Tel Aviv ANU–Museum of the Jewish People buys Codex Sassoon for $33.5 million
First, there was the possibility that Renaissance man par excellence Leonardo da Vinci was Jewish. Now, the oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible, Codex Sassoon, which dates to around the year 900, beat da Vinci’s Codex Leicester as the...
2,000-year-old receipt uncovered on Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem
Someone forgot his receipt.
A financial record from two millennia ago was uncovered on what was Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare during the Second Temple period, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.
The inscription on the small stone...
Scholars expound on Mount Ebal curse tablet with oldest Hebrew text
A lead tablet found at a site where millions of Jews and Christians believe the Israelite leader Joshua built an altar contains the oldest Hebrew text ever found in the Land of Israel as...
In its bat mitzvah year, Sefaria executive reflects on the online Jewish library’s ubiquity
It started as an online digital copy of the Hebrew Bible. Today, Sefaria has thousands of biblical and rabbinic texts, which 700,000 people access monthly, according to Sara Wolkenfeld, the nonprofit’s chief learning officer.
Sefaria...
Israel to turn biblical Sebastia into archaeological park
The Israeli Cabinet approved a nearly $9 million budget on Sunday for the restoration and development of Sebastia, a major archaeological site that served as the capital of the Kingdom of Israel nearly three...
Long-Overdue Recognition for British-Jewish War Hero Jack Nissenthall
The BBC called Jack Nissenthall “The VC (Victoria Cross) Hero Who Never Was.”
Eighty years on from the 1942 British raid on Nazi coastal facilities and radar installations in Dieppe, Nissenthall’s extraordinary, courageous actions remain hidden by...
Minneapolis art exhibit depicting Chanukah heroine Judith centers on ‘ghastly’ Caravaggio decapitation
There is no way around the goriness of Caravaggio’s “Judith and Holofernes,” which the Italian artist painted around 1599. The Chanukah heroine (almost a dead ringer for Scarlett Johansson) is midway through chopping the Assyrian general’s...
Oporto’s Jews dedicate cemetery five centuries after last one destroyed
The Jewish Community of Oporto, Portugal, inaugurated its new cemetery on April 25. The ceremony took place on Israel’s Memorial Day and included a tribute to the Jewish state’s fallen soldiers.
The event was presided...
Brown University project is digitizing 10,000 ancient Israel inscriptions
A 1,500 to 2,100-year-old Hebrew text from Jerusalem refers to “Shalom, mother of the synagogue.” And two burial niche inscriptions from Beit She’arim in the Galilee, both dated 250 to 350 C.E., refer in Greek to “Sara daughter...
Congressional bills aim to give highest honor to ‘Righteous Gentile’ Roddie Edmonds
Both houses of Congress reintroduced legislation this week to honor the late Roddie Edmonds, who put his life in danger to save Jews during World War II and the Holocaust, and is one of...