Based on Dr. Rafael Medoff’s forthcoming book: The Road to October 7, Hamas, the Holocaust, and the Eternal War Against the Jews. The Road to October 7 explores the conditions and ideologies that led to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and its aftermath. It documents the rise of Hamas, the indoctrination of Palestinian Arab children to hate and kill, diplomatic decisions that enabled the assault, and the spread of anti-Israel and antisemitic narratives across global institutions and media. It also analyzes how the Hamas massacre echoed earlier chapters of antisemitic violence—from medieval pogroms to Czarist Russia, Ukraine, the Holocaust, and a century of Palestinian Arab terrorism. It draws connections between the universities in the United States that fostered ties with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and those that tolerated or supported pro-Hamas activism after October 7. The narrative sheds light on antisemitic education in Palestinian Arab society, the emergence of pro-Hamas groups on U.S. campuses, the failures of women’s and human rights organizations to respond to mass sexual violence, and the global misinformation about Israel’s conduct in the ensuing war. October 7 is presented not as an isolated event, but as a pivotal moment in the century-long Palestinian Arab war against Israel—and in the broader, centuries-old international war against the Jewish people.
About Our Speaker: Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in Washington, D.C., and the author of more than 20 books about the Holocaust, Zionism, and Jewish history. Medoff received his PhD from Yeshiva University in New York City in 1991. Medoff has taught Jewish history at Ohio State University, Purchase College of the State University of New York, and elsewhere. Medoff has served on the editorial boards of American Jewish History, Southern Jewish History, Shofar and Menorah Review.
