In 1977, Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim opened the Crown Heights Art Institute (CHAI) in the eponymous Brooklyn neighborhood to showcase the work of hasidic artists. Dovid Margolin tells the story of that unprecedented institution and its founder and director, Zev Markowitz:

Markowitz was born in 1947 to Holocaust survivors in the western Ukrainian town of Mukachevo, better known in the Jewish world by its Yiddish name, Munkatch. . . . Markowitz’s father was a serious art collector back in the USSR, and Zev had studied art in Leningrad, Russia’s cultural capital. In late 1977, not long after Markowitz’s introduction to Crown Heights, Rabbi Elya Gross, the then-director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, decided to establish a permanent art gallery to assist and showcase local hasidic artists. When Gross got wind of Markowitz’s art background, he offered him the directorship of the new institution.

CHAI came about as the direct result of [an exhibit] held in the fall of 1977 at the Brooklyn Museum. Titled “Hasidic Artists in Brooklyn,” it marked the first time observant hasidic artists had ever received such attention in a major museum. . . . “Are these relatively drab-looking, strict people allowed to indulge in such colorful work?” the Village Voice asked in its 1977 review of the exhibition. “Of course we are,” responded Raphael Eisenberg, who . . . was among the show’s participating artists.

Robert Clark explains why the resumption of hostilities is both just and necessary:

These latest Israeli strikes come after weeks of consistent Palestinian provocation; they have repeatedly broken the terms of the cease-fire which they claimed they were so desperate for. There have been numerous [unsuccessful] bus bombings near Tel Aviv and Palestinian-instigated clashes in the West Bank. Fifty-nine Israeli hostages are still held in captivity.

In fact, Hamas and their Palestinian supporters . . . have always known that they can sit back, parade dead Israeli hostages live on social media, and receive hundreds of their own convicted terrorists and murderers back in return. They believed they could get away with the October 7 pogrom.

One hopes Hamas’s leaders will get the message. Meanwhile, many inside and outside Israel seem to believe that, by resuming the fighting, Jerusalem has given up on rescuing the remaining hostages. But, writes Ron Ben-Yishai, this assertion misunderstands the goals of the present campaign. “Experience within the IDF and Israeli intelligence,” Ben-Yishai writes, “has shown that such pressure is the most effective way to push Hamas toward flexibility.” He outlines two other aims:

The second objective was to signal to Hamas that Israel is not only targeting its military wing—the terror army that was the focus of previous phases of the war up until the last cease-fire—but also its governance structure. This was demonstrated by the targeted elimination of five senior officials from Hamas’s political and civilian administration. . . . The strikes also served as a message to mediators, particularly Egypt, that Israel opposes Hamas remaining in any governing or military capacity in post-war Gaza.

The third objective was to create intense military pressure, coordinated with the U.S., on all remaining elements of the Shiite “axis of resistance,” including Yemen’s Houthis, Hamas, and Iran.