First published in Dutch in 2016, The Convert appeared in English three years later. This bestselling work of historical fiction, set in medieval France, is a Romeo-and-Juliet tale of the love between a Jewish boy and a Christian girl. Mose Apelblat speaks with the author, Stefan Hertmans, about how he became aware of the real-life episode that inspired it:

The Convert takes place mainly in France in the years before the outbreak of the First Crusade in 1096. Vigdis Adelaïs Gudbrandr, born in Rouen in 1070, was the daughter of an aristocratic mother and a Norman knight. She was just seventeen when she ran away with David Todros, a rabbi’s son and visiting student from Narbonne.

If caught, both risked their lives [for violating ecclesiastical law]. But she would elope, marry David, convert to Judaism, and take the name Sarah Hamoutal Todros. Then she would journey with her husband to Moniou, a village in Provence, where the first of her four children was born. However, tragedy would strike when soldiers of the First Crusade attacked the village and burned the synagogue. Her husband would be killed and two of her children taken away.

Hertmans, a Belgian by nationality, became aware of the story in 1994, when he and his wife purchased a summer home in the Provençal village of Moniuex, near the ruins of a medieval settlement thought to be the Moniou where Sarah and David settled:

He was fascinated that the ruins were just 200 meters from his house, outside the village center but still inside the defense walls that surrounded it. He heard rumors about a hidden Jewish treasure and a Jewish cemetery in the village. His neighbor, Andy Cosyn, who had written a book about the treasure, showed him the steps in a water hole. Hertmans identified it as the remnant of a Jewish ritual bath or mikveh. Back then, it was probably inside an annex to the local synagogue.

The very existence of a Jewish community in the village is still doubted by some scholars. Other scholars argue that Monieux has been mixed up with Muno close to Najera in northern Spain. Both places are written with the same letters in Hebrew. . . . During his research, Hertmans explored Rouen, where street names still recall its Jewish past. An intact yeshiva—a traditional Jewish rabbinical school—with a Hebrew inscription on the porch has been found in a cellar under the current courthouse.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.