On Jan. 22, twenty-four soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces were killed in a single day — 21 in a detonated building in northern Gaza, and three more in combat in the south. That’s the largest death toll of military personnel since the ground invasion into Gaza began, bringing the total loss of Israeli warriors to 220.

In its short history as a modern state, Israel has been a Cinderella story where the glass slipper doesn’t quite fit without arch supports.

If you’re a Jew looking for sympathy in these sucker-punch days of hyper-antisemitism, find a way to transport yourself back to the early 1990s, a time when Holocaust memory—“Schindler’s List”; the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; and observances of Yom HaShoah across America—was afforded largely universal respect.

The world feels like it’s on fire, with flames spreading in diverse directions.

It was in 1908 when New York City began the annual tradition of ushering in the New Year with the celebratory dropping of the ball in Times Square.