BAR Weighs In

A few days ago I posted my view on the Israeli government’s ridiculous U-turn concerning the “Yehoash” inscription. The inscription is the only temple artifact we have from Solomon’s Temple i.e., the First Temple in Jerusalem, that stood for some 500 years on Mount Zion before being destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE. The rare inscription is owned by antiquities collector Oded Golan. For ten years, the government has been torturing him – accusing him of forging this and other items. For five years they dragged him through the courts. At the end of the trial, Golan was acquitted on all charges. Instead of returning the artifact to him, the government now says that the Yehoash inscription is an “antiquity” and that they should keep it. Yesterday’s forgery is today’s antiquity! Here’s what my friend Hershel Shanks, the editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, has to say on this bizarre turn of events: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/let-the-public-see-it/

Click here to see my recent article “Rafael Nadal: A Jewish Story?” on The Times of Israel.