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Tears of Rage
Both the soldier and the Jewish artist who created him died more than 70 years ago, yet they still have the visual power to call to action the necessary military response to the massacre by Hamas terrorists.
Polish immigrant Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) who left Europe in the wake of the Holocaust, was known as a fighting artist. During World War II, he dedicated his portrait of America’s commander-in-chief to Eleanor Roosevelt, signing it “F.D.R.’s soldier in art.” Referencing Szyk’s popularity among US servicemen and the praise in the American press for his political cartoons and vitriolic visual commentary against the Axis of evil, the First Lady wrote in her January 1943 syndicated newspaper column My Day: “In its way [Szyk’s work] fights the war against Hitlerism as truly as any of us who cannot actually be on the fighting fronts today.” Of Szyk, we can also say that his fighting spirit hovers over the people of Israel in its righteous determination to kill Hamas terrorists.
Perhaps the best representation of Szyk’s soldiering on is seen in his once well circulated drawing of 1942, Tears of Rage. It captures the screaming anger of a World War II Jewish soldier, with an American helmet and rifle held high, cradling an elderly Jew with a Nazi dagger in his back. In front of them and below a clutched Torah scroll we witness a baby shot in its head, a dazed grieving mother frozen in time, her dead husband leaning on her back, and tears flowing from the baby’s grandmother’s eyes. Were Szyk alive now, ads showing this image would most certainly appear in today’s New York Times and Washington Post just as they did in 1943, responding instead to the unspeakable slaughter of innocent Jews in Israel by Hamas.
At the time this ad appeared, with text written by Hollywood playwright Ben Hecht (both Szyk and Hecht were an integral part of Peter Bergson’s activist groups for Jewish rescue, including the Committee for a Jewish Army), its full page emphasized “Action—Not Pity.” Szyk’s own caption under the image read “To those of my people who fight for the right to die with their boots on–my pride, my love, my devotion.”
Arthur Szyk. We Will Never Die. Official program journal cover. Madison Square Garden, New York, March 9, 1943
This is the time for full scale action by Israel’s military as well as the time for a moral world to be devoted to it with an unfailing and sustained commitment to its just cause. It is a time for boots on the ground, planes in the air, ships in the sea, and a world sick and tired of terrorism. It is a time to thank Israel for being that one nation that is willing to put its sons and daughters on the “fighting fronts” to rid its nation of terrorism while serving as an example for all nations to elevate their own moral and physical courage against terrorism and evil more forcefully.
Prior to its appearance in the referenced newspapers above, Szyk’s Tears of Rage accompanied a December 7, 1942 ad in the New York Times coinciding with the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor. (It also appeared less than one month after the US State Department announced that 2 million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis in Europe.) This time the soldier with the dead and mourning Jews was featured with a “Proclamation on the Moral Rights of the Stateless and Palestinian Jews” (that is, the displaced Jews of Europe and those Jews living in the land of Israel). The Proclamation called for the formation of a Jewish Army of those Jews (not American or British Jews) to fight alongside the Allies. It called upon the free world to support its moral obligation to allow Jews to defend themselves under their own “flag” and fight on behalf of their brothers and sisters who were being slaughtered. Now the world is called upon again to support the right of Jews to do the same thing. With Jew hatred, antisemitism, and down with Israel chants echoing worldwide today, it is apparent that the Jewish people are not only confronted with the right to defend themselves but challenged to justify their very existence itself.
In 1943, five US cities (New York and Washington, DC among them), held dramatic pageants entitled “We Will Never Die” (again, written by Ben Hecht), calling attention to the mass murder and annihilation faced by European Jews. On the cover of the journal distributed at the gatherings (40,000 people attended the pageant in New York’s Madison Square Garden on March 9th alone), Szyk’s soldier once again engaged those who were enraged with tears, proclaiming “We will never die.” Indeed, Jews are willing to fight with their boots on, and to them—our pride, our love, our devotion.
Irvin Ungar is the curator emeritus of The Arthur Szyk Society. His book, Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art, was a winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award.
The post Tears of Rage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.