In the Lithuanian city of Vilnius—known to Jews as Vilna—archaeologists have been at work excavating the remains of the great synagogue, which was destroyed by successive Nazi and Soviet occupations. Like many East European synagogues, the 17th-century structure was part of a larger complex organized around a central courtyard that included smaller houses of prayer and other buildings. Cnaan Liphshiz describes the latest discovery:

One of the main findings . . . are two mikvahs, or ritual baths. . . . Additionally, the diggers have found a yad, a small metal object shaped like the palm of a hand with the index finger extended. The yad is moved along a Torah scroll to indicate which portion of the page is being [chanted]. The discovery this week follows the 2019 unearthing of the Tuscan baroque-style bimah, the synagogue’s central prayer platform.

The city of Vilnius intends to build a memorial to the historic synagogue on the site that will display its artifacts in time for the 700th birthday of the Lithuanian capital in 2023.

In the 1950s, Soviet authorities built a school on the ruins in order to prevent the synagogue or another Jewish cultural center from being rebuilt. The synagogue was built in 1630 on a site that had been used as a synagogue beginning in 1440.

Surveying news websites and social media on Sunday morning, I immediately found some intelligent and well-informed observers arguing that Iran deliberately warned the U.S. of its pending assault on Israel, and calibrated it so that there would be few casualties and minimal destructiveness, thus hoping to avoid major retaliation. In other words, this massive barrage was a face-saving gesture by the ayatollahs. Others disagreed. Brian Carter and Frederick W. Kagan put the issue to rest:

The Iranian April 13 missile-drone attack on Israel was very likely intended to cause significant damage below the threshold that would trigger a massive Israeli response. The attack was designed to succeed, not to fail. The strike package was modeled on those the Russians have used repeatedly against Ukraine to great effect. The attack caused more limited damage than intended likely because the Iranians underestimated the tremendous advantages Israel has in defending against such strikes compared with Ukraine.

But that isn’t to say that Tehran achieved nothing:

The lessons that Iran will draw from this attack will allow it to build more successful strike packages in the future. The attack probably helped Iran identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Israeli air-defense system. Iran will likely also share the lessons it learned in this attack with Russia.

Iran’s ability to penetrate Israeli air defenses with even a small number of large ballistic missiles presents serious security concerns for Israel. The only Iranian missiles that got through hit an Israeli military base, limiting the damage, but a future strike in which several ballistic missiles penetrate Israeli air defenses and hit Tel Aviv or Haifa could cause significant civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, including ports and energy. . . . Israel and its partners should not emerge from this successful defense with any sense of complacency.