When the Titanic set sail from the English port of Southampton to New York City, it had on board hundreds of prospective immigrants hoping to settle in the U.S. permanently; among them were Sinai and Miriam Kantor, originally from Vitebsk. The Kantors were just two of some 80 Jews aboard the ship, including Congressman Isidor Straus of New York who, together with his brother Nathan, had founded Macy’s department store; the Titanic even had its own kosher kitchen. While the Kantors were not nearly so wealthy as Straus, they were far better-off than most Jewish passengers on the vessel, as Sinai Kantor’s Hebrew watch—recently put up for auction—suggests. Menachem Wecker writes:

Sinai Kantor . . . took with him [on the Titanic] a Swiss-made pocket watch embossed on the back with a seated Moses holding the Hebrew-inscribed Ten Commandments. The timepiece, a symbol of Kantor’s Jewish faith, survived. Kantor did not. He was among 1,503 passengers who died on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. . . . When women and children were prioritized for rescue, Miriam, who was twenty-four, survived in lifeboat number 12.

On its face, the seawater-rusted watch, which is three inches in diameter, contains the Hebrew letters corresponding to the numbers one through twelve, though the watch hands are missing. On the back, a muscular Moses, clad in biblical garb, holds the . . . Ten Commandments in front of five palm trees and an arch with Doric columns. . . . [A]n accessory of this sort would have been a posh, luxury item, which was intended to be conspicuous, said Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. . . .

In coming generations, many Jews would wear jewelry adorned with Stars of David or otherwise publicly demonstrate that they were Jewish. In much the same way, Kantor clearly wanted everybody to know he was proud to be Jewish, Sarna said.

On Tuesday, a Hizballah drone attack injured three people in northern Israel. The next day, another attack, targeting an IDF base, injured eighteen people, six of them seriously, in Arab al-Amshe, also in the north. This second attack involved the simultaneous use of drones carrying explosives and guided antitank missiles. In both cases, the defensive systems that performed so successfully last weekend failed to stop the drones and missiles. Ron Ben-Yishai has a straightforward explanation as to why: the Lebanon-backed terrorist group is getting better at evading Israel defenses. He explains the three basis systems used to pilot these unmanned aircraft, and their practical effects:

These systems allow drones to act similarly to fighter jets, using “dead zones”—areas not visible to radar or other optical detection—to approach targets. They fly low initially, then ascend just before crashing and detonating on the target. The terrain of southern Lebanon is particularly conducive to such attacks.

But this requires skills that the terror group has honed over months of fighting against Israel. The latest attacks involved a large drone capable of carrying over 50 kg (110 lbs.) of explosives. The terrorists have likely analyzed Israel’s alert and interception systems, recognizing that shooting down their drones requires early detection to allow sufficient time for launching interceptors.

The IDF tries to detect any incoming drones on its radar, as it had done prior to the war. Despite Hizballah’s learning curve, the IDF’s technological edge offers an advantage. However, the military must recognize that any measure it takes is quickly observed and analyzed, and even the most effective defenses can be incomplete. The terrain near the Lebanon-Israel border continues to pose a challenge, necessitating technological solutions and significant financial investment.