Kudos to Max Wisotsky for the point he made in his letter in the past issue (“Outreach Programs, Parlor Meetings, and Memos Will Not Stop Today’s Explosion of Antisemitism,” April 20, 2023). The demonstrations and protests he proposes would not have been appropriate in Europe or most of the Middle East, but America is a nation of immigrants and therefore gives us more right to assert our rights. While outreach programs and memos do have their place, more forceful approaches are appropriate as well.

However, this does raise an important caveat: in order to be effective, demonstrations and protests need to make clear and actionable demands from a specific group or organization. In the cases Mr. Wisotsky mentions in his letter, these demands were generally about passing specific legislation, but our legislators are usually already supporting us in this matter and so demonstrating against them will be useless at best.

I believe that one good choice for an issue to demonstrate and make demands about comes from another letter in the same issue of your paper: “Orthodox Jewish Group Urges to Withhold Pulitzer from NY Times” (April 20, 2023). Withholding or revoking (if necessary) an award is a very clear and actionable demand, and doing so at the expense of an institution such as the New York Times will be as effective as any demonstration could possibly be. The Pulitzer Prize also appears to be centered at Columbia University, a very convenient location for many of us.