Archaeologist Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University will announce tomorrow morning that he has, after a quest which lasted over 30 years, discovered the location of Herod’s tomb. Apparently, Herod is entombed at the Herodium, “a fortified palace built by Herod some 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem,” confirming the location noted by the historian Flavius Josephus some 2000 years ago.
The Herodium, or Herodion, is a wonderful archaeological site which is unfortunately visited rarely because of its remote location in the territories. I had the fortune of visiting two years ago. A picture from that visit below:
I was looking to get the contact information for Volkswagen Israel (to file a complaint about the abhorrent service at their Jerusalem garage), and I came across a short article from TIME Magazine, dated April 11, 1969 regarding relations between Israel and (West) Germany almost 25 years after the Holocaust. Here is a poignant excerpt:
Two numbers tell much about the life and times of Chaim Serna, 43, a power-company foreman in Jerusalem. One of them, 108342, is tattooed on his left forearm, a souvenir of Auschwitz. The other is 612214 on the license of his blue Volkswagen.
The article indicates that it was stipulated that much of $900,000,000 in reparations paid by West Germany to Israel between 1953 and 1965 had to be spent on German goods. Thus the rumor which I had debunked regarding why many Israeli taxis are of German manufacture may be founded on the memories of older generations.
(Does anyone else find it insensitive that the author refers to the survivor’s tattoo a “souvenir of Auschwitz”?)
I caught this video last night from Metafilter. Watch, and see below for the discussion.
Some of the comments on Youtube are right on. The contestant who is in the lead going into “Final Jeopardy” will almost always bet $1 extra than the maximum sum his opponents can achieve. By betting on the fact that his opponents–who were already tied going into Final Jeopardy–would bet the maximum possible sum, Scott decided to match, thereby guaranteeing another round against those same opponents, over whom he displayed superiority. So next week, Scott faces the same players and will probaby secure at least one more handsome payday.
The Israeli press has decided to lynch recently declared Minister of Tourism Esterina Tartman. I think that her appointment, considering that she is a freshman MK and number five on her party’s list (i.e., the three MKs between her and Avigdor Lieberman should have precedence for the ministry task), smacks of corruption. The “controversial” opinions voiced by Tartman are rooted in her party platform, and are not her own creation. I think that the Israeli press, and public, are just plain afraid of a “strong” telegenic woman who speaks her mind. Accusations aside, though I think Isaac Herzog was a wonderful Minister of Tourism, Tartman will do a fine job. I think that I may have changed my mind. Tartman has apparently lied about her undergraduate credentials as well, after her MA was discovered to be bogus. I believe that in addition to knowingly deceiving the government and the populace, having declared two degrees would also have given Tartman a nice salary bump; money which Israel’s taxpayers never owed to her. I just wish that the press would pursue the lies and distortions of every politician with the same vigor they used against Tartman.
Prof. Ariel Toaff has not only pulled his book from publication, pledged to donate the proceeds to the ADL, and recanted his theory, but some MKs are looking for ways to punish Toaff under Israel law (story here).
The university strike was called off, but there has to be something to protest… I was handed a flyer today which encouraged me to boycott the cafes and food establishments on campus because of a recent hike in prices. My understanding of the issue is that prices, at least for coffee, had not been raised in some 10 years, which led to the remarkable espresso for 4 NIS. We caught the tail end of those prices, which were no doubt considered high when instituted in the late 90s. Considering the high rent paid by the vendors, including a purported “internal” Arnona (municipal tax) imposed by the university, the quality of the food/drink, and the required security guards (even inside the campus), I, for one, am willing to shell out a bit more for my eats.
The IAA has also posted two timely articles regarding the necessity of the project, when many have questioned the timing of the renovations. See here and here.
The below video, also put together by the IAA, has some elements which bear a remarkable similarity to my post on the matter. I only wish that the Israeli PR machine would plagiarize from bloggers more often!
UPDATE: Haaretz reports that Toaff has not withdrawn the book altogether. Rather, Toaff has suspended publication to facilitate his “[emendation of] contentious sections.” In his comments printed in Haaretz, Toaff reiterated his claim that he wished to expose the existence of fundamentalist, and violent, elements in Ashkenazic Jewry. Though I know nothing about the contents of the book, I am relatively sure that his claims build to a large extent on the Hebrew Crusade-narratives, of which I have already quoted a short excerpt. I hope to post some preliminary comments in the near future.
By the way, the “talkbacks” (i.e., comments) on Israeli news websites are seeing some of Toaff’s (purported) students from Bar-Ilan alleging ulterior (i.e., contemporary) motives for the publication of this controversial theory, which Toaff would often hint to in his lectures. In this case, the claim would go: If religious fundamentalists would go so far as to butcher children in the Middle Ages, we need to be wary of contemporary religious fundamentalists as well for fear of what they might perpetrate.
The women there girded their loins with strength and slew their sons and their daughters and then themselves. Many men, too, plucked up courage and killed their wives, their sons, their infants. The tender and delicate mother slaughtered the babe she had played with, all of them, men and women arose and slaughtered one another…A father turning to his son or brother, a brother to his sister, a woman to her son or daughter neighbor to a neighbor or a friend, a groom to a bride, a fiancé to fiancee, would kill and would be killed, and blood touched blood. The blood of the men mingled with their wives, the blood of the fathers with their children’s, the blood of the brothers with the sisters, the blood of the teachers with their disciples, the blood of the grooms with their brides, the blood of the leaders with the cantors, the blood of the judges with their scribes, and the blood of infants and sucklings with their mothers.
Here is an interesting article on the evolution of Hunan Cuisine in general, and the dish “General Tso’s” in particular. Regarding the latter, the article’s author says the following, thus answering somewhat the question which I posed in the title:
Despite its international reputation… the dish is virtually unknown in the Chinese province of Hunan itself.
The dish apparently rose to prominence in the USA because its inventor was affiliated with the defeated Chinese Nationalist Party, created the dish in the 50s while exiled in Taiwan, and ultimately popularized the dish in America in the 70s in his New York restaurant. It is now, much to the embarrassment of the Chinese, the most popular dish associated with Hunan Cuisine, even though the dish has no actual roots in the Hunan province of China.
Something to think about next time you come down with that MSG headache.
Professor Ariel Toaff
