Archaeologists Rescue Ancient Jewish History in Jerusalem: New Discoveries

Beth El’s Israel Affairs Committee will present Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, Ph.D., to speak on the topic “Archaeologists Rescue Ancient Jewish History in Jerusalem: New Discoveries.”

Dr. Barkay was born in Hungary in 1944 and immigrated to Israel in 1950. He received his Ph.D. in Archaeology from Tel Aviv University in 1985. His academic areas of interest include the archaeology of Jerusalem and Biblical archaeology.

Dr. Barkay’s most famous discoveries are small silver scroll amulets containing the priestly benediction from the Book of Numbers (Numbers 6:24-26), which he discovered in 1979 on the Hinnom Ridge, just opposite Mt. Zion, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem. The silver scrolls are the earliest known recorded Biblical verses dating to the late-7th century B.C.E. First Temple period, before the Babylonian exile, and predating the Dead Sea Scrolls by approximately 400 years. The amulets are the oldest Biblical inscriptions ever found that mention the name “YHWH.”

Since 2004 Dr. Barkay has been the director of the Israel Excavation Society Sifting Project in Jerusalem. The Project is committed to sifting thousands of tons of soil and excavation debris that was removed from the Temple Mount area when the Muslim Waqf that controls the Temple Mount built a Mosque under the Temple Mount in 1999. Tens of thousands of archaeological finds, covering fifteen thousand years, include ancient Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods that reveal human activity on the site of the Temple Mount during the First and Second Temple eras. Many of our Beth El members have visited and worked on sifting screens for the Project.

Dr. Barkay is the recipient of the 1996 Jerusalem Prize for Archaeological Research, and is a professor at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv. He spoke at Beth El in 2007, and we are delighted and honored that he is returning for what promises to be an exciting and informative evening.

Sponsors are welcome at $36 and $18 levels, and each sponsor will be acknowledged in our program. There is a suggested contribution of $5 at the door (students admitted free). Please come and bring a friend.

All are welcome!

Visit www.bethelnr.org/jerusalem to sign up and learn more.