One of the many disturbing things about Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7 was how little time it took for the events of that day not just to be defended, but also to be disputed and diminished.
That’s why establishing and preserving the facts about what happened that day is so important. This week, historian, Churchill biographer, and member of the British House of Lords Andrew Roberts published a meticulous report designed to do exactly that. He writes in his foreword that “as a Gentile, I believe that it is vital to prevent the emergence of another, more modern version of Holocaust denial, namely 7 October denial. After the Holocaust, non-Jews like me owe the Jewish people nothing less. This can only be done by the kind of facts-based, evidential work in this report.”
The publication is a reminder of how the world changed on October 7—and how the event opened up a dark new chapter of antisemitism around the world. It’s also a lesson in the importance, in a world of mistruths, of stating plainly what happened. That’s what we’re aiming to do with this newsletter.
In the week since an attempted deadly attack on Jewish children in Michigan was stopped by synagogue security, we’ve seen the world react with concern and then indifference. The attackers’ actions were justified by some, downplayed by others, and quickly brushed over.
Threats to Jewish life take many forms. It can be violence or vandalism or abuse shouted in the street; but it can also be more insidious or subtle, the slow pushing of Jews out of mainstream spaces.
This week has seen both, and a rising climate of fear, especially in Europe, where the military in Belgium and Italy have been dispatched to protect Jewish sites, and a new survey revealed widespread antisemitic attitudes among British students.
—The Editors
A Jewish Synagogue and School in the Netherlands, One Day Apart
On March 14, two suspects bombed the Cheider Orthodox Jewish school in Amsterdam with police releasing surveillance footage of the pair this week. The attack came just one day after four teenagers torched a synagogue in Rotterdam, whom prosecutors have since formally charged with terrorism, saying the attacks were designed to “instill serious fear” in the Jewish community.
