07.04.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 08:02 by Oded Ambar
In the winter of 1986, a drought brought the Sea of Galilee to its lowest level in memory. While of great concern to the region’s inhabitants, this natural disaster proved a boom for archaeologists. Numerous ancient sites and artifacts, previously unknown, were discovered.
Late in January 1986, between the ancient harbors of Gennesar and Magdala, local residents made the chance discovery of a boat’s oval outline in the muddy lake bed. Word spread like wildfire. In less than two weeks, local newspapers were announcing discovery of “the Jesus boat.” Did Jesus really perform miracles from this boat (Mark 4:39)?
Archaeologists, called to examine the still unexcavated vessel, announced it was the first ancient ship ever found in the Sea of Galilee. They suggested that it was built and used between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D.—the time of Jesus. But did Jesus actually sleep here (Mark 4:37)?
Marathon round-the-clock excavations ensued, racing against both now-rising waters of the Sea of Galilee and treasure seekers. The archaeologists even invented new techniques of excavation and preservation as they went along. Just before the site was flooded, the almost completely intact hull was fully excavated, encased in polyurethane and floated to shore for further study and conservation. But did Jesus really walk on water along side this boat (Matthew 14:25)?
The boat is 26-1/2 feet long, 7-1/2 feet wide and 4-1/2 feet high. It was probably of the Sea of Galilee’s largest class of ships. Fore and aft sections were most likely decked, and it probably had a mast, meaning it could be both sailed and rowed. Did Peter, James and John actually row this boat (John 6:19)?
Evidence of repeated repairs suggested the boat had a long life. But, in the end, all usable wooden parts were evidently removed and the remaining hull sunk to the lake bottom. This is what archaeologists recovered. Could this be the boat abandoned by the disciples when they followed Jesus (Luke 5:11)? Studies of ancient ships suggest this vessel had a crew of five (four rowers and a helmsman). The ancient Jewish historian Josephus referred to such ships holding 15 people. Skeletal remains from Galilee during this period indicate males averaged 5 feet 5 inches tall [1.651 meters] and about 140 pounds [63.503 kilograms]. Fifteen such men could fit into this vessel. So did Jesus and the Twelve 0 sail together in this boat?
The Galilee boat dated to the general time of Jesus’ ministry. It was the type used by Jesus and the Twelve, and was large enough to hold 13 men. It may have been in use at the same time He sailed the sea. He may have even seen it. BUT, there is no proof that this boat was ever actually used by Jesus or any of the disciples.
Archaeologists, as scientists, should not make spectacular claims about their finds. Thus, Jesus cannot be connected to this particular boat with certainty. Yet, it helps us visualize daily life in Galilee as Jesus knew it. This is archaeology’s contribution to illuminating Scripture.
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06.27.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 22:38 by Oded Ambar
For many tourists to the Israeli Negev desert, a visit to the Bedouins includes a commercialized camel ride and perhaps an afternoon spent in a tent near Mitzpeh Ramon.
But as the Jerusalem Post writes, the Desert Sites tourist company is offering a revolutionary immersion Arabic course in the last week of July in the Bedouin township of Darajat (also spelled Dirgat), known as Israel’s first solar village.
Israel has 160,000 Bedouin Arab citizens. Between 50-60 percent of them live in recognized communities and the other are strewn about the landscape in unrecognized villages in tin-roofed shantytowns. Darajat is a recognized village with a population of approximately 800.
Most residents have solar water heaters and electric systems, the school is powered by wind and sun, and students learn hands-on about alternative energy by reading the power meters in their classrooms. The village also boasts a solar mosque, below.
Students in the Arabic course will live with host families in Darajat for five days, during which they will chat in Arabic while learning about Bedouin weaving, baking bread in communal ovens, and watching traditional music performances.
Last year, Haaretz profiled Desert Sights and its founder Tomer Cahane, who started the company in 2000.
“We realized we wanted to bring the Bedouin and the Israelis closer, and to break down a number of stereotypes,” he told Haaretz.
“When I conduct a tour of Rahat, the participants say they would not have gone there alone. The image of the Bedouin has been terrible in recent years, and we must overcome anxieties and prejudices.”
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06.13.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 17:56 by Oded Ambar
red-sea-crossing1
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05.21.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 20:25 by Oded Ambar
On May 18, 1965, the Government of Syria executed a man who, although a friend of the president of Syria, had none the less saved the State of Israel from being destroyed.
More than any other one man, Eli Cohen, an Egyptian born Jew, earned the Israeli Secret Service, known as the Mossad, its reputation as the best Intelligence Service in the world and paved the way for Israel to win the Six Days’ War in June 1967.
Eli Cohen was deeply moved as a young man in Cairo by the trial of two members of the Stern Group Eliahu Bet-Zouri and Eliahu Hakim. Hakim and Bet-Zouri were the assassins of the Anti-Semitic British High Commissioner of the Middle East, Lord Moyne.
The young Cohen helped to organize demonstrations in support of Bet-Zouri and Hakim. The demonstrations proved fruitless. The men were sentenced to hang, on the scaffold they sang Hatikvah .
After high school Cohen was instrumental in establishing an “Underground Railroad” that smuggled Egyptian Jews to the land of Israel. In the early 1950s Cohen was recruited by the Mossad to participate in an espionage operation that spied on Nasser’s Nazi scientists attempts to build rockets and engaged in sabotage.
After the Mossad’s activities were discovered and most members were rounded up Cohen made Aliyah in 1956. After a brief time adjusting to life in Israel and service in the Israel Defense Forces Cohen was approached to become an information analyst for the Mossad.
The Mossad eventually accepted Cohen’s request for field duty. Cohen adopted the persona of a rich Arab merchant who had emigrated to Argentina and then returned to his Syrian homeland, calling himself Kamal Amin Taabes, this Mossad agent had gained access to the most influential sectors of Damascus society. As “Kamal” Eli Cohen joined the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party.
Cohen was able to become very active in the Ba’ath Party and friendly with its leaders. After a bloodless Coup de ta the Ba’ath Party came to power. Among the men he had befriended many became officials in the new government many were high ranking military officers such as the head of intelligence, Colonel Ahmed Suweidani, and Syrian President Amin el-Hafiz.
Cohen was among the only civilians to ever inspect Syrian installations in the Golan Heights. He was able to send photographs and sketches of the entire Syrian frontlines back to the Mossad. In one case he was able to warn Israel of an impending attempt by Syria to cross the border.
When Cohen was finally discovered, quite by accident, his radio equipment was detected by KGB agents, he was being seriously considered to become either Minister of Defense of Assistant Foreign Minister.
After two lengthy trials Eli Cohen was finally sentenced to to death by hanging. Cohen was 41 years old, and left a widow, three daughters and a son. In his final letter to his wife to his wife he wrote “I beg of you not to waste time crying for me. Always think of the future.”
Through his nearly four years as a spy in Syria Eli Cohen succeeded in sending a steady flow of extremely valuable back to Israel.
Cohen left advice for future leaders of Israel. Advice that the late Menachem Begin istened to in 1981 when he was Prime Minister and ordered the Israeli air force to bomb the Iraqi nuclear plant in Baghdad. Eli Cohen said “Against the Arab you mustn’t defend yourself. You must attack….”
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05.14.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 06:17 by Oded Ambar
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The city of Tel Aviv has always been a melting pot of cultures and artistic styles. In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s Tel Aviv was a young, thriving city in the midst of economic, social, cultural and geographical change. It was during this period that the part of Tel Aviv known as “The White City” was built. The architects and designers of the city could not imagine that their choice of the Bauhaus style of architecture would eventually make Tel Aviv the largest open-air Bauhaus museum in the world.
It was because of the “White City” that Tel Aviv was added to the list of 56 historical cities in the world in 2003, and became one of the few modern cities to be declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.
The “White City” is a unique and beautiful residential neighborhood in the heart of Tel Aviv. The neighborhood consisted of 4,000 buildings that were built during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s of which about 1,000 are still standing today.
The buildings, designed by the best architects in the city, drew on the Bauhaus style invented in post First World War Germany. Bauhaus design philosophy attempted to create a new, simple architectural language based on clean forms that met people’s everyday needs.
In Tel Aviv, the Bauhaus style gave rise to a typical Israeli style that was suitable to the hot Mediterranean climate and the city’s turbulent atmosphere. The simple, square white buildings sought austere beauty from the asymmetrical play between various geometric shapes. Round terraces were built alongside square windows, flat roofs, and tall pillars. Ceilings were higher and rooms larger than usual and large windows overlooking the urban panorama were open to the pleasant evening breeze. In keeping with the Israeli tradition of warm hospitality, the terraces of these homes served as meeting places for the residents and their neighbors as well as friends passing by.
Visitors to Tel Aviv can visit these buildings in the area of Rothschild, Bialik, and Dizengoff streets, marvel at the beauty of the houses, and sense their great contribution to the city’s architecture.
The impact of Bauhaus was not only in Tel Aviv. At the end of the 1920s a railroad was built to link Mandatory Palestine to Jordan. A white railway station at the border was built in the Bauhaus style with clean lines and a roof that rests upon square pillars, rounded on one side and square on the other. The station can be seen only within the framework of organized tours that leave from the area of the Israeli-Jordanian border. The graffiti on the walls add to its historical value
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05.12.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 20:00 by Oded Ambar
Located beside the idyllic Garden of Gethsemane just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Church of All Nations houses the Rock of Agony. This is said to be the bedrock beside which Jesus prayed on the eve of his crucifixion. In the dim-lit interior of the church, pilgrims gather about the stone and silently attune themselves to empathy for the agony endured by their Savior. It is one of several holy sites that stand upon the Mount of Olives.
