Of Good Courage

Israel’s fight is a test for the West: does it still have the courage to call out evil and champion good?

Of Good Courage unfolds as an urgent intergenerational conversation between Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter, a seasoned diplomat and grieving father whose eldest son fell while leading soldiers in Gaza, and Sabrina Soffer, who was thrust into the battle over antisemitism and Israel on her campus and refused to back down.

With a foreword by Mike Huckabee, this book bridges generations as well as faiths. Leiter and Soffer make the case that Jews and Christians must unite to restore moral clarity by reviving the pillars of Western civilization, embodied in one of the most maligned yet most direly needed ideas of our time: Zionism.

October seventh exposed the stark divide between those who cherish life and those who glorify death. Just as shocking was the response in the West. Elite universities and city streets teemed with celebrations of Hamas’s barbarism. Professors and students twisted terrorism into legitimate “resistance” and recast murder as liberation.

How did chanting “from the river to the sea,” calling for Israel’s elimination, become mainstream? How could good be taken for evil and evil for good, and lies taken for truth and truth for lies?

In answering these questions, the narrative alternates between the voices of Leiter and Soffer, framing their reflections around Ambassador Leiter’s son Moshe, while revealing their evolving friendship in counterpoint. Each chapter interweaves historical and philosophical nodes, lessons in leadership, study, and travel. The battle against Hamas, Iran, and its proxies is understood as a microcosm of the larger battle for the West.

• “Ambassador Leiter and Sabrina Soffer remind us that history belongs to those willing to take responsibility for their destiny and stand for what is right. The forces of Heaven stand with those who choose freedom over fear.”
  Javier Milei, president of Argentina
• “I have no doubt that this inspirational, informative, and deeply heartfelt work will be prominently placed on the bookshelves of the great leaders of the twenty-first century. It is a book of service, tremendous personal sacrifice, and answering the call of duty to defend what is right.”
  Rep. Elise Stefanik
• “Their dialogue reminds us that Jewish strength has always come from the connection between our identity, our history, our people, and our responsibility for the future.”
  Natan Sharansky, human rights activist and former deputy prime minister of Israel
• “Of Good Courage exposes the ideas that have taught the West to mistake terror for liberation and finds in Zionism’s union of reason, revelation, responsibility, and courage a powerful path forward.”
  Rabbi David Wolpe
• “This is not a book about a war in the Middle East. It is a book about us. A moral reckoning.”
  Reverend Johnnie Moore
• “They teach us to fight the totalitarian terrorists and their enablers in our midst, while celebrating the Jewish, Zionist, American, and Western values that give meaning to the heroic death of Ambassador Leiter’s son—and can help shape all of our lives.”
  Dr. Gil Troy, professor of history, McGill University
• “In the Bible it is said of righteous Abel that ‘though he died, he still speaks’ (Hebrews 11:4). The co-authorship of this volume by my friend Ambassador Yechiel Leiter and Sabrina Soffer is a match made in heaven. In these pages you will meet Moshe, a son and a soldier, who, like Abel of old, ‘though he died, he still speaks.’ This volume is a call for all of us to join the fight against a rising and rabid antisemitism, the age-old lie that never dies. Read it…and reap! And in so doing you will learn what it means to be…OF GOOD COURAGE.”
  O. S. Hawkins, PhD, author and former pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas
• “The Jewish college student, no less than the Israeli ambassador, has lately been called upon to demonstrate courage. Both have borne the brunt of an immense campaign of propaganda. In Of Good Courage, as in their daily work, both Ambassador Yechiel Leiter and Sabrina Soffer answer the call. They confront the modern predicament of the Jews and the West and lend readers some of their hope and strength.”
  Elliot Kaufman, editorial board member, Wall Street Journal
• “This is an urgent and truly remarkable book, which I read with tears in my eyes and a deep sense of deep shame and sorrow in my heart. It is both a searing indictment of the intellectual and moral confusion of the West and a blockbuster challenge to America. Do Americans realize that without the precedent of the Hebrew republic, there would be no American republic? And do they understand that unless they can give a robust response to the dangerously specious arguments of the red–green alliance against the Jews, they will have no remedy for the accusations leveled against America itself? Prime Minister Disraeli’s famous comment,  strongly seconded by Winston Churchill, stands as a warning for our time. ‘The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews.’”
  Os Guinness, author of A Freedom Like No Other
• “Of Good Courage is a powerful call for moral clarity in an age of moral confusion. Yechiel Leiter and Sabrina Soffer remind us that Israel stands on the front line of the West’s fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran—a regime committed to Israel’s destruction and the defeat of America. Through Moshe Leiter’s remarkable life and sacrifice, they show us what courage demands. We must recognize evil, name it, confront it, and defeat it.”
  Mark Dubowitz, chief executive, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)
• “I am delighted to strengthen two prominent people in our nation’s capital at a time of great challenge, Ambassador Dr. Yechiel Leiter and Ms. Sabrina Soffer, in their efforts to defend the Jewish people in its most important facets—the land of Israel, the people of Israel, and the Torah of Israel. Though obviously at two very different stages of their respective life trajectories and careers, they demonstrate once again that quintessential aspect of the Jewish narrative—that, though coming from different places and leading different lives, we are one people with one shared destiny. And we need to find a common communication of our story in order to respond  to our challenges with strength. Kudos to both of them as they share their navigation of the intricate travails unique to the Washington environment, both bringing their incredible intellects and talents to demonstrate with pride how a Jewish identity and life is fully relevant and possible even in the leadership of general society, in the worlds of academia as well as diplomacy. An intellectually powerful ambassador of Israel and a powerhouse student warrior for the Jewish people presenting our case to the world without fear in such a meaningful and personal way. As I see it, this is G-d’s will—to infuse the larger, secular world with the sacred heritage and message we carry as Jews, and it is fascinating to witness the transition of Jewishness so clearly and powerfully from one generation to the next.”
  Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad)
• “Wars are fought with weapons, but they begin with ideas. Of Good Courage exposes the moral confusion that has allowed terrorism to be celebrated while Israel’s defense of life is condemned. Through the story of Moshe Leiter and their powerful intergenerational conversation, Yechiel Leiter and Sabrina Soffer make the case that moral clarity must be recovered and defended. This is an important book for anyone who understands that the fight for Israel is also a fight for the future of Western civilization.”
  John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies, Modern War Institute at West Point; author of Understanding Urban Warfare
• “In an era fractured by postmodern ideology, Of Good Courage delivers an intellectually urgent challenge to the paralyzing grip of cultural relativism. It exposes how elite institutions have traded universal ethics for a toxic framework of subjective morality. While the authors anchor their defense of objective truth in the Judeo-Christian tradition, their core diagnosis transcends theology. For the secular reader, the book serves as a vital defense of the foundational pillars of Western civilization: reason and individual accountability. Through the lens of campus extremism and the profound legacy of Leiter’s late son, Moshe, Of Good Courage makes a powerful case against the equalization of virtue. It is a necessary wake-up call for anyone committed to confronting institutional rot and standing up for the enduring principles of human progress.”
  Hussain Abdul-Hussain, author of The Arab Case for Israel, research fellow at FDD
• “Of Good Courage should be required reading for anyone concerned about the future of liberal democracy. In a remarkable intergenerational dialogue, Leiter and Soffer show how the propaganda war unleashed against Israel after October seventh is a symptom of a larger breakdown of values, one that demands true courage to confront. Woven throughout is the inspiring legacy of Leiter’s son Moshe Yedidyah Leiter, of blessed memory.”
  Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun