On a small peninsula on the Russian part of the Black Sea coast once lay the city of Phanagoria, a commercial hub founded by the Greek colonists who lived and traded in the region in ancient times. An archaeological excavation there has revealed an ancient synagogue located in what appears to have been a Jewish quarter. Itamar Eichner reports:

The synagogue was built in 51 CE and lasted about 500 years. . . . Rich decorations on its painted walls characterized the findings. The Jewish marble motifs found are unique and vary from those in Israel. The researchers noted that few synagogues operated during the Second Temple period.

The archaeologists initially thought they had discovered an ancient Christian church, but as they dug deeper they discovered objects with Jewish symbols. Among other things, the remains of three remarkable marble menorahs and a stone lid of a charity box were uncovered. The building, with a total area of ​​140 square meters, included two rooms: a prayer hall, with three rows of benches [and] a platform, and a small room. The second room was probably used for meals and community meetings.

Next to the synagogue was a winery, where kosher wine was made, and a building where food for community meals was stored.

This fascinating discovery has also brought various forms of confusion. Multiple reports have mentioned an inscription that includes the Greek word for synagogue, but, the scholar James Davila points out, this is in fact a generic term for a gathering place. Likewise, the quotation from a local rabbi found in several articles says more about the political and religious message he wishes (or feels compelled) to convey than the history.

One news item that contains interesting additional detail mentions an artifact with a Hebrew inscription found centuries later, when Phanagoria was ruled by the Khazar empire. But the author writes as if the Khazars had in fact converted to Judaism en masse—an old legend that is most likely fake news itself.

In a recent episode of 60 Minutes, a former State Department official tells the interviewer that U.S. support for Israel following October 7 has “put a target on America’s back” in the Arab world “and beyond the Arab world.” The complaint is a familiar one: Middle Easterners hate the United States because of its closeness to the Jewish state. But this gets things exactly backward. Just look at the rhetoric of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its various Arab proxies: America is the “Great Satan” and Israel is but the “Little Satan.”

Why, then, does Iran see the U.S. as the world’s primary source of evil? The usual answer invokes the shah’s 1953 ouster of his prime minister, but the truth is that this wasn’t the subversion of democracy it’s usually made out to be, and the CIA’s role has been greatly exaggerated. Moreover, Ladan Boroumand points out,

the 1953 coup was welcomed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, [the architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution], and would not have succeeded without the active complicity of proponents of political Islam. And . . . the United States not only refrained from opposing the Islamic Revolution but inadvertently supported its emergence and empowered its agents. How then could . . . Ayatollah Khomeini’s virulent enmity toward the United States be explained or excused?

Khomeini’s animosity toward the shah and the United States traces back to 1963–64, when the shah initiated sweeping social reforms that included granting women the right to vote and to run for office and extending religious minorities’ political rights. These reforms prompted the pro-shah cleric of 1953 to become his vocal critic. It wasn’t the shah’s autocratic rule that incited Khomeini’s opposition, but rather the liberal nature of his autocratically implemented social reforms.

There is no need for particular interpretive skill to comprehend the substance of Khomeini’s message: as Satan, America embodies the temptation that seduces Iranian citizens into sin and falsehood. “Human rights” and “democracy” are America’s tools for luring sinful and deviant citizens into conspiring against the government of God established by the ayatollah.

Or, as George W. Bush put it, jihadists hate America because “they hate our freedoms.”