To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Venice ghetto—a restricted area of Jewish settlement that gave subsequent ghettos its name—Jerusalem’s Israel Museum is displaying artifacts that show how Venetian Jews flourished despite the widespread anti-Semitism that led to their segregation. Eli Mendelbaum writes:

One of the more moving artifacts is a curtain from 1601, . . . displaying symbols from the family to which it belonged—the Cohen family. The curtain is embroidered with silk and gold thread on velvet fabric and reads: “Alms for God, in honor of Dr. Joseph Cohen.” The curtain is embroidered with a coat of arms, hands [formed as when making] the priestly blessing, and five small medallions in a decorative pattern.

“This is an opportunity to experience spiritual and cultural creativity, despite the limitations imposed upon them,” said [the curator, Gioia] Sztulman. “Patchwork velvet is a technique typical of the 16th and 17th centuries in general and Venice in particular. Trading in second-hand fabrics was also one of the few professions Jews were allowed to engage in, apart from usury and medicine. Due to their availability, Jewish ritual items were made of the most luxurious of fabrics.”

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.