On the anniversary of October 7

Notes on the year

Here are a few worthwhile essays.

Yossi Klein Halevi, in “The end of the post-Holocaust era,” writes that October 7 ushered in a new era for world Jewry.

“The post-Holocaust era of the last eight decades was defined by optimism about the Jewish future,” he writes. Improbably, Jews survived an event meant to destroy them to the very last, creating not one but two great centers of Jewish life, one Israel and one in America, “the most successful diaspora in history.”

This optimism, he argues, ended on October 7. In Israel, “October 7 was a pre-enactment in microcosm of the destruction of Israel: the IDF in disarray, the government AWOL, civilians left to fend for themselves with pistols,” while in the United States, Jews saw their fellow citizens cheering Hamas—Hamas—the very day after Hamas carried out a savage pogrom that killed 1200 beautiful men, women, and children, raping, disemboweling, and decapitating them while they were dancing in a field or sleeping in their homes.