Martin Luther, the central figure of the Protestant Reformation, was one of history’s great antisemites. In an infamous 1543 treatise, “On the Jews and Their Lies,” he offered his “sincere advice” for dealing with “this rejected and condemned people, the Jews.” His list of recommendations began: “First, set fire to their synagogues or schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn.”
In the Muslim world, too, synagogues have been burned to the ground again and again: in Persia in 1839, in Cairo in 1945, in Algeria in 1956, in Istanbul in 2003, in Damascus in 2013, in Tunisia in 2023, and in numerous other instances.
Even when Jewish communities have ceased to exist, the synagogues they leave behind have been destroyed by arsonists. In 2005, Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip, unilaterally turning over the entire territory to the Palestinian Authority, dismantling the 21 settlements that had been built there and removing the 9,000 Jewish residents who had lived in them. But they left the synagogues intact. The buildings were both sacred and beautiful, and Israelis didn’t have the heart to flatten them. It was thought that even if the former synagogues would no longer be used for Jewish prayer, the Palestinians could put them to good use — as community centers, perhaps, or office facilities, municipal buildings, or schools.
But upon taking over the land that Israel had voluntarily relinquished, the very first thing the Palestinians did was to put the synagogues to the torch. “Gaza's night sky turned orange as fires roared across the settlements,” the Associated Press reported. “Women ululated, teens set off fireworks, and crowds chanted ‘G-d is great.’ ”
What happened last week in Australia has happened in the United States and Canada, too. Congregation Beth Israel in Gadsden, Ala., was firebombed by a Nazi sympathizer in 1960. The similarly-named Beth Israel synagogue in Austin was burned in 2021. A Vancouver synagogue was doused with fuel and set on fire this past May; fortunately, the damage was confined to the front doors and no one was hurt. Six months earlier, Molotov cocktails were hurled at a synagogue in suburban Montreal.
There will be more. As overt antisemitism becomes increasingly normalized, the hate crimes will continue to pile up. More Jews will be menaced and assaulted, more antisemitism will be pumped into social media, more cities will experience “Jew hunts” — and more synagogues will go up in flames. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, to borrow Yeats’s phrase. Our world is deeply disordered and increasingly out of control. Something truly frightful is coming. Jews, as always the canary in the coal mine, are the first to be targeted. But they won’t be the last.
This op-ed originally appeared in “Arguable,” a weekly newsletter written by Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby.
Reprinted from the current website of aish.com
