At a recent auction at Sotheby’s, collectors had a chance to purchase numerous items from the estate of Frank and Barbara Sinatra—among them, a kippah with the singer’s name crocheted on it. Amy Spiro writes:

A hand-crocheted kippah that once belonged to Frank Sinatra was auctioned off . . . for $9,375. . . . Sotheby’s estimated [it] would sell for $200-400, but the final bid was close to 25 times that amount. The auction house did not say who crocheted the kippah or how Frank came to own it. The description of the item, rather, noted that “Sinatra was a lifelong sympathizer with Jewish causes, and was awarded the Hollzer Memorial Award by the Los Angeles Jewish Community in 1949.” . . .

A separate item sold in the auction was the final script for a short 1945 film titled The House I Live In. The film, written by Sinatra and Albert Maltz, was designed to combat anti-Semitism and promote religious freedom in America.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.