Born in either Germany or France in 1824, Cora Wilburn came to the U.S. in 1848 and in 1860 published the novel Cosella Wayne serially in the journal Banner of Light. The novel, in the words of the historian Jonathan Sarna, was the first “written and published in English by an American Jewish woman writer, and the first coming-of-age novel to depict Jews in the United States.” Drawing on her travels in Venezuela, England, India, and elsewhere before coming to America, Wilburn—writing for a primarily Christian audience—depicts the Jewish communities in these countries in rich detail. Herewith, an excerpt set in a German synagogue on Yom Kippur sometime in the 1830s:

It is the great Day of Atonement with the Jews. Clad in the habiliments of the grave, the sweeping shroud of linen, with its wide cape edged with lace, the conical cap upon their heads, the worshipers of the ancient law read the accustomed prayers and beat their breasts in penitence. . . .

Occasionally, the sweet, softly murmured chorus of female voices lends its charm to those antique hymns of praise and penitence. The women sit above, in a gallery devoted solely to their use, separated from husbands, fathers, and brothers; some, the aged and the matronly, arrayed in the vestment that once shall shroud their lifeless forms; others, the young and gay, wear dresses of pure white, emblematic of the forgiveness of sins, the stainless purity of the day of expiation. . . .

They pray for the restoration of the land by them deemed holy; they weep afresh for the destruction of the sacred Temple, for their scattered people and dethroned rulers. They strike their breasts, confessing their sins of commission and omission. . . . Five times that day, the congregation fall upon their knees in worship to the unseen God, and implore His pardon for the people. They pray, too, for the earthly and Christian rulers set before them, for the prosperity of their adopted country, for the welfare of all.

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.