Free Republic

Hebrew out: 1933 by Nazi Wilhelm Frick; 2023/4 by Arab Islamic Nazis 2023/4Antisemitic incidents have surged 320% in Germany since Oct. 7. By Shura LI Bartov/JTA. Published: November 30, 2023 01:40. Jewish life is becoming less visible in Germany, as Jews refrain from wearing identifiable symbols and speaking Hebrew in public. 1933/4Infamous Nazi Wilhelm Frick - Instrumental in formulating laws that consolidated the Nazi regime (Gleichschaltung), as well as laws that defined the Nazi racial policy, most notoriously the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. In 1933 he bans Hebrew to be recognized, among other things. American Jewish Year Book. vol. 36. United...

As a child, the thing I found most startling about attending majority-black public schools was the fact that most of my fellow students had no idea what a “Jew” is. To them, I was just a white kid. A few of my schoolmates who had churchgoing parents had heard terms like “Hebrews” and “Israelites,” but there was little understanding of how those words applied to living people in the modern world. I recall one black classmate telling me she’d finally “figured out” what this Jew thing is all about: “You guys just wear the cross, but without the little man...

Since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the holy day of Yom Kippur has been observed with intense prayer and fasting. But the Bible mandates 15 specific sacrifices and many other rituals for Yom Kippur outlined in Leviticus chapter 16. This included the Kohen Gadol (high priest) wearing five different sets of garments, immersion in the mikvah (ritual bath) five times, and washing his hands and feet ten times. The temple service on Yom Kippur was the only time the Kohen Gadol entered the Kodesh Kedoshim (holy of holies) three times, the only day of...

Indonesian police have brought blasphemy and hate speech charges against the head of a controversial Islamic boarding school, following public uproar over its teachings, including unorthodox treatment of women and use of Hebrew. Panji Gumilang, head of the Al-Zaytun school in conservative West Java province, was named a suspect by police on Tuesday (Aug 1), national police official Djuhandhani Rahardjo told reporters, and faces a maximum 10 years in prison if found guilt of blasphemy and hate speech. Founded in 1996 and home to roughly 5,000 students, the boarding school has caused a stir with practices like allowing men and...

She says the new name means ‘lion of God.’ In Hebrew, it appears to be a typoKylie Jenner has changed her son’s name from Wolf to Aire (pronounced like “air”). She says it means “lion of God” in Hebrew. It doesn’t. The child was born to Jenner and rapper Travis Scott in February 2022. “His legal name is Wolf Webster so I’m going to do Aire Webster,” she said in a video, spelling out the name as “A-I-R-E.” “I just always wanted a name for him that had meaning and I like it’s a Hebrew name,” she said, adding:...

One of the latest discoveries in the world of biblical research comes as a result of ultraviolet light technology that allowed researchers to see and translate a portion of scripture written nearly 1,500 years ago.Historian Grigory Kessel from the Austrian Academy of Sciences published his work at Cambridge and explained how the new technology has provided more insight into the preservation of scripture:Kissel said that they found an ancient version of Chapter 12 in the book of Matthew in the Bible that had been hidden beneath a section of text for over 1,500 years. His discovering is one of the...

World’s Oldest Near-Complete Hebrew Bible Goes to Auction The Codex Sassoon could break auction records, becoming the most valuable historical document ever sold Sarah Kuta Daily Correspondent February 17, 2023 Bible open to a page in the middle, set against a black backdrop The Codex Sassoon, which measures 12 by 14 inches, dates to the late ninth or early tenth century. At more than 1,000 years old, the Codex Sassoon is the world’s earliest near-complete Hebrew Bible. Soon, it could also become the “most valuable historical document ever sold at auction,” according to a statement from Sotheby’s. The auction house...

JERUSALEM (AP) — One of the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts, a nearly complete 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible, could soon be yours — for a cool $30 million. The Codex Sassoon, a leather-bound, handwritten parchment tome containing almost the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, is set to go on the block at Sotheby’s in New York in May. Its anticipated sale speaks to the still bullish market for art, antiquities and ancient manuscripts even in a worldwide bear economy. Sotheby’s is drumming up interest in hopes of enticing institutions and collectors to bite. It has put the price tag at an eye-watering...

The Codex Sassoon, believed to date from the late 9th or early 10th century, was bought at Sotheby’s by the American Friends of the ANU — Museum of the Jewish People.The oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible sold at Sotheby’s for $38.1 million on Wednesday, one of the highest prices for a book or historical document ever sold at auction.The volume, known as the Codex Sassoon, includes all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, minus about eight leaves, including the first 10 chapters of Genesis. Researchers have dated it to the late ninth or early 10th century, making it the oldest near-complete...

The artefact has inscriptions written in Hebrew, showing partially preserved lines of fragmentary names with letters and numbers carved onto a chalkstone (qirton) slab. The slab was originally used as an ossuary (burial chest), which was discovered in a tunnel previously excavated during the 19th century by British archaeologists. Although the slab was found outside of its original context, an analysis of the type of script and comparisons with contemporary examples suggests that it dates from the early Roman period or the late Second Temple period. During antiquity, the find-site would have been located along the Pilgrimage Road, a major...

On a site in modern-day Israel, academics believe they’ve found the oldest Hebrew text ever discovered, with an apparent link to a scene described in the Old Testament. The text is described as a “curse tablet” — with an inscription one might expect to find in some of the darker passages of the Old Testament. “You are cursed by the God YHW,” the text reads — using the sacred Hebrew name for God. “You will die cursed—cursed you will surely die. Cursed you are by yhw-cursed,” the tablet reads, according to the Jewish News Syndicate. *** Reference: https://www.jewishpress.com/news/archaeology-news/scholars-expound-on-mount-ebal-curse-tablet-with-oldest-hebrew-text/2023/05/12/

An early Hebrew inscription from Mount Ebal near Nablus that was found on a folded lead tablet during an excavation in the 1980s recently underwent x-ray tomographic measurements to reveal hidden text.Epigraphic analysis of the data revealed a formulaic curse written in a proto-alphabetic script likely dating to Late Bronze Age that predates any previously known Hebrew inscription in Israel by at least 200 years.

Two ancient clay tablets discovered in Iraq and covered from top to bottom in cuneiform writing contain details of a "lost" Canaanite language that has remarkable similarities with ancient Hebrew. The tablets, thought to be nearly 4,000 years old, record phrases in the almost unknown language of the Amorite people, who were originally from Canaan — the area that's roughly now Syria, Israel and Jordan — but who later founded a kingdom in Mesopotamia. These phrases are placed alongside translations in the Akkadian language, which can be read by modern scholars. In effect, the tablets are similar to the famous...

JERUSALEM – Israel displayed for the first time Wednesday a collection of rare coins charred and burned from the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago. About 70 coins were found in an excavation at the foot of a key Jerusalem holy site. They give a rare glimpse into the period of the Jewish revolt that eventually led to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in A.D. 70, said Hava Katz, curator of the exhibition. The Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire and took over Jerusalem in A.D. 66. After laying siege to Jerusalem, the Romans...

The quarter shekel coin, dated to 69 AD, is one of only four of its kind known to exist It took nearly 20 years of dogged detective work and a trail which crossed continents before the case of the missing $1m relic could be closed. "A cherished piece of history [is] finally going home," said a US official at a ceremony marking the occasion. That piece of history is a small silver coin rich in symbolism, minted during a Jewish revolt nearly 2,000 years ago. Looted in Israel in 2002, it was eventually tracked down, seized and is being returned...

"This is the third coin of this type found in excavations in Jerusalem, and one of the few ever found in archeological excavations," said the researchers.During the Great Revolt against Rome, the Jews in Jerusalem minted bronze and silver coins. Most of the silver coins featured a goblet on one side, with ancient Hebrew script above it noting the year of the Revolt. Depending on its denomination, the coins also included an inscription around the border noting either, "Israel Shekel," "Half-Shekel," or "Quarter-Shekel." The other side of these coins showcased a branch with three pomegranates, surrounded by an inscription in...

2,700-year-old inscribed papyrus, a letter to 'Ishmael' written in early Hebrew script, joins only two others from biblical times. But that's just the beginning of the story...This 4-centimeter-high, 5-centimeter-wide (1.5 inch x 2 inches) fragment joins only two other known contemporary papyrus fragments inscribed with early Hebrew in the Land of Israel to date.The treasure hunt ended earlier this year after the IAA’s Eitan Klein located the owner of the exceedingly rare papyrus in the fittingly nicknamed Treasure State.The inscription is composed of four fragmented lines, the first of which begins with the intriguing command "To Ishmael, send…." and then...

What was the shape of Noah’s Ark? For millennia Jewish and Christian clerics, scholars, and academics, as well as others with too much time on their hands, have pondered this question. Artist rendering of the one true shape of Noah’s Ark, scientifically provenILLUSTRATION: JON BERKELEY What makes it tantalizing is the precision of the numbers in Genesis 6 (here, in the King James translation): [13] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. [14] Make thee...

Separated by geography and language, there's not much that might seem to connect India's five dwindling Jewish communities – except praying in Hebrew, and food. ...Kolkata is home to the Baghdadi Jews, who were once abundant enough to warrant five synagogues; now there aren't enough for a minyan (minimum [10] male Jews required for liturgical purposes). Magen David and the smaller Beth El Synagogue were both classified as protected monuments and renovated by the Archaeological Survey of India in 2017. ...The story of disappearing Jewish populations finds echoes elsewhere in India. Jews are believed to have first arrived in India...

A rare archeological find from Mount Ebal: A small, folded 3,200-year-old lead plate sheds new light on biblical study - and was unveiled today (Thursday). Inside it - an ancient curse in ancient Hebrew script ("Proto-Canaanite"), with the God's explicit name [of the Divine]. Prof. Gershon Galil, from the University of Haifa, calls the discovery an "earthquake in biblical studies." He said, "The new find unearthed today is the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far." An inscription was found in Hebrew from the 13th century BC Prof. Galil: "The new finding is a death blow to all biblical deniers" An...