A few months ago, I was sitting on a panel at a Pesach program in San Diego, California, discussing the unfortunately timely topic of anti-Semitism. Each panel member shared his or her experiences, shocking anecdotes and wisdom, and the crowd grew silent as the reality of what’s going on began to sink in.
“I feel like my hands are tied. What can we do to stop this massive problem?” someone asked.
Another woman read my thoughts and said, “Have you ever heard of Pens for Swords? It’s a grassroots WhatsApp group that sends out letters every day that are easy to sign. It’s a simple way to fight anti-Semitism and help Israel. The whole thing was started by a woman named Fay F., who lives in New York.”
The saying “The pen is mightier than the sword” is certainly true in Fay’s case. With words alone, Fay has rallied an army of passionate volunteers to fight for Israel’s safety and combat anti-Semitism worldwide. Together, they have managed to garner millions of signatures on various letters and petitions that have affected legislation, prompted the canceling of events, made breaking news, and stopped some of the biggest and most vocal anti-Semites in the world today.
But despite her superhuman accomplishments, she claims, “I’m just a mother and a bubby. I’m not special. I hardly write any of these letters by now. I’m not an expert, and I’m not a lawyer. I’m just a small-business owner. But I am dedicated to the mission. I have a big mouth, and I’m not afraid to use it!”
Fay is leading an army of united Jewish people who are dedicated to this noble cause. “You don’t have to be the smartest or most eloquent person in the world. You just have to get involved,” she says. “Every individual has some sort of talent or skill, and we all need to use it to help Israel and klal Yisrael right now.”
Like many Jews around the world, Fay was so distraught after October 7 that she felt the need to do something. Thus began the whirlwind journey that has consumed her life for the past 20 months.
It all started when Fay saw people tearing down hostage posters in New York City, which made her livid. She began to investigate who these people were in order to expose them.
“I became something of a CIA agent,” she says. “I would find out who these people were, where they banked, where they went to school—even who their landlords were.” She even contacted their employers, and her efforts paid off; people were fired.
Little did she know that what started with letter writing to expose bad behavior would quickly turn into a movement.
Fay began posting her letters online, and more and more people wanted to sign them. As her following grew, she moved the group to WhatsApp.
These days, in addition to another administrator, there are about 20 dedicated attorneys, educators, writers, researchers, editors and everyday people working tirelessly behind the scenes of this movement. Each day they send out approximately ten calls to action to their more than 26,000 members. They work closely with partner groups, for a combined reach of over 50,000 people a day—and the group is constantly gaining new members through word of mouth, friends sharing with friends. As Fay explains, people trust the letters because they’re factual, referenced, strategic and emotion-free.
While some letters garnered massive attention—one early letter hit nearly half a million signatures—there was no single explosion. One such widely impactful letter went out after a Super Bowl ad for a website selling a T-shirt with a swastika on it. “Because of this letter, the servers at the TV station that carried the ad were shut down for two days, and it prompted responses from major entities such as the NFL, Super Bowl organizers and Shopify. We got the page shut down and received public apologies.”
Another win was when a staffer at the Office of the Mayor in New York City was seen ripping down a hostage poster and then assaulting the person who had put it up. After being flooded with expressions of outrage from Pens for Swords, a representative of the mayor stated, “Please, we got the message! We already fired her.”
The group is in constant motion—24 hours a day, six days a week—with ongoing strategy meetings, social media work and education efforts, including monitoring biased infiltration into K-12 curricula. When I ask her if she has ever considered hiring people instead of relying on volunteers, she says no. “I don’t want to be a fundraiser, and I don’t want to answer to anyone.”
Fay believes that the group’s biggest achievement has been educating people, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Their letters not only advocate but inform, and she’s proud that many people who were uncertain or misinformed now consider themselves more pro-Jewish and pro-Israel because of the clarity her team provides.
“I always say, ‘We don’t shut down airports. We don’t block people or stand in the middle of the highway. We don’t riot or physically attack anyone. We use our brains, our light and our unity, and it’s effective.”
