First Temple Seal Discovered in Shalem City of David Excavations

February 2008 | Adar I 5768

Welcome to the February edition of E-News, published by the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. Shalem E-News provides an easy-to-scan digest of pertinent news, information and web-based resources. We hope you find it useful and informative and encourage you to send us the email addresses of friends who you think might like to receive it. We also encourage you to visit us here in Jerusalem. We'd be pleased to meet you and tell you more about us and the work that we do. 
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First Temple Seal Discovered in Shalem City of David Excavations
A black stone seal, bearing the name "Shlomit" has been found in the Area G section of the third phase of the City of David excavations by Shalem Senior Fellow Dr. Eilat Mazar. The unexpected find was reported on the front page of the Jerusalem Post on January 17, and was then thought to bear the name "Temech." Further scholarly review determined that the correct reading is more likely “Shlomit” and may possibly refer to the daughter of Zerubbabel, a grandson of King Jehoachin and leader of the first band of Jews returning from the Babylonian captivity. According to Mazar, the seal which contains Babylonian cultic images was produced in Babylon between 538-445 BCE and belonged to a woman of stature. Click here for more detailed information:

Adelson Institute Scholars Prominent at Herzliya Conference
The Shalem Center's Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies served as a co-organizing partner of the 8th annual Herzliya Conference. Institute chairman and conference co-host Natan Sharansky was joined by Adelson Distinguished Fellow Moshe Ya'alon and Adelson Senior Fellow Martin Kramer, as well as by Shalem scholars Michael Oren and Eilat Mazar in addressing the conference. Ya'alon, whose speech was reproduced almost entirely in the pages of the Jerusalem Post, spoke on developing a diplomatic paradigm capable of facilitating long term conflict management in the absence of peace. Other fellows addressed topics ranging from Iran to patriotism to archaeological remains from the First Temple period. For more about the Adelson Institute at the Herzliya conference click here:

Assaf Sagiv Named New Editor-in-Chief of Azure
Shalem Associate Fellow Assaf Sagiv has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Azure, the quarterly journal of philosophy and public affairs published by Shalem Press. "It is my privilege to help steer the future course of a journal with which I have been involved for close to a decade as associate and senior editor," Sagiv told E-News.  Azure endeavors to publish the highest quality writing on matters of importance to Israel and to the Jewish public. "While Azure is both ideologically and culturally a Zionist journal in the widest sense of the term, we will nonetheless consider all serious arguments pertaining to the Jewish people and the Jewish state worthy of consideration-even those that adopt a profoundly critical or iconoclastic stance." Click here to read Sagiv's letter to subscribers: 

Rousing Rally for Philosophy at Annual Bernstein Lecture
A capacity audience braved the wintry Jerusalem night to attend Shalem's 10th annual Zalman C. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Jewish Political Thought. This year, Yirmiyahu Yovel, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Hebrew University, spoke to a crowd of about two hundred students and interested members of the public on "Stages in the Western History of the Will, From Philo to Augustine, Descartes to Hegel." His insights shed new light on the Jewish contribution to Western philosophy, and stimulated a passionate question and answer session. For more on the ZCB lecture series and photographs of this year's event click here:

Omer Moav Selected to Join Committee Investigating Holocaust Survivors Living in Poverty
Shalem Senior Economics Fellow Omer Moav has agreed to serve as a member of a state commission of inquiry into the government's treatment of Holocaust survivors in Israel. The three member committee will be empowered to investigate the allocation of resources, and will look into allegations of government neglect. In addition, he was nominated by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to a commission headed by the Government Statistician to better calibrate poverty levels. Moav told E-news, "I am accepting these positions with no preconceptions. I hope to see justice carried out." Click here to read more about Omer Moav:

Ha'aretz: Writing Skills Continue to Decline Among Israeli Students
Concern over Israeli students' poor level of written expression has been growing in recent years. An article recently published in Ha'aretz cites a number of educators regarding the severity of a problem that they argue manifests itself in shoddy writing by even top university students and a reduced expressive range. In spite of this, university programs designed to ensure basic writing skills have faced cuts or elimination over the past few years. Click here to read the article:

Prize Winning Sociology Thesis at Hebrew U.: Lack of Rape Among Israeli Soldiers Achieves Same Aims as Rape
A Hebrew University Sociology department M.A. thesis entitled “Controlled Occupation: The Lack of Military Rape in the Israeli Palestinian Conflict” notes that the relative absence of instances of rape by Israeli soldiers is an alternate method of achieving the same kind of degradation of Palestinian Arabs that would be achieved through a directed policy of raping Arab women. The abstract of the paper, authored by doctoral candidate Tal Nitzan, notes that "the absence of directed military rape constitutes an alternative way of realizing the same political goals [usually achieved by directed military rape]. In the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, we can see that the rarity of military rape only strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies inter-ethnic differences, just as directed military rape would have done.” The thesis, selected for publication by the university’s Shaine Center for Research in Social Sciences, was supervised by Hebrew University sociologist Eyal Ben–Ari and a senior lecturer in education, Edna Lomsky-Feder. To read the story click here:

ICJR Study: 95% of Major Jewish Gifts Go to Non-Jewish Organizations 
According to a new study released by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR), between 2001 and 2003 Jewish individuals and foundations in the United States gave 95% of their dollars from gifts of $10 million or more to general causes and only 5% to Jewish causes. "While Jewish organizations do a reasonable job attracting smaller mega-gifts, they are failing dramatically to attract the biggest gifts that Jews make to non-profits," according to Gary A. Tobin, president of IJCR. To read IJCR's report click here: 

Sharansky: A Wedding in Moscow, A Wedding in Jerusalem
Adelson Institute Chairman and Distinguished Fellow Natan Sharansky comparing his own wedding in Soviet Russia to that of his daughter in sovereign Jerusalem at his daughter's wedding in Kibbutz Ramat Rachel last month. Sharansky reflected on the challenges facing this generation, and those which faced his own. His moving remarks were reprinted in their entirety in the Jerusalem Post. Click here to read "We are in Jerusalem.":

Power, Faith and Fantasy Named As Award Finalist, Oren Book Tour Underway 
Senior Fellow Michael Oren’s Power, Faith and Fantasy has been named a finalist in the History category of the National Jewish Book Awards. The book has been a New York Times bestseller and was released in paperback on February 5. Oren continues his whirlwind book tour of nine American cities, speaking on the theme of American involvement in the Middle East. In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, "Bush's Mideast Muddle," Oren argues that cross-signals and contradictory policies have clouded President Bush's policy for the Middle East. To read "Bush's Mideast Muddle" click here:

New Theological Paper by Shalem Scholar Published in Journal Daat
An article by Shalem Senior Fellow R. Joseph Isaac Lifshitz was published in the Winter 2008 Issue of Daat, a leading journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy. "The Understanding of the Heart and Infinity" examines two apparently contradictory approaches to understanding God in Judaism. Relying on the classical works of the Gaonim, Chasidei Ashkenaz and Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Lifshitz argues that both objective and subjective approaches to God are required by Jewish tradition, and develops the theory that together they produce a unified tension in genuine Jewish thought. Click here to see R. Lifshitz's publications: 

Manhattan Seminar Meets to Discuss Iran
The Shalem Center's monthly Manhattan Seminar met this January under the banner "Facing Iran: Israel, America, and American Jewry." Fifty participants drawn from New York's business community met at the home of Dina and David Reis together with Distinguished Fellow Moshe Ya'alon and Senior Fellow Yossi Klein Ha'levi. Ya'alon and Klein Ha'levi spoke about the problems facing Israel and American Jewry in confronting Iran.

Shalem Graduate Fellow Wins Debating Championship
Raanan Eichler, a graduate fellow at the Shalem Center, won the 2007 Israeli English-Language Debating Championship in December at Bar-Ilan University, together with his debating partner, Haran Pilpel of the Hebrew University. 36 teams from around the country took part in the competition, where Eichler and Pilpel received a perfect ranking. Eichler is investigating the visual arts of ancient Israel and the Near East at Shalem. Click here for information on Shalem's student programs:

Application Deadlines for Shalem Graduate and Post-Doctoral Fellowships and Summer Internships 
The deadline for applications for Shalem Graduate and Post-Graduate Fellowships for 2008-2009, and for the 2008 Summer Internships, is February 29, 2008. Each year since 2004, Shalem has been selecting a small number of outstanding students for its fellowship and internship programs. Program details and application forms can be found on the Shalem website. Click here for more information:

The following web addresses provide an easy to access directory of all Shalem Center sites:
The Shalem Center: www.shalemcenter.com
Azure: www.azure.org.il
Techelet: www.tchelet.org.il
Hebraic Political Studies: www.hpstudies.org
Daniel Gordis: www.danielgordis.org
Michael Oren: www.michaeloren.com
IDF Lt. Gen.(Res.) Moshe Yaalon: www.mosheyaalon.com

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