I recently attended the screening of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s new documentary Against the Tide, a truly magnificent account of history during World War II. It describes the lack of support from the organized Jewish 
Perhaps World War II would have had a better outcome.
community led by Rabbi Stephen S Wise, who could have been influential in approaching President Roosevelt and enlisting his support for action to save European Jews from the Nazi’s "final solution".
While the film left me with profound sadness, the moral of the story was enormously powerful. To paraphrase the commentary: had there been more Peter Bergsons, who would not relent in their mission to rescue Jews from Europe, perhaps World War II would have had a better outcome than the slaughter of six million Jews.
Peter Bergson was born in Lithuania in 1915 and was the nephew of the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Palestine. Ten years later, his family immigrated to Palestine. In 1940, as words of the annihilation of Europe’s Jews trickled out, Bergson came to the United States to mobilize and arouse American Jewry and the US government to rescue as many Jews as possible, but to no avail. Throughout the film, as I was listening to Bergson’s repeated pleas and to the continuous rejections he endured, I increasingly identified with him and couldn’t help but contemplate the relevance of this story in our times.
In addition to Israel’s continuous fight for survival against its hostile jihadi enemies, we in the Western world face the Islamists’ desire to dominate the West and rule under Sharia law. It is the gravest security issue of our time. Yet, many members of the media, academia, government officials and proponents of interfaith dialogue are not convinced. They either ignore the topic all together or simply refuse to grasp the reality that Islamists use their theological texts to make their zealous objective a noble mission to carry out.
This new challenge may be a painfully foreign thought for many goodhearted, decent Americans. Hence, at times it seems that not enough people are interested in gaining familiarity with this new threat. Just as was the case with Peter Bergson, many simply reject the information because denial is an easy quick-fix and, consequently, what is not known doesn’t exist.
Fortunately for all of us, there are a few former Muslims and Christians who escaped from the Muslim world courageous enough to speak out. They describe first-hand their oppression and life under despotic, repressive regimes and warn us against complacency. There are also several invaluable anti-terrorism experts and Islamic scholars who work endlessly to educate and keep us safe. To round out this fraternity of fighters, there are a handful of us who are part of the mission to preserve our Western way of life for the benefit of the current and future generations. It is a task we carry on without any self-seeking agenda except to let the general public understand the ominous reality. Some of us write newspaper articles. Some write to government officials. Others speak to anyone willing to listen, in the hope that the information will spread amongst our communities.
After watching the Wiesenthal Center film, I realized that those of us who work tirelessly to educate the public are indeed the present-day Peter Bergsons. He stayed on course and pursued his enormously challenging path despite countless rejections. The Peter Bergsons of today experience similar accusations and rebuffs, being 
The enemy is using all democratic means to destroy democracy.
called "extremists", "racists", "Islamophobes" and "war-mongers". Sadly, today, those who alert the public against the evil are labeled evil. According to the critics and deniers, regrettably, it is the messengers that are causing the problem, not the subject of the message.
So, what are we to do? The population needs to become more familiar with the increasing threat and develop a stronger sense of urgency about the spread of Islamism, which must be confronted from a position of strength, a strong sense of conviction and unity.
In any civilized society, the aversion to offend others is critical for the society to function. However, this must not sanction silence at any cost, because the enemy is using all democratic means to destroy democracy, while hypocritically and publicly they abhor it. Silence gives strength to our enemy, while knowledge is the foundation of our strength. Peter Bergson understood the wise words of Edmund Burke, the Irish philosopher, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
At this moment in history, we - just like Peter Bergson - need to speak out in order to protect and preserve our life, freedom and liberty. I think it was one of the Founding Fathers who said that he who is not willing to fight for liberty has acquiesced to its loss. Is this what we wish to tell our grandchildren?