Brian Britt, Professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Tech, has written an article for the Dallas News which analyzes two new movies about Israelis. Both films, the American comedy You Don’t Mess With the Zohan and the Israeli drama Restless, despite being very different types of films, depict Israelis who find fulfillment in the United [...]
Archive for June, 2008
Post-Zionism in Hollywood
June 30, 2008The Cyrus Cylinder
June 30, 2008Iran’s Payvand News announced that the Cyrus Cylinder will go on display in Iran in the near future. The Cyrus Cylinder is a royal document written on a cylinder, attributing his defeat of Babylon to the Babylonian god Marduk. The document is important for biblical studies, since it provides the background for the [...]
Iraqi Jewish Books Smuggled into Israel
June 29, 2008Mordechai Ben-Porat, head of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, announced that he smuggled about 300 Jewish books out of Iraq. At first, these books which were confiscated from the Jewish community by Saddam Hussein, were shipped openly. However, the American government forbade further shipments, so the rest were smuggled out. Presumably there [...]
Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit
June 29, 2008The Dead Sea Scrolls are now on exhibit at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. The exhibit emphasizes the connection between the Dead Sea Scrolls and North Carolina:
But the Raleigh exhibit tells the story of the scrolls in relation to North Carolina. The exhibit, which visitors enter through a life-size [...]
Who Is a Christian Zionist?
June 29, 2008Jenny Chalmers, an opponent of Christian Zionism, surveys the different organizations of Christian Zionists and their beliefs. Interestingly, the article appears on a “blog dedicated to telling the stories about positive interactions between the three abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”
Tel Dan
June 26, 2008Ryan Byrne and David Ilan have renewed excavations at Tel Dan. In the latest of issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Byne explains why he is NOT looking for more evidence of the historical David.
Previous excavations at Tel Dan uncovered the Tel Dan Stele, which mentions the “House of David.”
Land Purchase in the Bible
June 26, 2008Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews made a concerted effort to purchase as much land as possible from the Arabs. Today, land purchase is still a method used to gain control in predominantly Arab areas, such as the Moslem Quarter of the Old City. Bereshit Rabbah 79:7 points out that land purchase [...]
Israeli-Arab Conflict
June 25, 2008This could have been written yesterday, but is in fact an article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Jan. 8, 1982:
Labor Zionist Sees West Bank Issue, Palestinian Problem as Dominating Israeli Politics in the Year Ahead
Yehiel Leket, Secretary General of the World Labor Zionist Movement, said here today that in 1982 “politics in Israel will [...]
Are Anti-Israel Academics Being Silenced?
June 25, 2008Richard L. Cravatts says no. He writes that the academics who complain of censorship are objecting to criticism. Free speech includes not just the right of someone to express his opinions, but also the right of others to refute it.
The truth of the matter is that “not every idea is worth the university’s attention,” as [...]
BBC Report on Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands
June 25, 2008BBC has posted an article on its website on the London summit highlighting the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab lands. While thrilled that the subject is being dealt with in the mainstream media, Point of No Return and the Z-Word blog both criticize the slant of the article, claiming it gives too much space [...]
