One of the foremost Yiddish poets in the decades following World War I, Peretz Markish was born in a Ukrainian shtetl, where his devout father worked as a teacher in a ḥeder. After leaving the Soviet Union in 1921, Markish returned eight years later, modifying his work somewhat to adhere to the party line and receiving accolades from a regime still interested in encouraging “proletarian” Jewish culture. At some point, he also crossed paths with Chana Schneerson (mother of the late Lubavitcher rebbe), whose husband was a prominent rabbi in the city of Dnepropetrovsk. Schneerson would later record the encounter in her memoirs, as Dovid Margolin writes:

It was in 1937—at the high point of his fame—that Markish got news of his father Dovid’s death in Dnepropetrovsk. . . .

“[Dovid Markish] had been a regular [guest] at our home,” wrote [Chana Schneerson]. “Prior to his passing he left instructions that his burial be conducted in accordance with all of [my husband’s] directives.” Hearing the news, Markish and his sister quietly made their way to Dnepropetrovsk. . . .

In utter secrecy, the poet sent his two sisters—one a Communist-party member who served as his secretary and had traveled with him from Moscow, and the other who lived in Dnepropetrovsk, and with whom their father had lived—with a message for the rabbi.

“[The younger Markish] wanted my husband to know that, although he couldn’t meet with him personally, the rabbi should be aware that, regardless of his own personal ideology and prominent position, he held Rabbi Schneerson in the highest esteem. . . . This was based on his own experience and on his father’s frequent letters to him, which made a deep impression on him,” wrote Chana.

Continuing to communicate everything regarding his father through his sister, he asked that everything be kept as quiet as possible. . . . Before leaving, writes Chana, “the [Markish] family donated large sums for the city’s clandestine Torah schools for children and the like, which were conducted at great personal peril to those involved.”

Two years later, Rabbi Schneerson was arrested and exiled to Kazakhstan, where he died in 1944. Markish, who proved useful to Stalin during World War II, was not arrested until 1949. After being tortured, he, along with twelve other Jewish literary figures, was executed by the Soviet political police in August 1952, in the night of the murdered poets.

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.