The Yiddish poet and novelist Chaim Grade is best known for his literary depictions of religious life in prewar Eastern Europe—and of his own disillusionment from that particular life. Much of his work is centered around the great yeshivas of Vilna and its environs, heirs of the anti-ḥasidic countermovement of the late 18th century. Yet in the 1960s, Grade began a correspondence with the rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch Ḥasidim, facilitated by Israel’s then-president Zalman Shazar and encouraged by Grade’s wife, who generally wanted little to do with Jewish affairs. Eli Rubin tells the story, and presents a translation of some of the correspondence:

In July 1966, Chaim Grade . . . received a phone call. Zalman Shazar, the journalist and Labor activist who was now president of Israel, had arrived in New York on his first official visit to the United States, and would soon be heading to Washington to meet his counterpart, President Johnson. But Shazar had something else on his mind. As Grade recalled in a letter penned a few weeks later, “the [Israeli] consul told me that a constant stream of warnings are coming from Israel” that President Shazar “should not visit the Lubavitcher rebbe, and it is making the president ill, depressed, and agitated.”

Grade soon arrived at Shazar’s hotel, together with his wife, Inna Hecker Grade, for a heart-to-heart. “If you go,” Grade told the president, “there will be a storm outside of you, in Israel. But if you don’t go, there’ll be a storm within your own self, and it will never quiet down!”

“Now I see two things,” Shazar excitedly replied, “you are a poet, and you are a friend!”

A couple of days later, the New York Times was . . . reporting that “Mr. Shazar had clearly placed his own deep spiritual attachments ahead of the criticism of some Israeli newspapers when he made an unscheduled midnight visit to Rabbi Menahem M. Schneerson, head of the Lubavitcher movement in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.” At Shazar’s request, and with Inna’s encouragement, Grade was in the presidential entourage.

On Tuesday, representatives of Hamas met with their counterparts from Fatah—the faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) once led by Yasir Arafat that now governs parts of the West Bank—in Beijing to discuss possible reconciliation. While it is unlikely that these talks will yield any more progress than the many previous rounds, they constitute a significant step in China’s increasing attempts to involve itself in the Middle East on the side of Israel’s enemies.

By contrast, writes Tuvia Gering, Taiwan has been quick and consistent in its condemnations of Hamas and Iran and its expressions of sympathy with Israel:

Support from Taipei goes beyond words. Taiwan’s appointee in Tel Aviv and de-facto ambassador, Abby Lee, has been busy aiding hostage families, adopting the most affected kibbutzim in southern Israel, and volunteering with farmers. Taiwan recently pledged more than half a million dollars to Israel for critical initiatives, including medical and communications supplies for local municipalities. This follows earlier aid from Taiwan to an organization helping Israeli soldiers and families immediately after the October 7 attack.

The reasons why are not hard to fathom:

In many ways, Taiwan sees a reflection of itself in Israel—two vibrant democracies facing threats from hostile neighbors. Both nations wield substantial economic and technological prowess, and both heavily depend on U.S. military exports and diplomacy. Taipei also sees Israel as a “role model” for what Taiwan should aspire to be, citing its unwavering determination and capabilities to defend itself.

On a deeper level, Taiwanese leaders seem to view Israel’s war with Hamas and Iran as an extension of a greater struggle between democracy and autocracy.

Gering urges Israel to reciprocate these expressions of friendship and to take into account that “China has been going above and beyond to demonize the Jewish state in international forums.” Above all, he writes, Jerusalem should “take a firmer stance against China’s support for Hamas and Iran-backed terrorism, exposing the hypocrisy and repression that underpin its vision for a new global order.”