarism.

But if they would have heard President Biden’s remarks today, what they would have urged us to do would have been to march to Washington – even on foot – to express our appreciation for the strong and clear support of the President of the United States, for both his words and his actions.

Mr. President, you said what needs to be said and you know and are ready to do what needs to be done. You have displayed badly needed moral clarity. We do not need to march on Washington to demand action. We do need to thank you and to sincerely pray for your success in leading the world to sanity and to true humanity.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer Executive
Vice President, Orthodox Union