１．Worldwide Religious News (http://wwrn.org)
Archaeologists find possible site of Jesus’s trial in Jerusalem
by Ruth Eglash ("The Washington Post," January 4, 2015)
JERUSALEM — It started 15 years ago with plans to expand the Tower of David Museum. But the story took a strange turn when archaeologists started peeling away layers under the floor in an old abandoned building adjacent to the museum in Jerusalem’s Old City.
They knew it had been used as a prison when the Ottoman Turks and then the British ruled these parts. But, as they carefully dug down, they eventually uncovered something extraordinary: the suspected remains of the palace where one of the more famous scenes of the New Testament may have taken place — the trial of Jesus.
Now, after years of excavation and a further delay caused by wars and a lack of funds, the archaeologists’ precious find is being shown to the public through tours organized by the museum.
The prison “is a great part of the ancient puzzle of Jerusalem and shows the history of this city in a very unique and clear way,” said Amit Re’em, the Jerusalem district archaeologist, who headed the excavation team more than a decade ago.
For Re’em, the building has yielded a trove of thrilling discoveries from across the centuries — symbols etched into old jail walls by prisoners from the Jewish resistance fighting to create the state of Israel in the 1940s, fabric-dyeing basins from the era of the Crusades and the foundation walls and an underground sewage system that probably underpinned the sprawling palace built by Herod the Great, the eccentric king of Judea under the Roman empire.
But for the more than 1 million Christian pilgrims who visit Jerusalem each year, the site is especially significant because it could have been an important place in the life of Jesus.
“For those Christians who care about accuracy in regards to historical facts, this is very forceful,” said Yisca Harani, an expert on Christianity and pilgrimage to the Holy Land. “For others, however, those who come for the general mental exercise of being in Jerusalem, they don’t care as long as [their journey] ends in Golgotha — the site of the Crucifixion.”
Today, many Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem walk the Stations of the Cross, or Via Dolorosa, taking them from where it is believed Roman procurator Pontius Pilate held the trial and sentenced Jesus to death, to where Jesus was eventually crucified and buried.
Harani said that since pilgrims started making their way to Jerusalem centuries ago, the route of the Via Dolorosa has changed several times, depending on who ruled the city at the time and what they deemed important.
In the Byzantine period, for example, the Via Dolorosa began closer to the area where the museum now sits in the western part of the city. It was only after the 13th century that the starting point moved to the Antonia Fortress, the site of a former Roman military barracks, which today sits beneath a school close to the al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock.
The debate over the site of the trial continues among Christian spiritual leaders, historians and archaeologists. Questions about the location stem from various interpretations of the Gospels, which describe how Jesus of Nazareth was brought before Pilate in the “praetorium,” a Latin term for a general’s tent within a Roman encampment. Some say Pilate’s praetorium would have been in the military barracks, others say the Roman general would probably have been a guest in the palace built by Herod.
Today, historians and archaeologists are certain that Herod’s palace was on the city’s western side, where the Tower of David Museum and the Ottoman-era prison stand.
For Shimon Gibson, an archaeology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, there is little doubt that the trial occurred somewhere within Herod’s palace compound. In the Gospel of John, the trial is described as taking place near a gate and on a bumpy stone pavement — details that fit with previous archaeological findings near the prison, he said.
“There is, of course, no inscription stating it happened here, but everything — archaeological, historical and gospel accounts — all falls into place and makes sense,” Gibson said.
The Rev. David Pileggi, minister of Christ Church, an Anglican congregation whose complex includes a guesthouse and heritage center near the museum, said the discovery inside the prison confirmed “what everyone expected all along, that the trial took place near the Tower of David.”
So, now that it is open to the public, could the prison become a new holy site for Christian pilgrims or even change the path of the Via Dolorosa?
“I don’t think that will happen anytime soon,” Pileggi said. “What makes a place holy is the fact that people have gone there for hundreds of years, prayed, cried and even celebrated there, so I don’t think there will be changes to the route anytime soon. But the prison does give us a clearer explanation of Jerusalem’s history.”
In the Tower of David Museum, named for the medieval citadel in which it sits, director Eilat Lieber hopes the prison will eventually become a standard attraction for Christians. Museum officials have already started working with tour guides versed in Christian history, who can explain the significance of the remaining rugged walls and carefully carved tunnels underneath.
“We will continue to develop the prison for visitors,” said Lieber, previously the museum’s educational director, who had hoped to expand it 15 years ago to create an educational space for children. Although that dream has yet to materialize, Lieber is delighted that the prison, with its layers of history, will give all visitors a better understanding of the past.
“It’s like a cake,” she said. “Showing all the layers of Jerusalem.”
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２．Algemeiner(http://www.algemeiner.com)
Poll: 49 Percent of Israelis Want Netanyahu to Remain Prime Minister , 6 January 2015
by Dave Bender
A Channel 1 poll released on Monday revealed that 49 percent of Israeli voters believe current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should keep his job, with 33 percent expressing a preference for Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog.
Herzog and former Hatnua Party chief Tzipi Livni have assembled a joint list, called the Zionist Camp, to run in the upcoming elections, set for March 17.
According to the poll of 1,500 people, the three top political parties are the Likud, with 25 mandates, the Zionist Camp with 24, and the Jewish Home, with 15, Israel’s NRG News reported.
A new Knesset Channel survey on Tuesday, meanwhile, showed the Likud Party leading with 24 seats over 23 for the Herzog-Livni alliance.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party’s share would rise to 12 seats, compared with 10 in a previous survey, while Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party would match the earlier survey’s 15 seats.
Among the ultra-Orthodox parties, the Shas party, despite sharp internal dissent, would win six seats, while Eli Yishai and his Am Itanu party would take only three seats, one below the threshold for entry into the 120-member Knesset. United Torah Judaism would win eight seats.
The results also showed that Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party would win eight seats, while Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, would win seven.
On the left side of the ledger, a joint Arab party would win 11 seats, and Meretz, six.
３．Tablet(http://tabletmag.com)
The Jews of the 114th Congress, 6 January 2015
Pew study finds Jewish members represent 5.2 percent of the incoming class
by Stephanie Butnick
The 114th U.S. Congress commences today, and the Pew Forum has published an in-depth survey of the religious makeup of the Senate and House of Representatives. It’s an interesting look at religion demographics across the country, and the ways in which elected officials do and don’t reflect their constituents. “Indeed, a regional comparison of members of Congress with the general public shows that, when it comes to religious affiliation, representatives often share their faith with many of their constituents,” the accompanying report states.
Yet the report also makes clear that in many some areas of the country, that correlation isn’t as clear: “For example, the West, like the Northeast, has a relatively high percentage of Jewish members of Congress (7%). However, the percentage of Jews among the West’s general population (1%) is similar to that of the South and Midwest, which have smaller Jewish contingents in Congress.”
According to the Pew data, Congress is 92 percent Christian (nine in 10 members); with 57 percent of members identifying as Protestant and 31 identifying as Catholic. Jews represent 5.3 percent of the Congressional body with 28 members (five fewer than in the 113th and 11 fewer than in the 112th). There are 19 Jews in the House of Representatives (4.4 percent), and nine in the Senate (nine percent).
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