Now a major center of Britain’s Orthodox Jewish community, the London suburb of Golders Green was first settled by Jews a century ago. The story of its first synagogue, as told by Helen Fry, is one of joining the fashionable middle class:

The Jews who moved into Golders Green at the turn of the century were primarily from the middle classes, . . . rather than [the working-class immigrants of] the Jewish East End. By the 1920s, Golders Green became a very fashionable place to live and its high street was described as having “the finest shops outside the West End of London.”

The nascent Jewish community began in 1915 with only twenty members, but in its heyday rose to a membership of around 1,500.

From 1915 until 1922, the early congregation rented St. Albans Hall from the local Anglican Church for Shabbat services and all the major festivals. . . . By 1918, the congregation was able to purchase a plot of land in Dunstan Road but . . . could not build the synagogue before 1922 because the government had reserved the land as allotments to feed the nation after the food shortages of the Great War.

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.