In rabbinic texts, the fundamental religious obligation of the Passover seder is to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik observes that the word sippur, used here for “storytelling,” derives from the Hebrew root for a book (sefer) or a scribe (sofer). Drawing on the ancient mystical text Sefer Yetsirah (the Book of Creation), Soloveitchik explains that the term refers neither to literal writing nor to mere narration, but to an injunction to parents to inscribe the story on the souls of their children—to “take a living person and turn him into a book.” (Video, Yiddish with English subtitles, 34 minutes.)

Stephen Daisley writes about the slaying of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim:

Yaron and Sarah were murdered in a climate of lies and vilification and hatred. . . . The more institutions participate in this collective madness, the more madness there will be. The more elected officials and NGOs misrepresent the predictable consequences of asymmetric warfare in densely populated territories, where much of the infrastructure of everyday life has a dual civilian/terrorist purpose, the more the citizenries of North America and Europe will come to regard Israelis and Jews as a people who lust unquenchably after blood.

The most intolerant anti-Zionism is becoming a mainstream view, indulged by liberal societies, more concerned with not conflating irrational hatred of Israel with irrational hatred of Jews—as though the distinction between the two is all that well defined anymore.

For years now, and especially after the October 7 massacre, the call has gone up from the pro-Palestinian movement to put Palestine at the heart of Western politics. To pursue the struggle against Zionism in every country, on every platform, and in every setting. To wage worldwide resistance to Israel, not only in Wadi al-Far’a but in Washington, DC. “Globalize the intifada,” they chanted. This is what it looks like.