A word with nearly the same meaning as another word is

As soon as hitler took over, he began persecuting jews. what does persecuting mean in this context

3. what is the purpose of a lead sentence or paragraph? to display your most convincing reasons and arguments to you revise the overall structure of your work to interest readers and introduce your writing style to add details and elaborate on your ideas

London includes a quote about john thornton as he is observing hal attempt to motivate the exhausted dogs "it was idle, he knew, to get between a fool and his folly". if the word "idle" is defined as "of no real worth, importance, or significance", what does this statement mean with regard to hal? who is the fool? what is hal's folly? why would john thornton think it of no real worth or useless to intervene?