Currently the city of Cleveland has a Jewish population of about 80,000, which has remained relatively stable over the past decade or so. Perhaps its most famous Jews are the Cleveland native Jerry Siegler and the Canadian-born Joe Shuster (who moved to the city as a child), who together created the original Superman comics. Becky Raspe speaks with the local historian Sean Martin about the city’s Jewish history and current demography:

There were Jews who were in and out of Cleveland in the 1830s, and there isn’t really any evidence of a Jewish presence earlier than that,” [Martin] said. “But by the 1830s, Jews were coming in and out of the community. One in particular, Simson Thorman, a fur trapper and trader from a small town in Bavaria, chose to settle in the city of Cleveland and brought his friends and family with him.”

That group settled in 1839, Martin said, essentially founding the community that would become the one we know today almost 200 years later. Within 25 years, the population of Jews in Cleveland grew to 1,200.

“They brought with them the people they needed for a complete community, including a ritual slaughterer, for example,” he said. “And from there, the community grew. Until that point, there were no permanent Jewish settlements.”

On Tuesday, a Hizballah drone attack injured three people in northern Israel. The next day, another attack, targeting an IDF base, injured eighteen people, six of them seriously, in Arab al-Amshe, also in the north. This second attack involved the simultaneous use of drones carrying explosives and guided antitank missiles. In both cases, the defensive systems that performed so successfully last weekend failed to stop the drones and missiles. Ron Ben-Yishai has a straightforward explanation as to why: the Lebanon-backed terrorist group is getting better at evading Israel defenses. He explains the three basis systems used to pilot these unmanned aircraft, and their practical effects:

These systems allow drones to act similarly to fighter jets, using “dead zones”—areas not visible to radar or other optical detection—to approach targets. They fly low initially, then ascend just before crashing and detonating on the target. The terrain of southern Lebanon is particularly conducive to such attacks.

But this requires skills that the terror group has honed over months of fighting against Israel. The latest attacks involved a large drone capable of carrying over 50 kg (110 lbs.) of explosives. The terrorists have likely analyzed Israel’s alert and interception systems, recognizing that shooting down their drones requires early detection to allow sufficient time for launching interceptors.

The IDF tries to detect any incoming drones on its radar, as it had done prior to the war. Despite Hizballah’s learning curve, the IDF’s technological edge offers an advantage. However, the military must recognize that any measure it takes is quickly observed and analyzed, and even the most effective defenses can be incomplete. The terrain near the Lebanon-Israel border continues to pose a challenge, necessitating technological solutions and significant financial investment.