In 1968, several years of increasing political violence and unrest, coupled by rising crime and disorder, seemed to come to a climax: first with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., then with the nationwide riots afterward, followed by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and thereafter by the violent protests at the Democratic National Convention. There were also repercussions for Jews: as Dovid Margolin notes, “in a three-month period beginning in September 1968, ten synagogues and Jewish schools were vandalized, set on fire, or even firebombed in New York City” alone. On December 10, Menachem M. Schneerson, the then-rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch Ḥasidim, delivered a lengthy sermon touching on the dangers of the moment, which Margolin summarizes:

March 15 marks the beginning of this year’s Israel Apartheid Week, during which campus groups around the world hold rallies and events for the purpose of defaming the Jewish state and mustering support for the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction it (BDS). Richard Kemp comments: