Discovery of ancient mosaic sheds light on medieval Sea of Galilee settlements

(Photo: Hans-Peter Kuhnen)

By Yogev Israeli - October 6, 2022

Archeologists discovered a 1,500-year-old mosaic off the coast of the Sea of Galilee that sheds new light on medieval settlements around the large body of fresh water.

During excavations at a site known as Khirbat al-Minya — a vestige of a palace on the northern end of the lake in northern Israel dating back to the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate — a geomagnetic survey of the area by researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany also found an ancient well.

Umayyad caliph al-Walid I commissioned the construction of the palace and adjacent mosque with a 15-meter minaret in the 8th century on land that was believed to be hitherto undeveloped and uninhabited.

Researchers found basalt buildings dating back to various periods featuring plastered walls, colorful mosaic floors, and a well. The plants depicted in one of the mosaics are particularly striking because they have long and round stems, similar to those depicted in mosaics from the 5th and 6th centuries found on the Nile river.

These mosaics of the flora and fauna originating in the Nile Valley symbolized the life-giving power of the river and its seasonal flooding which sustain ancient Egypt's agriculture.

Read More: Ynetnews

Israelis rally in Jerusalem in solidarity with Iranian women protesters

By Amy Spiro - October 6, 2022

Some 100 Israelis gathered in Jerusalem’s Independence Park on Thursday afternoon to rally in solidarity with the Iranian women who have been leading anti-government protests for weeks.

“There was something about hearing that a young woman was taken off the street because she wasn’t dressed the way someone wanted her to be dressed,” said Shoshana Keats Jaskoll, a feminist activist and one of the event organizers. “It really affected me… and so many women — and men, by the way — said we want to stand with the Iranian people. We want to stand with the minorities of Iran, the women of Iran, and we want to say this is not okay.”

“And we want to say here in Israel that we believe you deserve your freedom,” added Keats Jaskoll.

Anti-government protests have been roiling Iran in recent weeks, touched off following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was detained for wearing her hijab too loosely. Activists estimate that more than 90 people have been killed in the protests so far, as police have responded with force and cracked down on rallies as well as social media activity.

Holding signs in Hebrew, English and Farsi, the protesters in downtown Jerusalem — including many Israelis of Persian descent — chanted “Women. Life. Freedom.”

Read More: Times of Israel

‘They’re not alone in their struggle:’ Iranian-Americans support protesters in Iran calling for regime change

By Karmel Melamed - October 4, 2022

(October 4, 2022 / JNS) Following two weeks of protests in dozens of Iranian cities against the ruling Islamist theocracy, Iranian-American activists of various faiths have been demonstrating and voicing support for their countrymen’s push to overthrow the regime.

“When we’re seeing our compatriots in Iran who are mostly young people—often girls that are maybe 18, 19 or 20-years-old showing incredible courage by standing up to the armed thugs of the regime in the streets of Iran, the very least those of us outside of Iran can do is to publicly demonstrate and show our support for their freedom movement,” said Sam Rajabi, an Iranian-American activist with the Normal Life Council, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles.

On Oct. 1, thousands of Iranians in cities across the U.S.—including Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Denver, Washington D.C., Indianapolis, Atlanta and Detroit—took part in demonstrations in support of the protesters. Iranian expatriates in Canada, Australia and Europe did so as well.

“Iranians demonstrating abroad show Iranians at home that they’re not alone in their struggle against the Islamic Republic,” said Alireza Nader, an Iran expert who formerly worked at the RAND Corporation. “The regime wants the people of Iran to think that they’re alone and the world is ignoring them, but the show of solidarity from the diaspora is good for morale at home.”

Read More: JNS

Israel shuts down for Yom Kippur; security forces on high alert amid terror threats

By TOI Staff - October 4, 2022

Israel shut down beginning Tuesday afternoon for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, as security forces remained on high alert for the holiday amid a spike in terror warnings.

All flights in and out of Ben Gurion airport ceased at 2:00 p.m on Tuesday. The airport will reopen Wednesday night with arrivals starting at 10:30 p.m., while departures will resume an hour later. During this period Israel’s air space is also closed to flights passing through.

Border crossings were also shut and will reopen late Wednesday.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israel: Cache of 44 gold coins discovered hidden in wall

(Photo: Dafna Gazit/Israel Antiquities Authority)

By i24News - October 4, 2022

A trove of 44 gold coins were discovered stashed in a wall in northern Israel, a relic from the 7th Century Muslim conquest of the region.

Dug up three weeks ago in an archeological site in the Hermon River Nature Preserve, the coins weigh a total of 0.37 grams and were found within the base of an ashlar stone wall.

Israeli archeologists suggested that the treasure was likely hidden to protect it from warriors from the Umayyad Caliphate, 1,400 years ago. The owner of the hidden wealth likely did not survive the encounter, leading to the money remaining hidden until today.

At the time of the conquest, the region was part of the Byzantine Empire, the Greek speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire that prospered long after Rome had fallen.

Read More: i24News

Israel approves NIS 90 million for absorbing immigrants from Russia amid Ukraine war

By Tobias Siegal - October 2, 2022

The government on Sunday approved a NIS 90 million (over $25 million) budget for absorbing Russian Jewish immigrants arriving in Israel, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The approved funds will go toward providing additional housing solutions for immigrants, employment assimilation, education, health services and other basic requirements to aid those who arrive in haste and with little to no preparation.

Israeli officials have also indicated their intention to bolster the number of flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv, as well as to find ways to facilitate the transfer of assets out of Russia.

According to data from Ministry of Aliyah and Immigration Absorption, some 24,000 Jewish immigrants have moved to Israel since Russia launched the war in Ukraine on February 24, the most significant wave of immigration from there since hundreds of thousands of people moved to the Jewish state as the Soviet Union collapsed over 30 years ago.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israeli scientists produce 3D printer ‘ink’ capable of producing wood products

By Ash Obel - September 20, 2022

Researchers at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University have unveiled a 3D printer “ink” capable of producing printed wooden materials.

The technology takes organic “wood derivatives” and develops them into a paste, which is then used as ink by a 3D printer. As the paste dries, it warps into the desired shape.

Doron Kam, a PhD student working on the project, told The Times of Israel that the technology contains two main stages.

Firstly, organic material is broken down into “wood flour” and then combined with two other organic products which act as a glue.

In the second stage, the material is placed in a 3D printer, which proceeds to print a flat, 2D object. In regular tree wood, the structure of the cells determines the shape the wood will warp into as it dries. However, with the Hebrew University’s new technology, scientists can themselves control the cell structure, and therefore control the exact shape that the product will form as it dries and warps.

Read More: Times of Israel

Brazilian Jews, Arabs hold hummus tourney to spread coexistence

(Photo courtesy of Hebraica Sao Paulo via JTA)

By Marcus M. Gilban - September 29, 2022

SAO PAULO (JTA) — Brazilian Jews, Christians and Muslims celebrated their peaceful coexistence in Latin America’s largest nation with a competition centered on one of the Middle East’s signature foods.

The Hebraica Jewish club in Sao Paulo organized and hosted an inaugural Abrahamic Hummus Championship last Wednesday, timed to the United Nations’ International Day of Peace. Around 150 people attended the event, and yarmulkes shared the room with keffiyehs and other types of Arab scarves.

Ariel Krok, one of the event’s organizers, compared the contest to a “soccer-friendly match.” Brazil is home to nearly 10 million people of Arab descent, the largest such population in the Americas, while over 100,000 Jews call Brazil home, including around 60,000 in Sao Paulo.

Read More: Times of Israel

Shira Haas: Israeli star to make superhero waves with Marvel as Sabra

By David Bring - September 25, 2022

For someone as diminutive as Shira Haas, she is certainly causing a huge tidal wave of reaction to the news that she’ll be following in the footsteps of Gal Gadot in playing a superheroine.

But while Gadot’s Wonder Woman had no Israel connection, Haas’s casting as Sabra in the upcoming Marvel film Captain America: New World Order – release date next year – has a giant Magen David written all over it.

One of Israel’s most celebrated actresses, the 27-year-old, Tel Aviv-born Haas is best known for her roles in the show Unorthodox, which propelled her to international stardom. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 2020 for her performance as religiously torn Esther Shapiro.

But she’s not just a one-trick pony. She’s received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award and a Critics Choice Award, and won a Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Film Festival for her role in the 2020 Israeli drama Asia, for which she also received a Best Supporting Actress Ophir Award. Another important upcoming role for her will be as the young Golda Meir in the biopic Golda, in which Helen Mirren will play an older incarnation of the former Israeli prime minister.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

First severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers arrive in Israel for medical treatment

(Photo: Sheba Medical Center via Twitter; used in accordance with clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

By TOI Staff - September 26, 2022

Two Ukrainian soldiers who were severely injured in the war in Ukraine arrived Monday in Israel as part of an agreement that will see 20 service members receiving advanced medical treatment in an Israeli hospital, the Sheba hospital said.

The hospital indicated that all 20 injured veterans who will eventually be flown to Israel are amputees and will go through rehabilitation and be fitted for the specific prosthetics they require at the hospital outside Tel Aviv.

Sheba ran a field hospital in western Ukraine, away from the front lines, for six weeks shortly after Russia invaded, mostly to treat civilians.

Israel for years provided medical treatment to Syrians who came to the Golan border during the civil war there, eventually setting up a military field hospital as part of what was described as a humanitarian effort.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israelis offer psychological, medical aid in Puerto Rico

By Abigail Klein Leichman - September 25, 2022

On September 22, a delegation of medical and psychological experts from the emergency medical service (EMS) organization United Hatzalah departed from Israel for Puerto Rico.

The team, comprised of four members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit (PCRU) as well as two emergency medical technicians (EMTs), will provide psychological and emotional stabilization as well as medical care to residents adversely affected by Hurricane Fiona and the resulting floods in various communities in the southern part of the Island.

Currently, there is no end date set for the mission, but the volunteers left their loved ones knowing that they will not be back in Israel in time for the High Holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which starts Sunday night.

Read More: Israel21c

Demonstrators return to Iran’s streets, defying deadly crackdown

By AFP and TOI STAFF - September 25, 2022

Protests flared again in Iran on Saturday over the death of a woman while in the custody of the so-called morality police, despite a crackdown by security forces in which dozens of people have died, according to official figures.

The main reformist party in Iran called for the repeal of the mandatory Islamic dress code that Mahsa Amini had been accused of breaching, as the protests over her death entered the ninth night.

The New York Times labeled the protests the largest the country has witnessed since 2009 when demonstrations broke out in response to the reelection of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a vote seen by many as fraudulent.

Web monitor NetBlocks reported that Skype was now restricted in Iran, amid a crackdown on communications that has already targeted the last accessible international platforms Instagram, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn.

Hundreds of angry demonstrators have been arrested, along with reformist activists and journalists.

Read More: Times of Israel

As homeland faces floods, visiting Pakistani-Americans see promise in Israeli tech

By Lazar Berman - September 21, 2022

A delegation of 12 Pakistani-American leaders arrived in Israel Sunday for a six-day visit designed to foster deeper ties between two countries that do not have diplomatic relations.

The trip’s goal, according to the organizers, is “to allow the participants to see and explore Israel for themselves, and to transmit what they learn and experience to audiences in Pakistan to help provide information for the important debate underway on whether Pakistan should join the Abraham Accords.”

In the wake of deadly floods in Pakistan, the delegation will place a particular emphasis on blue-and-white technologies around water and food security, and mitigating environmental disasters.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israelis and Arabs celebrate two years of Abraham Accords

By Abigail Klein Leichman - September 20, 2022

For the first time since the signing of the Abraham Accords on September 16, 2020, a coalition of young Israelis, Emiratis, Bahrainis and Moroccans traveled to Washington, DC, together to celebrate what has been achieved and to build personal bonds between the countries.

During their stay from September 15 to 19, the group met officials from the White House, State Department, Congress and Senate. A special bipartisan roundtable discussion was held in Congress, hosted by the Abraham Accords Caucus.

They also met representatives of the European Union, think tanks, academics, faith leaders, students, and philanthropists to explain how the agreements have changed their lives for the better.

Read More: Israel21c

Frozen in time: 3,300-year-old burial cave from Ramses II era found at popular beach

(Photo: Emil Eljam/IAA)

By Amanda Borschel-Dan - September 18, 2022

A team of archaeologists was essentially transported back in time when it entered an untouched 3,300-year-old cave at the Palmachim National Park, just south of Tel Aviv, last week. The vast array of discovered items date to the Late Bronze Age, close to or during the rein of the biblically notorious Ramses II.

The cave was spotted when a rock shifted during the course of construction work and light was literally shed on an intact burial assembly about 2.5 meters (eight feet) below. Israel Antiquities Authority inspectors were called to the scene and their excitement is felt in a Hebrew-language video recording an initial inspection of a place no person has walked for more than three millennia.

“Simply amazing,” said IAA’s Uzi Rothschild repeatedly as “Wow, wow,” is heard in the background. “There are jars inside the jars! Wow!” said another voice. “Unbelievable!” said Rothschild.

The excitement peaks even as the video ends with the discovery of potentially multiple skeletons in the corner of the square-shaped cave.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime find! It’s not every day that you walk onto an Indiana Jones set — a cave with tools on the floor that haven’t been touched in 3,300 years,” IAA Bronze Age expert Eli Yannai said in a press release.

Read More: Times of Israel

‘Just scratched the surface’: Israel, UAE celebrate growing ties and trade

By Shoshanna Solomon - September 7, 2022

“My mother sends her regards to the people of Israel,” Fahima Al Bastaki, the chief business and market development officer of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), said to laughter at a gathering of UAE and Israeli business leaders and officials on Tuesday in Tel Aviv.

The simple words perhaps best reflect the excitement, enthusiasm, and — still — awe that surround the growing ties between Israelis and Emiratis since the signing of the Abraham Accords on the White House lawn two years ago, holding the promise of opening up new cultural, tourism and economic worlds for citizens of both regions.

“It is surreal” to be in Tel Aviv, said an attendee at a conference held at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), which on Tuesday hosted Abu Dhabi’s largest business delegation to Israel.

Read More: Times of Israel

Rare, stolen 2,000-year-old silver coin returned to Israeli authorities in US

By Stuart Winer - September 13, 2022

A very rare ancient silver coin, minted as an act of defiance by Jewish rebels against the Roman Empire over 2,000 years ago and plundered from Israel in 2002, was returned to Israeli authorities in New York on Monday following an international recovery effort.

The quarter-shekel coin is from the fourth year of the Jewish Great Revolt against the Romans, which took place in 66-73 CE, the Israel Antiques Authority said in a Tuesday statement. It was minted in 69 CE, a year before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by Roman authorities seeking to suppress the Jewish revolt against their rule.

A handover ceremony was held at the office of the Manhattan district attorney. Among those who attended were Israel Antiquities Authority director Eli Eskosido, Consul General of Israel in New York Asaf Zamir, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Read More: Times of Israel

Flown from Ukraine at death’s door, Israeli teen recovers

By Abigail Klein Leichman - September 11, 2022

When Russia attacked Ukraine, 18-year-old Israeli citizen Anna Kosma was studying in Ukraine and stayed there with her mother to assist in local relief efforts.

But in May, she developed a serious neurological condition that local hospitals could not handle under the circumstances.

So the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office reached out to the Israeli branch of Hatzolah Air, a New York-based organization that has worked with Israeli first-response groups on several medical evacuation missions out of Ukraine since March.

Read More: Israel21c

What new finds were unearthed at Jerusalem's famous City of David?

By Linda Gradstein - September 9, 2022

It all started with an exploded sewage pipe 20 years ago at the City of David, one of the premier tourist attractions in Jerusalem’s Old City. The new finds are due to be opened to the public in the next year, but The Jerusalem Report got an early look.

“So they send a team to fix it (the sewage pipeline),” said Yonatan Deutch, a tour guide at the City of David. “They were smart enough to have an archaeologist there to supervise. As they were digging underneath the pipe, they came across some ancient findings and the archaeologist said, “We are going to have to come back here and dig, and meanwhile you’ll have to install a temporary pipe.”

They excavate from 2004 to 2007, eventually uncovering part of the famous Pool of Shiloah, a giant ritual bath used by tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims who came to Jerusalem on the three festivals of Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Were First Temple Jerusalemites living in lap of luxury? Rare ivory finds offer clue

(Photo: Shalom Kweller, City of David)

By Amanda Borschel-Dan - September 5, 2022

Recently uncovered in Jerusalem’s City of David, a trove of ivory fragments — one of the most prestigious and luxurious materials of the ancient world — has scholars rethinking Jerusalem’s ranking among Near Eastern capitals.

These First Temple-period ivory artifacts are the first discovered in Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom of Judah, and are rarely found in antiquity.

Some 1,500 ivory fragments were excavated from the City of David’s Givati Parking Lot, but only discovered during wet sifting in the nearby Emek Tsurim National Park.

The ivory pieces, which would have made up decorative inlays for furniture or a door, were discovered in a monumental building that was in use when Jerusalem was at the height of its power (the 8th and 7th centuries BCE) and was likely razed during the Babylonian Conquest of 586 BCE.

Read More: Times of Israel