The group has received acknowledgments from legislators for its efforts and has even impacted policy reform. Of course, the reception isn’t always positive. Pens for Swords recently received a scathing reply from an Irish official in response to one of its pro-Israel letters. “But at least someone is listening,” Fay reasons.
When asked if she posts direct responses to anti-Semitic content online, she clarifies that although they do monitor social media to identify problematic figures and justify actions such as employer notifications, they don’t respond to every post. Their team focuses on targeted letters designed to spread awareness about anti-Semitic events and trigger policy change.
Fay’s fight actually began with Israel, and anti-Semitism became a natural second front in that battle. “I view this as an obligation,” she says. “When the last hostage comes home, I’ll have to wrap this up somehow and go back to my life.”
Why is Israel first? “Because my heart is in Israel,” she says. “I don’t live there. I don’t have sons defending the country, but I want to do something. Every Jew in the world can do his or her part. Everyone has something to contribute, whether it’s art, writing, protests or prayer.”
Along the way, Fay has met a lot of interesting people and forged connections with them, ranging from White House correspondents to people in show business and family members of hostages in Gaza, including Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh was murdered by Hamas while he was held in captivity.
Interestingly, most of the people on her team are women, whom she calls “soulmates.” Many of them are secular, over 50, and often in professional fields like law or education. “We just recently got together in New York,” she says. “People flew in from all over the country. It was an incredibly emotional and unforgettable night.”
The team measures success by what they call “direct wins”—quotes in newspapers, canceled events, public responses from companies and legislative change. Every Friday before Shabbos they post their victories, which further motivates WhatsApp members to keep on signing.
Although they certainly encounter a lot of negativity diving into the dark side of humanity, Fay handles it with grace. “I don’t have time to process it,” she says, adding that whenever it gets overwhelming, she steps away briefly. “There have only been two times I had to put my phone away—when Ori Danino, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and the other four hostages with them were killed, and when the Bibas children were returned.” Otherwise, Fay is always connected to the group and her core team.
Her passion is not only time consuming but dangerous. “We deal with very scary organizations like CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations],” she says. For that reason, the Pens for Swords WhatsApp group is invitation-only; potential members must be directly invited by someone to join.
Fay feels very inspired by her team and her supporters. “People message me all the time saying that they don’t feel helpless anymore. They feel like they’re doing something to help.”
Unfortunately, their fight is far from over. “There is so much anti-Semitism in the world. I’m shocked by it every day.” Did it exist before the latest war in Gaza and the conflict with Iran? “I think it was there before October 7,” she replies, “but it wasn’t as ‘out there.’ This level of anti-Semitism feels like a Biblical prophecy. It makes no sense, so it must be from Hashem.”
Fay believes that most of the hatred comes from three main sources—extremists, social misfits looking for purpose, and paid actors showing up to protests.
In an effort to broaden the group’s reach, Fay started a program called Students for Jewish Advocacy, and she is very proud of it. After contacting almost a hundred Jewish day schools and asking them to get involved, Pens for Swords now sends three letters each week to students in the tenth grade and up. “We get a lot more signatures this way. It teaches young people how to advocate. I feel they should know what’s going on. And obviously, we also need their numbers.”
Her message to Jewish students is clear: “Be proud. Conduct yourself with kindness, no matter what the world says about you. Be the light.”
Pens for Swords has affected Fay in ways much more profound than she ever could have imagined. “While I am more pessimistic about my children’s future in this country, the Jewish people are brilliant and capable. Even with all the rockets from Iran, I just wish I were in Israel right now.”
Every morning, Fay wakes up at 5 a.m. to write a dedication to a hostage, including a picture, a biography and the number of days the hostage has been held captive, along with a heartfelt wish for his or her safe return. Virtually every free moment of her day is spent furthering this cause.
“I really believe that G-d chose me for this. I always tell my kids, ‘Live your life so that one day your children will have something to say at your funeral.’ Now I feel that mine will.”
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