Road to October 7

Rafael Medoff is founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and coeditor of the institute’s online Encyclopedia of America’s Response to the Holocaust. He has written more than twenty books, including The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust (JPS, 2019) and America and the Holocaust: A Documentary History (JPS, 2022).

“Compelling reading for anyone who believes in the security of the State of Israel.”-Seymour D. Reich, former chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and past president of B’nai B’rith International “I cannot imagine a more important book for the Jewish community and indeed all human rights advocates than this brilliant volume.”-Neil J. Kressel, author of Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror “A champion of Jewish memory and an expert on the Jews’ abandonment during the Holocaust, Rafael Medoff confronts the Hamas attack, the global explosion of antisemitism, and the historical lessons that can help guide the Jewish future.”-Walter Reich, former director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum “Even politically hostile readers will have a hard time contesting the conclusions in Rafael Medoff’s extensively researched, methodical, data-driven, and accessible volume. It should be read by everyone who wants to understand October 7 in historical context.”-Eunice G. Pollack, coeditor of the Encyclopedia of American Jewish History

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1. The Present: Understanding October 7 and Its Aftermath1. In the Cities of Slaughter The Ideology behind October 7Attack on the Music FestivalDevastation of Towns and KibbutzimHow They DiedThe CollaboratorsSexual ViolenceParading the HostagesAbuse of the Hostages“In the City of Slaughter” 2. The Rise and Strategy of Hamas Jews and Muslims in GazaTerror from Gaza, Then and NowIslam and the JewsThe Birth of Palestinian NationalismNew Audiences for Mein KampfThe Birth of HamasHamas TerrorHamas in PowerMilitary Challenges after October 7Terror Centers in Universities and Hospitals 3. Killers Are Made, Not Born Jihad Education in SchoolsUNRWA’s Hate EducationMatriculation and MartyrdomPA Responses to Curricula CriticismSchools Named after KillersHateful TV and VideoExtracurricular Activities Promoting TerrorismMartyr GamesSummer Camps of TerrorTerrorist Role Models for GirlsRaising MartyrsAspiring to Martyrdom 4. The War on the Truth Staged DisruptionsOctober 7 DenialBlood Libels, Old and NewThe Gaza Genocide Blood LibelThe Famine LieTruth as Casualty: World War II LessonsFeminists Excusing Hamas RapesHuman Wrongs by Human Rights Advocates 5. The War on Campus Students for Justice in PalestineJewish Students AssaultedHow Universities RespondedHarvardColumbiaMITYaleGeorge Washington UniversityUniversity of PennsylvaniaShowdown in CongressThe Second ExplosionIgnorant ProtestersTent Encampments and Student DemandsAppeasing ExtremismFizzled ProtestsThe First AnniversaryAddressing the Problem Part 2: The Past: Tracing the Echoes of History6. Historical Parallels to October 7 The CrusadersMedieval Blood LibelsGlorification of HorrorCossack MassacresTerror in RussiaTerror in UkraineArab Terror, Then and NowThe Role of Antisemitic IdeologyCivilian CollaboratorsRaising German Youth to KillGenocide Trophies 7. Universities and the Nazis HarvardColumbiaMITYaleGeorge Washington UniversityIsolationism on CampusOther Troubling Echoes 8. Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Emergence of Secular AntisemitismAntisemitism in AmericaAnti-Zionism, Then and NowPostwar Changes in AntisemitismThe U.S. Government vs. AntisemitismDefining AntisemitismFacing the New AntisemitismBDS and AntisemitismBiden and Harris Break New Ground ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex