Located in the Golan Heights, Gamla is described in great detail by the historian Josephus, and Israeli archaeologist discovered its ruins following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The city’s Jews had made a valiant stand against the Romans in 67 CE—as evidenced by the dozens of arrowheads and projectiles from that period that litter the soil—but eventually its walls were breached. As Ticia Verveer writes, Gamla was also home to an ancient synagogue.

The earliest traces of the existence of synagogues were found in Egypt. Two inscriptions, dating from the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221 BCE) mention synagogues. . . . [T]he word synagogue comes from the Greek word originally meaning “an assembly.” In ancient Greek Jewish texts, synagogue usually means the community of the Jews. It makes sense that the congregation may have developed from a gathering at any suitable place, into a fixed gathering, and with time into a synagogue. . . .

Until now, we have been able to identify three prayer halls that predate the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Two of these were part of fortresses built by Herod, at Herodium and at Masada. The reception rooms of theses palaces were transformed into prayer halls when they were occupied by the Jewish rebels. The third synagogue was found . . . at Gamla [and] probably built between 23 and 41 CE.

These three are the only ones known in Palestine from the 1st century CE. . . . Before this period, no other structures are known to have been used as synagogues, except in the diaspora. For example, in [the Aegean island of] Delos, a large commercial center and a thoroughfare to eastern Mediterranean countries, a synagogue existed in the 1st century BCE which remained in use until the 2nd century CE. Ancient literary sources mention synagogues in . . . Lower Egypt, Asia Minor, North Africa, and Rome.

The building in Gamla was destroyed together with the entire town when the Romans crushed the Jewish Revolt in the year 67 CE. . . . [This] basalt structure, [measuring] 17 by 25.5 meters, is oriented to the southwest. A small vestibule with a tripartite entrance leads into the hall. All the walls were lined with rows of three to five benches, leaving wide passages behind the rows. . . . A little building to the south of the synagogue contained a mikveh (ritual bath).

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.