Simcha Feature – Vancouver Province “Faith”

By Simcha Jacobovici in My Productions May 13, 2013

Excerpts from article in the Vancouver Province

8339674 — Filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici inside a tomb near Jerusalem, where he claims he discovered the burial places of Jesus Christ, his mother, Mary, and brother Joseph. The story of his alleged discovery was recounted in his film The Lost Tomb of Jesus.

THE MORAL QUESTION

The study of 2,000-year-old tombs from the time of Jesus has peeled back layers of ancient history.

Film producer Simcha Jacobovici, a three-time Emmy winner, says it’s “like real-life Da Vinci Code myth-busting.”

“I love what I do. I bring the tools of an investigative reporter to Biblical archeology,” says Jacobovici, a Jewish-Canadian who claims to have found the “tomb of Jesus” in 2005.

Jacobovici, 60, was born in Israel but spent many years in Eastern Canada, first as a youngster and then as a university student.

But he has chosen to make his home in a Tel Aviv suburb with his Canadian-born wife and five children.

“I’m an Orthodox Jew. This is where I want to live. I believe in the Zionist project of rebuilding Israel,” he says.

The location is ideal for someone who cares about the Bible and history as much as Jacobovici does.

“We can see burn marks from a battle at the time of Exodus, 3,500 years ago. In Canada, going back 150 years to 1867 is considered historical. In Israel, that’s nothing,” he says.

Jacobovici was born in Israel to Romanian parents. He says his destiny lies with the Jewish state, which recently celebrated its 65th birthday.

The climate is like California’s and the inviting waters of the Mediterranean are 10 minutes away from where he lives.

Although the Middle East seems to be in constant turmoil, he says daily life is mostly uneventful. Using a reverse analogy, he says it’s the same way a person in Israel might read about an avalanche in the Rockies and imagine everyone in Canada was in danger.

But he admits religious-based conflicts are real and “part of the fabric of life.”

He isn’t bothered by the “500” missiles that landed in southern Israel a few years ago and the “mini-war” needed to halt them.

“We’re more worried about traffic than bombs. We go out for coffee and the kids play soccer. I have a garden with olive and lemon trees. It feels like a paradise,” he says.

“I don’t think people who live here are afraid. There is a deep level of faith and a sense that a higher power is watching.”

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