Neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi, Italian Jews have a distinctive history, and even their own liturgy—although by modern times most of the country’s congregations had adopted the Sephardi rite. Italian Jewry in fact predates the other Jewish communities of Europe, although from the Middle Ages on it was shaped by waves of immigration from elsewhere. Alexander Beider examines what can be learned about Italian Jews from their surnames:

The ancestors of Italian Jews lived on the Apennine peninsula for many centuries, where at least some of them have lived since Roman times. . . . Legend has it that the ancestors of four Jewish families in Rome were brought by the Roman emperor Titus as Jewish prisoners after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. In Hebrew sources, these families appear as: min ha-tappuḥim (of the apples), min ha-adumim (of the red[-haired]), min ha-anavim (of the humble), and min ha-n’arim (of the youths). . . .

In Hebrew sources, the earliest [contemporary] references to these families correspond to the following centuries: 11th for Anau [from anav], 13th for both de Pomis and de Rossi (meaning “of the apples” and “of the red,” respectively), and 14th for the name meaning “of the youths.” But the bulk of Italian Jews received hereditary surnames only during the 16th century.

The largest category of surnames is based on the names of places—usually the names of nearby towns from which these families came to Rome. . . . Jewish migrants also came to Italy from the territories of modern France. They primarily arrived in two independent waves. The first wave came with the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1394. . . . The second large group came from Marseille and other towns of Provence, a region annexed by the kingdom of France at the end of the 15th century. The general expulsion of Jews from Provence occurred in 1501. The surname Provenzale (“one from Provence” in Italian) comes from these events, as do Passapaire and Sestieri.

Ashkenazi Jews represent the third major source of Italian Jewry. They came during the 13th through 17th centuries from German-speaking provinces (mainly the southern territories that today correspond to Bavaria and Austria) as they escaped pogroms and anti-Jewish legislation. Ashkenazi migrants were particularly common in the northeastern and northern parts of the peninsula: the republic of Venice (especially in the cities of Venice, Padua, and Verona), the duchies of Milan and Mantua (today both in Lombardy), and the area of Trieste. They also settled in Piedmont, as well as central and even southern Italy.

Analyzing the recent direct Iranian attack on Israel, and Israel’s security situation more generally, Michael Oren looks to the 2015 agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. That, and President Biden’s efforts to resurrect the deal after Donald Trump left it, are in his view the source of the current crisis:

Of the original motivations for the deal—blocking Iran’s path to the bomb and transforming Iran into a peaceful nation—neither remained. All Biden was left with was the ability to kick the can down the road and to uphold Barack Obama’s singular foreign-policy achievement.

In order to achieve that result, the administration has repeatedly refused to punish Iran for its malign actions:

Historians will survey this inexplicable record and wonder how the United States not only allowed Iran repeatedly to assault its citizens, soldiers, and allies but consistently rewarded it for doing so. They may well conclude that in a desperate effort to avoid getting dragged into a regional Middle Eastern war, the U.S. might well have precipitated one.

While America’s friends in the Middle East, especially Israel, have every reason to feel grateful for the vital assistance they received in intercepting Iran’s missile and drone onslaught, they might also ask what the U.S. can now do differently to deter Iran from further aggression. . . . Tehran will see this weekend’s direct attack on Israel as a victory—their own—for their ability to continue threatening Israel and destabilizing the Middle East with impunity.

Israel, of course, must respond differently. Our target cannot simply be the Iranian proxies that surround our country and that have waged war on us since October 7, but, as the Saudis call it, “the head of the snake.”