As American synagogues have struggled with declining membership and attendance, they have sought innovative ways to attract congregants. Liel Leibovitz argues that these initiatives are often ineffective, and has some suggestions of his own—based on the principle that, “if you have to compete against Alex Rodriguez, play chess instead of baseball.” He writes:

[F]or the most part, American shuls have been trying to regain relevance by offering the very same services and attractions that competitors were providing far more attractively. Why come to yoga in the shul’s musty basement when the studio across the street is well appointed and slicker? Or why invest in musicians to grace services when their betters are playing the concert hall down the block? And who goes to a singles event at the local synagogue when JDate and JSwipe, not to mention Tinder and so many others, are a flick away?

[Instead, synagogues] should . . . ask themselves “what, specifically, is it that we do here?” And the answer might surprise them in its stark simplicity: what we do in synagogues is good, old-fashioned religion.

Rather than abandoning the traditional mantle for other, lighter ones that feel more colorful and cool and contemporary, synagogues should reiterate that their predominant commitment is, as it has always been, to the collective practice of religious ritual. . . . [T]hey should invest in training members of the clergy to speak confidently and knowledgeably about the words we recite when we pray and the intricate theology these prayers form and the subtle but meaningful ways in which this theology differs from other belief systems.

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.