On the Jewish calendar, today is the first day of the month of Kislev, which the Orthodox rabbi of Munich, Heinrich Ehrentreu, decreed 100 years ago should be observed by local Jews as a day of fasting and prayer. The decree was observed by his community for the next ten years, to commemorate what he described as “the prevention of a pogrom.” Michael Brenner investigates the events Ehrentreu had in mind, which began with Adolf Hitler’s attempt to overthrow the German government, launched from a Munich beerhall on November 8, 1923:

“All along the Ring, [a central street], they were picking up all Jewish men. We had been spared. And all were told: ‘Tomorrow you’ll all be hanging, the entire Jewish community,’” recalled the Jewish physician and mother Rahel Straus.

The attorney Philipp Löwenfeld escaped that night’s terror by the skin of his teeth, when an acquaintance rang him up at his office half an hour before midnight to tell him that he was in personal danger and should go into hiding. There were “already Jewish hostages [who had been] arrested in large numbers,” he later remembered. The Jewish hostages were threatened with being shot until the Bavarian state police finally came by to free them. Some of them had received a bloody beating.

Members of the right-wing organizations scoured Munich’s directory of addresses for Jewish-sounding names or looked for them next to doorbells. The rabbi of the Jewish community, Leo Baerwald, was hauled out of his home at night, taken to a field outside the city, tied to a tree, and threatened with being shot.

The government successfully suppressed the uprising before the shooting began. But the relief would prove only temporary.

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.”