We are being written to

Hello, dear Alexander!

I am grateful to you for your letter. Six years ago we left Israel. By the way, we also lived in Rishon LeZion, but part of our soul remained there, as did many friends and relatives.

We have opened a special "Hot Line" section where we have posted the materials you sent and everything directly related to it — please take a look; perhaps something needs to be corrected or added.

In the next day or two we will send information about the new section to our subscribers.

I will be glad if this helps in some way in this noble cause. We mourn with you and wish you all peace and happiness, so that nothing like this ever happens again…

You should know that "Russian-speaking Canada" (75–80% Jewish) feels very deeply and painfully everything that happens in the "Holy Land," where millions of people are hostages to the dirty politics of fanatical religious extremists...

Dear Alexander,

we express our deep condolences in connection with the mass death of innocent children in Israel on June 1, 2001. We sincerely share the grief of the parents and families who lost their children, our recent compatriots. We mourn with you.

We believe it is necessary to bring this act of brutality, violence, and cynicism to the widest publicity and to the judgment of the World Community. We express our full solidarity with your actions and warmly support them.

We will post your open letter on our website. The address of our site "Luch" is http://www.luchmir.com. We ask that our family be included in the protest petition.

The motto of our "Luch" website is "The 21st century — a century without violence." We consider it our sacred duty to contribute a small measure of support and solidarity to this great cause.

May our dear, only, talented, and wonderful CHILDREN not leave us! May their terrible innocent death shake the world and finally stop the shameless march of the beast that devours children and tramples everything sacred on planet Earth.

Let us not allow evil to govern the destinies of people, families, countries, and the entire planet.

Our strength lies in unity and the determination to stop all forms of violence!

People of good will, people of enlightened Choice, loving and outraged — unite!

The most terrible human vices are indifference and cowardice. God created the world and people for brotherhood, creativity, and love — let us stop the rivers of blood that have flooded the earth in this last century and are trying to carve new channels into the 21st century! Violence must finally be stopped — by the efforts of all, without waiting for politicians. International politics, unfortunately, has become a nest of buying and selling, lies, and self-interest, rather than a means of better and humane world order, as it should be.

Let us make the 21st CENTURY — A CENTURY WITHOUT VIOLENCE! Let us call it a CENTURY OF MERCY, BROTHERHOOD, and LOVE.

Hello, Alexander.

Natasha Kogan from Germany is writing to you. Until 1995 I lived in Israel. I love this country very much, and my heart simply breaks from the bad news.

On the day of the tragedy (it was about fifteen minutes after the attack) an Israeli acquaintance of mine called and told me to turn on the German news channel, which was already broadcasting live from the scene.

From that moment I sat in front of the television and Israeli radio for three days... crying...

A terrible tragedy occurred... I still cannot recover. I am not even speaking of the families of the dead and wounded. I have come across your letter many times on different websites, and each time I reread it with tears in my eyes.

First of all, I wanted to thank you enormously for what you have done and are doing. The world must know the truth! I also have a proposal to organize a protest action in the form of a demonstration.

The special feature of this action: to organize it in as many countries and cities as possible. On one day and everywhere at the same time (for example, everywhere at the same local time, such as 12:00). I think that if such demonstrations take place on one day in several countries at once (for example, the USA, Canada, Germany, Israel, Belgium, the former USSR and other countries), and in different cities (for example, in the USA: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.; in Canada: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver; in Germany: Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, etc.; in Israel: Tel Aviv; in Belgium: Brussels, Antwerp; in Russia and other countries: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, etc.), it will not pass unnoticed by the public.

I do not know whether demonstrations of this kind have ever taken place in history, but I think it would resound throughout the ENTIRE world! We cannot remain silent any longer! We must act! Otherwise, God forbid, another Shoah will occur.

I would very much like to help you in organizing an action against terror, as much as I am able.

I will immediately post your letters on the website. I will publish them in our print edition as well, so that everyone may know. At such moments one understands that there are no words in the world that can express our feelings. There are no words in the world that could bring back those we love. But I want you to know — we are with you in your grief and suffering.

What happened shocked the entire world; it shocked our state of Colorado as well. This wound ran through the heart of every Jew living on earth. And this loss must be answered for, even though there is no price worthy of it. Our people have offered yet another sacrifice, and we must do everything so that this terrible sacrifice is not in vain.

I know that it is wrong to speak of revenge and retaliation. But we must speak of peace — the kind of peace as we understand it. A peace in which children will not be afraid to walk the streets, and parents will not be afraid to let them go. A peace into which no fanatic maddened by hatred will break through. We are obliged to speak of such a peace and to strive for it, even if for that we must do something that some will see as resembling revenge.