A few days ago, Jeffrey Salkin learned that a synagogue he frequented as a teenager had been destroyed—not by anti-Semites or terrorists but by a professional wrecking crew. The synagogue in question, in the Long Island town of East Meadow, shuttered its doors to merge with Temple B’nai Torah in neighboring Wantagh, itself formed by the union of two synagogues that had once thrived independently. Reflecting on synagogue closures throughout the U.S., Salkin notes that they cannot be chalked up to demographic shifts alone:

Synagogues are shrinking not only because people are moving away or dying. . . . Many Jews who used to belong to those synagogues haven’t gone anywhere—except out of the synagogues. When the last child graduates from high school, when the nest is truly empty, many Jews ask themselves, “Who needs this anymore?”

We did it to ourselves. We made synagogues so child-focused, and so bar/bat mitzvah-centric, that many Jews simply could not imagine a reality that would go beyond that. When it comes to the High Holy Days, they say to themselves, they can always buy a ticket. Except, synagogues do not pop up on Rosh Hashanah and then close after . . . Yom Kippur. Whether you are there or not, there are still salaries to pay and bills to pay.

So, what has not worked in keeping synagogues alive? Appeals to ethnic loyalty—“We need you to keep the Jewish community alive!”—don’t move younger generations. [Neither does the question] “Who is going to do your funeral if you don’t have a rabbi?” Answer: a pick-up rabbi from the funeral home. Or, a friend or close relative. Or, increasingly: no funerals at all.

To Salkin, the problem is at its heart a religious one. According to surveys, American Jews are less likely than their Gentile compatriots to deem religion important, and less likely to believe in God. Unless something can be done to reverse these trends, he argues, expect more synagogues to close.

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.