For ten years, Jews in the emirate of Dubai have gathered in a building known as “the villa,” where they have a small synagogue—oriented so that the congregants face northwest, in the direction of Jerusalem, when they pray. But until this week the community’s existence was a closely guarded secret, and its leaders agreed to speak with the press only on the condition that the villa’s location be kept secret. Miriam Herschlag writes:

Last week, the Helios Ray, a ship owned by an Israeli company, was struck by a missile fired either by the Iranian military or one of its many proxy groups. Alex Fishman comments: