In regard to the post today about unicode fonts on the Mac. You may be happy to know that the Mac OS does indeed support unicode fonts, at least since Mac OS 8.5. The area where problems occur is in various applications, for instance, MS Office. Of course MS Office is horrible for any work in Hebrew as the right-to-left text support is basically non-existant. The solution is to use another word processor. If you're working on a Mac you probably know of these programs but I'm on a roll typing now and it's hard to stop... Nisus Writer was the popular alternative in Mac OS 9, they updated to OS X with Nisus Writer Express. However, NWE is based on an entirely different platform and should not be considered the same as the original Nisus Writer for OS 9. The most popular alternative for OS X is Mellel which is fairly full-featured and has excellent font support (including unicode).

As for OpenType fonts, they are not something I'm too familiar with but according to the documentation from Apple that I can find they are supported in OS X also.

[T]he article by David Instone-Brewer about Unicode is unfortunately off the mark with regard to the Mac (only for OSX, that is). Especially Mellel (http://www.redlers.com/) does a very good job as a Unicode word-processor with all kinds of extras and a surprisingly low price-tag ($ 30). And the standard browser, Safari, handles websites with Unicode Hebrew very well also, as far as I can see.

Except for a tour bus now and then, the hot and arid hills above the west shore of the Dead Sea are lifeless and quiet.

That hasn't always been the case.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Khirbet Qumran hills were home to a community believed by most modern scholars to have been the Essenes, a Jewish sect from the middle second century B.C.

In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd entered one of the Qumran caves and discovered the first of what has become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The tattered and stained scraps of parchment were stored in clay jars. The most recent of the scrolls were discovered in 1956.
Click here.

Apparently the Essenes hid them in the caves and never returned. The writing on some of the scrolls seems to predate even the Essenes.

Dating from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D., the Dead Sea Scrolls "are about 1,000 years older than the previously known manuscripts of the Old Testament," said James A. Brashler, professor of Bible and dean of the education faculty at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond.

[...]

The VRA would also vitiate the truth-finding objective of trials by injecting victim concerns that could undermine the impartiality and reliability of verdicts. The amendment would require judges in jury selection, evidentiary rulings, or jury instructions to "consider the victim's safety, interest in avoiding unreasonable delay, and just and timely restitution from the offender." It would permit victims who intend to testify to avoid sequestration, a customary requirement to foil the tailoring of witness stories. Sequestration has been celebrated by an icon in the law of evidence, however, as "one of the greatest engines that the skill of man has ever invented for the detection of liars in a court of justice."

Thus, the biblical Apocrypha relates how Daniel exonerated Susanna of adultery by sequestering two accusing elders and eliciting conflicting answers as to where the alleged crime occurred.

It dawned on me that I hadn�t visited the free Frye Art Museum since last fall and a new exhibition had opened on April 10, so I jumped on my longboard and headed to 704 Terry Avenue.

The Frye is an Art Museum located within a half-mile of Seattle University.

Charles Frye was a wealthy businessman from Seattle who left money and an extensive collection of art in his will for the creation of an art museum for the Seattle public. His attorney, Walser Greathouse, opened the Frye Art Museum in 1952.

[...]

A few portraits in particular were particularly impressive . . .

�Susanna and the Elders,� by Franz Xaver, shows an Old Testament Scene from the Apocrypha where David unmasked the false charges held against Susanna by the elders. Susanna appears distressed, containing both innocence and an emerging understanding of reality.

These feelings are further emphasized by the contrast of her pale skin with the dark background colors.

Disgusting Mullahs of Iran At It Again (Persian Journal)

[...]

The British Museum's keeper of Near Eastern antiquities John Curtis said the museum planned to loan the cylinder after it was shown in Paris and Berlin but a date was not yet set. Iranian archaeologists hoped it would arrive in 2006.

When empire-building Persian monarch Cyrus the Great overwhelmed Babylon's army east of the river Tigris in 539 B.C. there was no victorious pillaging or torching of homes.

Instead he wrote his charter, the Cyrus cylinder, declaring that each man would be free to worship his own gods, no race would oppress another and no man would be enslaved.

In a move with sharp modern resonance, the conqueror also gave right of return to refugees.

Shahrokh Razmjou, a scholar at the National Museum of Iran working on a fresh translation of the cylinder, said the artefact kindled intense emotions among many Iranians.

"People feel strongly about it because it is about freedom and giving freedoms," he said. "People want to keep the connection to that golden period."

He said a joyous gasp had rippled around a crowded Tehran lecture theatre when British Museum Director Neil MacGregor announced to them that the cylinder would be loaned to Iran.

[...]

An editorial in the hardline Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily insisted the spiritual father of the modern nation, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, would not have approved of the loan.

"The late leader Ruhollah Khomeini believed monarchy was corrupt and the kings were traitors," the editorial read.

"So this move by the National Museum of Iran contradicts the political line of the founder of the Islamic system and is an attempt to revive the decayed bones of kings," it continued.

[...]

In the more than 20 years since the death of Klaus Nomi, the closest the modern rock world has come to having an opera-quality singer is probably Lisa Gerrard, formerly of Dead Can Dance. In addition to composing acclaimed movie scores, such as the ones for The Insider and Whalerider, Gerrard has released three �solo� albums, the latest of which is Immortal Memory (4AD). Gerrard�s distinctive and rich contralto vocals envelop the 10 songs on which she collaborated with composer Patrick Cassidy. Singing in Aramaic, Latin and Gaelic, Gerrard embodies the kind of passion for which Mel Gibson can only mutter unanswered prayers.

Lecture to examine history, myth of Solomon

UNO's Bethsaida Excavations Project and The Archaeological Institute of America, Lincoln-Omaha Society will host scholar William G. Dever for a lecture titled "The 'Age of Solomon,' History or Myth? The Archaeological Picture" this Thursday, April 22 at the Joslyn Art Museum. The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. and present information about the archaeological evidence that demonstrates the state of Israel in the 10th century B.C.E. The presentation is free and open to the public. The Joslyn is located at 2200 Dodge St. For more information, contact Rami Arav, director of UNO's Bethsaida Excavations Project, at 554-4986.

The Shadow of God: Stories
from Early Judaism
(Hendrickson Publishers, 2003)� Essay on Historical Imagination as Applied to Early Judaism


By Leo Sandgren
Dept. of Religion & Jewish Studies
University of Florida
April 2004

�� When one writes a book that is commonly done in a given field of study, one has to justify why (besides publish or perish) one is writing yet another book to compliment the others already out there. But when one writes a book that is not done, or rarely done, one has to justify why it should be done at all. The Shadow of God, which may be characterized as a work of �historical imagination,� falls into the latter category, covering six centuries of Jewish history, from the Babylonian exile to the destruction of the Second Temple, in 15 stories, each centered on a historical event.

[...]

�� In short, I am not primarily concerned with what did occur but with what might have been possible responses to what probably did occur. By this means, the goal is to clarify how Judaism developed over six centuries. The emphasis is on the journey itself, not a description of the milestones. The journey is imagined, just as history is the imagined reconstruction of the past by a single subjective mind whose reconstruction may be critiqued by others, if and only if, they have an equally firm grasp of the data of the past. The stories in The Shadow of God are my reconstructions of Jewish history. And I echo the sentiments of Keith Hopkins: that to re-experience life in antiquity, �we have to combine ancient perceptions, however partial, with modern understandings, however misleading.� (Hopkins, A World Full of Gods, 6.)

��� I had three structural goals for the project: 1) the development of key themes: the universalism of God and of Torah, the particularism of Jewish identity, and the development of Jewish Christianity; 2) a fairly complete portrayal of society: the major stereotypes, but including non Jews, men and women, servants and masters; and 3) anchoring the stories to significant historical events that in themselves demonstrate the growth of Judaism. Beyond these goals of content, I hoped to engage the reader with the plots, narrative, and dialogue, that is, to draw the reader into the world of the story.

��� Historical imagination strives for authenticity of the era in thought as well as setting. In recent times, filmmakers have gone to extraordinary lengths for historical accuracy in the settings and minutia. The description of the background and the minor details of daily life ought to reflect our best knowledge of the era. The reader should have a confident sense of being there, not being in a poorly furnished museum. But more importantly, the thoughts expressed must also be limited to the potential for thought during the era.

[...]

�� If works of historical imagination are to be taken seriously, they must be undertaken seriously. The value of historical imagination is to fill in what our sources have left out, but what we know must have been there. And we can expand from a few bits of historical memory into a fuller picture of ancient thought. A danger of historical imagination is that while using an art form of story telling and dialogue, we too easily project modern attitudes onto antiquity, but this is a danger for all historians and can only be guarded against by a careful comparison with our ancient sources. A second danger of historical fiction is that it can beguile the reader into thinking what might have occurred, did occur. Here, it is the responsibility of the historian cum story teller to help keep the known historical data separate from the fictional elaboration. Toward that end, I provide fairly complete endnotes to the sources, and a clarification of the historical and fictional characters in the chronology at the end of the book. Even so, I am aware of the potential for confusion, and such works of historical imagination are best read as supplements to more formal histories. It won�t replace good old fashioned history as done by the German scholars, but it can breathe some life into their histories. Each contributes to the other.

April 20, 2004

Dear AAR Members:

In recent weeks, many of you will have received a petition from our colleagues Karen King and Elaine Pagels regarding the Board of Directors' decision a year ago to hold independent annual meetings beginning in 2008. The Board spent the better part of our April meeting discussing various issues relating to this decision. We attended carefully to the petitioners and the concerns they expressed.

The Board appreciates the commitment to the Academy and to the goals of the centennial strategic plan expressed by the petitioners, as well as their desire to find creative and constructive ways to deal with the growth and expansion of the field of religion. We are aware that the members of the Academy have a range of ideas about how best to accomplish this and that some of these ideas are in conflict with one another. In an organization of some 10,000 individuals, that divergence is not surprising.

With the decision for independent annual meetings made, we intend to engage the full range of members' concerns as implementation moves forward. To that end, the Board has appointed a task force to advise us on this implementation. The task force includes members who share concerns expressed in the petition, as well as members with different perspectives. The membership of the Task Force comprises colleagues whose studies and interests in the field of religion cover a broad range, including several with specific interests in Biblical Studies and Christian theology.

Chaired by former AAR president Judith Berling (Graduate Theological Union), this task force is charged with presenting recommendations on the structure of the program, enhanced programming, and a phased program expansion in the next few years. In considering specific additions to the program, the task force is asked to target areas that are already experiencing pent-up demand, are currently underrepresented, will be underrepresented in the stand-alone meeting, and are new and emerging in the field.

Even as we look forward to an expanded and more inclusive annual meeting program over the next few years, we are keenly aware of a range of concerns beyond the program itself. These include (but are not limited to) the impact of the independent meeting on racial and ethnic minority scholars, on members from small colleges and schools with limited financial support for faculty professional development, on job searches in the field, and on publishers. We commit ourselves to working closely with members to resolve these and other issues.

Additionally the Board instructed the executive director to begin exploring the possibility of holding periodic concurrent meetings with other relevant associations (e.g., American Anthropological Association, Middle East Studies Association, Society of Biblical Literature, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion).

It is the conviction of the Board that these various initiatives will result in a new, exciting, and forward-looking annual meeting of which all members of the AAR will be justly proud. We are confident that Academy members' long tradition of collegial conversation and shared commitment to the future of the field of religion will serve the AAR during this promising, but nonetheless challenging, time of transition to an independent meeting. We welcome your recommendations and creative ideas about how to implement and strengthen the AAR annual meeting of the future.

The Board of Directors

October 2000. The Planning Committee surveyed AAR Members concerning the future of the Annual Meeting, receiving responses from little more than 10% of members. To the question, �Please indicate the importance to you of meeting jointly with SBL,� a majority of respondents preferred the joint annual meetings, but an overwhelming majority complained about the meeting�s size, the cuts in programming, and the meeting sites (inconvenience, shuttles, loss of camaraderie, fewer and fewer viable cities).

November 2000. While the question of the annual meeting�s future arrangements is under consideration, the Board allows the executive director to sign one additional joint annual meeting contract (for 2007). The question of whether to continue meeting jointly with SBL is on the agenda for the annual business meeting, the AAR program unit chairs meeting, and the Program Committee. In the years following, the issue continues to be raised from the floor at successive annual business and chairs� meetings. Straw votes are requested and taken, revealing that members are deeply divided on the issue.

These fellowships, for which there were more than 3,200 applicants, are awarded annually for distinguished scholarly achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. They include substantial stipends and are among North America's most prestigious research awards. This year, 185 individuals from 87 institutions received fellowships.

[...]

Dr. David Stern directs the Jewish Studies Program and is a scholar of classical Jewish literature and religion. He has been a member of the faculty since 1984, and he received his Ph.D. from Harvard. He is studying the ways in which the physical forms of the Talmud, the Rabbinic Bible, the Prayerbook, and the Passover Haggadah have shaped their meaning and significance within Jewish culture.

[ Introduction ] (javascript doesn't transfer)

Are the Gospel Passion Accounts Anti-Jewish?
Dennis Hamm, SJ, Creighton University

Christ's Passion on Stage: The Traditional Melodrama of Deicide
Gordon R. Mork, Purdue University

Christian Anti-Semitism: Past History, Present Challenges
John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Catholic Theological Union

Passion-ate Moments in the Jesus Film Genre
Adele Reinhartz,Wilfrid Laurier University

Romans, Jews, and Greeks: The World of Jesus and the Disciples
Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The Arrest and Sentencing of Jesus: A Historical Reconstruction
Philip Cunningham, Boston College

Gibson's Passion: A Case Study in Media Manipulation?
Mark Silk, Trinity College

Sectarian Catholicism and Mel Gibson
Michael Lawler, Creighton University

What Might Have Been

The Waco situation could have been handled differently and possibly resolved peacefully. This is not unfounded speculation or wishful thinking. It is the considered opinion of the lawyers who spent the most time with the Davidians during the siege and of various scholars of religion who understand biblical apocalyptic belief systems such as that of the Branch Davidians. (13) There was a way to communicate with these biblically oriented people, but it had nothing to do with hostage rescue or counterterrorist tactics. Indeed, such a strategy was being pursued, with FBI cooperation, by Phillip Arnold of the Reunion Institute in Houston and James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, one of the authors of this book. Arnold and Tabor worked in concert with the lawyers Dick DeGuerin and Jack Zimmerman, who spent a total of twenty hours inside the Mount Carmel center between March 29 and April 4, communicating directly with Koresh and his main spokesperson, Steve Schneider. Unfortunately, these attempts came too late. By the time they began to bear positive results, decisions had already been made in Washington to convince Attorney General Janet Reno to end the siege by force. As we will show, those officials briefing her had decided on the CS gas option and were determined to get her approval, despite her caution and better judgment.

[...]

We now know that Koresh was working on his manuscript, which he considered his divinely sanctioned task and opportunity. He worked on it as late as Sunday evening, the night before the April 19 assault, completing his exposition of the First Seal. Those in Mount Carmel were excited and pleased by his progress, fully convinced that they would soon be able to come out peacefully.(47) Ruth Riddle, a Branch Davidian who survived the fire, served as his stenographer and typist that weekend. On the day of the fire, she carried out a computer disk in her jacket pocket, containing what Koresh had written up to that point. A substantial piece, it runs about twenty-eight manuscript pages; it reflects Koresh's personality in its style, content, and passion.(48) At the end of the document, he quotes the book of Joel and then offers his commentary: "'Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that nurse at the breast; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet [Joel 2:15, 16].' Yes, the bride is definitely to be revealed for we know that Christ is in the Heavenly Sanctuary anticipating His Marriage of which God has spoken. Should we not eagerly ourselves be ready to accept this truth and come out of our closet and be revealed to the world as those who love Christ in truth and in righteousness?" (emphasis added). Koresh had found his text for the situation at hand. As he then understood events, as always through the lens of the biblical prophets, the group was to come out and be revealed to the world. This does not mean he had given up his apocalyptic scenario or his view of himself as the Koresh/Christ who would in the end confront and defeat Babylon. He surely believed that God would bring about the final confrontation in the future. He had come to understand that his immediate task was to communicate his message to the world, after which he would surrender and allow God's will to unfold.

The only effective way to communicate with Koresh was within the biblically based apocalyptic "world" he inhabited, taking advantage of the inherent flexibility that the situation at Mount Carmel presented. Of course, no one can ever know if Koresh would have honored his pledge to come out once the manuscript was finished, but whether he would have or not, the outcome could not have been more terrible. To the FBI he was a con man using religion to cover his need for dominance and pleasure. To the psychiatrists he was psychopathic, suffering from delusional paranoia. Such perceptions, whether valid or not, obscured the only positive means of dealing with Koresh and his followers. Although the FBI has charged that Koresh constantly went back on his word, contradicting himself and willfully breaking his promises, the Department of Justice's highly detailed log reveals otherwise: Koresh and his followers were utterly consistent from March 2 onward. They had been told to wait by God; they would not come out until Koresh received his word from God telling them what to do. No amount of pressure or abuse would move them from this path. The final tragedy is that, when Koresh finally got his "word" on April 14, no one with any understanding of the religious dynamics of the situation had access to those making the decisions that week in Washington.

[...]

Three-peat's oh so sweet (Los Angeles Daily News)

By Lisa M. Sodders
Staff Writer

BOISE, Idaho -- In a record-breaking, nerve-racking finish Saturday, Woodland Hills' El Camino Real High School squeaked past a rival Arizona team to win the 23rd annual U.S. Academic Decathlon.

About 270 points out of a possible 60,000 total separated the two teams and gave El Camino its third national championship, making it the only California team to claim three national titles.

[...]

Team members also finally revealed the meaning of the mysterious motto written in Aramaic on the back of their black satin team jackets: "The only difference between genius and insanity is 12 inches," a play on Thomas Edison's expression, which held that the difference was a work ethic, [team member Eric] Rasyidi said.

Trustee helps sort ownership in religious artifacts exhibit

Associated Press

AKRON, Ohio - An exhibit of religious artifacts featuring fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls ends Sunday, but the legal disputes surrounding it could continue.

A court-appointed trustee must oversee the process as various owners pick up their ancient manuscripts, Bibles and clay tablets on Monday.

[...]

U.S. District Judge John Adams took three hours Friday to sort out the complicated ownership trails for the three collectors who organized the exhibit, with some of them displaying items they in turn were borrowing. None of the agreements was in writing.

"I'm a bit surprised," Adams said.

[...]

Burnett, who studied Hebrew and Aramaic at Glasgow University, says the Romans in Jerusalem would have spoken Greek, the empire's common tongue, and not Latin.

Burnett, 33, said: "It's very Life of Brian to have the Romans speaking in Latin, and it's just downright absurd to have the Jewish people talking in Latin.

"Think of the letters of Paul and of the gospels - all written in Greek, the common tongue of the day and of the empire.

"The Latin is creative to say the least, and is given a strong Italian accent to draw it away from the Latin reading contests we remember from school.

"Jesus speaking Latin is also a joke as he doubtless didn't even know Greek, unlike his educated advocate, Paul."

[...]

It is the first time Aramaic, which has links to both Hebrew and Arabic, has been used in a Hollywood blockbuster.

But Burnett pointed out that there are only incomplete records of the ancient version of Aramaic Jesus spoke.

He added: "There is only one bit of Aramaic in the New Testament - 'Lord, Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?' - so they use that to great effect."

The knock against "Holocaust" is twofold. Many object to the word, derived from ancient Greek, because it translates as "burnt offering" -- in the sacrificial religious sense, according to select scholars. And that leads to a horrific connotation when speaking of the atrocities committed against the Jews, who were often driven to the gas chambers, then cremated. How could their fiery end be considered a sacrifice?

"If it's a burnt offering to God, then I don't want to know the God at the other end," says Michael Berenbaum, a leading scholar based at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

But the linguistic issues go deeper. As "Holocaust" seeps into the vernacular, the term has become attached not only to other genocides and mass slaughters -- in Armenia, Cambodia and elsewhere -- but also to a range of other events and movements. In an article for a Jewish publication, Diana Cole cited such examples as a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibit and SiliconeHolocaust.org, a Web site for "breast implant victims."

[...]

Still, others say the "burnt offering" religious concept isn't necessarily the correct interpretation. True, "holocaust" appears in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (or, as some now prefer to call it, the Hebrew scriptures). But "holocaust" was also employed before that to denote pagan sacrifices, removing it from the Judeo-Christian framework, researcher Jon Petrie has noted.

And in the 20th century, "holocaust" took on variety of meanings before it became forever wedded to the crimes of the Nazi era. Often, it simply signified a great fire. In his writings, Petrie goes so far as to quote a 1940 advertisement in the pre-state of Israel Palestine Post for a show by one Mandrake the Magician, promising "a flaming holocaust of thrills."

Right word may not exist

In the early years of the Cold War, "holocaust" was far more likely to be used in conjunction with the threat of nuclear disaster. Petrie has argued that it was such usage that prompted Jewish writers, including Wiesel, to co-opt the term when referring to Hitler's dreaded "Final Solution."

"American Jewish writers probably abandoned such words as 'disaster,' 'catastrophe' and 'massacre' in favor of 'holocaust' in the 1960s because 'holocaust,' with its evocation of the then actively feared nuclear mass death, effectively conveyed something of the horror of the Jewish experience during World War II."