In 1978, Hanoch Sigmund, then-head of an umbrella organization representing Jews from central Europe, sent a letter to Jewish communities across the globe, seeking donations to plant trees in Israel. The letter made its way to a neo-Nazi group in the U.S., which sent a particularly nasty response – in German – to the Jewish National Fund. The letter was recently discovered by Sigmund's grandson, Avi Amir.
"We hope you will plant lots of trees, so there will be room to hang all the Jews," the letter said.
"Jew, we've heard that you and other professional liars like you want to plant a forest on the hills of Jerusalem in memory of the members of your race who were supposedly murdered by us. We don't want to get into the lies you and the rest of the criminals are spreading, and soon we will beat the truth out of all the members of your race who are still alive in West Germany. We recommend that you plant a forest big enough – because when we are done restoring order to West Germany, we will come visit you and hang you," the letter states.
JNF Chairman Daniel Atar, who learned of the letter this week, said, "Unfortunately, only this week we were once again exposed to the fact that since this letter was written, anti-Semitism still exists and even leads to the murder of Jews.
"Things are the same as they were then – the answer to anti-Semitism is to keep strengthening and developing the state of Israel."
"The JNF works both to strengthen Israel and encourage aliyah, and ongoing anti-Semitism demands that we work with determination and do even more to encourage aliyah. The unequivocal answer to the letter from the neo-Nazi activists is the millions of Jews who live in the flourishing Jewish state today," Atar said.