The Church of All Nations was built in Jerusalem in 1924, designed by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi. It is thus named because many countries around the world donated toward its construction, and their respective coats-of-arms adorn the glasswork and mosaics of the interior. It is also known as the Basilica of the Agony.
While the Church of All Nations is relatively new, it has roots in earliest Christianity: a 4th century Byzantine basilica once stood on the site, until it was destroyed by an earthquake that ravaged Jerusalem in 746 A.D. Centuries later, a Crusader chapel was built on the site but was eventually abandoned.
Stunning mosaics adorn the facade of the church. From a distance, the luminous tiles brilliantly reflect the Middle Eastern sun. The mosaic depicts Jesus acting as a conduit between God and the nations of the world.
Inside, the windows are of tinted alabaster so that the lighting is subdued, creating a sombre atmosphere. In front of the high altar is the Rock of Agony, lying flat and smoothed with the passage of time, surrounded by a crown of thorns made of wrought iron. The murmur of prayer is the only sound here; all else is silence.
Down a path from the church is the Garden of Gethsemane, the place where Jesus was to meet his fateful betrayal and arrest, changing the course of history forever.
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05.08.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 06:22 by Oded Ambar
An archaeological garden dubbed “Peace be within thy Palaces – Jerusalem Antiquities at the Israel Knesset” was recently opened at the Israel Knesset. The garden, open to the public, will serve as a retreat from the bustling activities of the Knesset. Entry is free upon prior arrangement with the Knesset.
The exhibition is divided into six different enclosures that range in date from the Second Temple period until the Ottoman period. At each station a special historical-archaeological story is displayed that characterizes Jerusalem by means of archaeological exhibits which illustrate each period and breathe new life into the history of Jerusalem.
The fifty architectural artifacts in the garden, almost all of which are being shown for the first time, impart a broad picture of the architectural construction in Jerusalem over the years, some of which is even documented in written sources. A few of the buildings or their remains constitute an inseparable part of the city’s fabric in the present. All of the exhibits were discovered in surveys and in archaeological excavations that were begun in the nineteenth century and continue to this very day.
The artifacts underwent extensive conservation treatment by experts of the Israel Antiquities Authority and some of them are very heavy, necessitating cranes and trucks in order to build the garden. The heaviest item – a stone from the Temple Mount wall from the Second Temple period – weighs five tons. Also on display is an olive press, ancient inscriptions, large impressive mosaics and a large Ottoman sabil (drinking installation).
The visitor’s path allows convenient access for the handicapped. The flora was selected in accordance with the different parts of the garden and includes plants that are characteristic of the Land of Israel in ancient times.
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05.05.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 19:06 by Oded Ambar
In the years 1963-1968 Dani Karavan designed and built this monument on a hill overlooking the southern city of Beersheba in memory of the members of the Palmach Negev Brigade who fell defending Israel during the War of Independence.
Forty years after its construction the monument is still considered to be a unique example of memorial monuments.
Monument to the Negev Brigade (Photo: Chen Leopold)
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04.30.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:39 by Oded Ambar
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In honor of Herzl Day, public to be granted free admission to center commemorating memory and work of father of modern political Zionism
The Herzl Museum in Jerusalem will offer free entry to all visitors on Herzl Day, which will take place this year on Monday, May 4.
Herzl Day is marked every year on the 10th day of the month of Iyyar, which is the birthday of Theodor Herzl, in commemoration of the memory and work of the father of modern political Zionism.
This day was set by the Knesset in the Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl Law adopted in 2004 with the purpose of “inculcating future generations with the vision, legacy and activity of Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl, to honor his memory, to teach future generations and to effect the creation of the State of Israel in accordance with his Zionist vision, together with its institutions, its objectives and its image.”
The new Herzl Museum, founded by the Department for Zionist Activities of the World Zionist Organization, was opened in 2005 on Mount Herzl. It provides a spectacular audio-visual encounter with the visionary of the Jewish state, and offers a thought-provoking, hour-long portrait regarding the status of the Jews according to Herzl.
The museum offers tours in seven languages: Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Spanish, German and Amharic.
A visit to the museum allows the public to share, through movement, Herzl’s daring aspirations, his deep disappointments and his turbulent personal journey. The greatness of his achievements intensifies Herzl’s vision and allows visitors to feel as if they have shared in the challenge of his legacy.
During the visit, sightseers accompany the State’s visionary in a persistent dialogue between the world of his time and modern reality. Innovative audio visual screens present images from Herzl’s life, embedded with documents, certificates and original photos, alongside a contemporary film about a young actor asked to play Herzl.
Opening hours:
Sunday-Thursday: 8:45 am-3:15 pm
Friday: 8:45 am-12:15 pm
Length of the visit to the museum: About 75 minutes.
Educational activities: The Herzl Center offers a variety of educational programs and tours. Programs and tours must be arranged in advance.
Visits to the museum must be arranged in advance. Other visitors will be permitted to enter on a space available basis. The Museum is located at the entrance to Mount Herzl, Herzl Boulevard, Jerusalem.
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