In a new book, Steven Fine tells the history of the menorah, which has been part of Jewish iconography since ancient times, not as an object but as a symbol. Jonathan Kirsch writes in his review:

Fine [sets out] to excavate and explain the meanings that have been evoked by the menorah over its long history. Indeed, he acknowledges that the New York Times once referred to him as “the Jewish Robert Langdon,” a reference to the “symbolist” who is the fictional hero of The Da Vinci Code, but he insists that his own work is based on “the close study of texts and artifacts in a real attempt to let these disparate forms ‘speak’ to each other.” . . .

Starting in the 19th century, . . . the seven-branched menorah was displayed in Reform and “neo-Orthodox” synagogues. By the 20th century, the menorah transcended its origins as a ritual object and variously “became a symbol for Jewish emancipation, . . . liberalizing Judaism, and Jewish nationalism—usually (but not always) Zionism—and sometimes for all of these at the same time.”

The superb color photographs in Fine’s book show us artifacts on which the menorah is depicted that are far older than the Arch of Titus [engraved with an image of victorious Roman soldiers carrying a menorah out of the Temple], which dates back to the 1st century CE, and he points out the various passages in the Tanakh where the menorah is richly described. . . .

The menorah may be missing from the flag of Israel, but it appears prominently on the official state seal. . . . Significantly, the vote in the Knesset to adopt the new seal was unanimous, a rarity in Israeli politics then and now.

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.