Simcha Jacobovici

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article is related to a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
Simcha Jacobovici.
Simcha Jacobovici.

Simcha Jacobovici (IPA pronunciation: [sɪmxʌ jʌkobovɪtʃ]) is an award winning and controversial documentary director and producer whose work deals primarily with controversies in Jewish history. He co-authored with Charles R. Pellegrino the highly controversial The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History (2007), a companion book to the Discovery Channel documentary about the unearthing of the alleged tomb of Jesus Christ.

In addition to filmmaking, Jacobovici lectures and writes newspaper articles. Jacobovici is fluent in English, French, Hebrew and Romanian. Jacobovici has a B.A. with Honours in Philosophy and Political Science from McGill University and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto.

Simcha Jacobovici was born on April 4, 1953, in Petach Tikvah, Israel, 7 miles east of Tel Aviv. He grew up in Montreal, Canada.

From 1978-80, while a graduate student in Toronto, he was the chairperson of the North American Jewish Students' Network; founded and chaired Network Canada, the country's national union of Jewish students; founded the Canadian Universities Bureau of the Canadian Zionist Federation and served on the National Executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress. In 1978, he was invited to share the dais with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, when the latter emerged from Camp David to announce the historic peace accord with Egypt. In 1979, Simcha Jacobovici was president of the International Congress of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS). For his Zionist work on North American campuses, in 1980 he was awarded the Knesset Medal. During the same year, he served as special consultant on Nazi war criminals to the Solicitor General of Canada.

Simcha Jacobovici is also co-founder of the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews (1980) and Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (1985). From 1987-1993, he served on the executive committee of the Toronto Centre for Creative Arts Therapy. In 1993, he served on the Ontario Region Executive of the Organization for Educational Research and Technological Training (ORT). Since 1993, he has served as the president of the Riverdale Jewish Community Centre which he co-founded.


Contents

[edit] Filmography

Jacobovici's documentaries include:

Jacobovici also created and hosts the television program The Naked Archaeologist

[edit] Bibliography

Cover of The Jesus Family Tomb.
Cover of The Jesus Family Tomb.
  • The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History (with Charles R. Pellegrino)

[edit] Awards

Jacobovici was named Canada's Top Documentary Filmmaker by the Ryerson Review of Journalism. He has received a certificate of Special Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a Genie Award, a Gold Medal from the International Documentary Festival of Nyon, three U.S. Cable Ace Awards, two Gemini awards, an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award, a Silver Nymph from the Monte Carlo Festival, the Best Documentary from the Jerusalem International Film Festival and the 1995 and 1996 Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Investigative Journalism."

[edit] Criticism

Much criticism has focused on Jacobovici since the announcement of the release of his 2007 work with James Cameron. This included an article by David Warren, a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen who criticized Jacobovici’s work on The Lost Tomb of Christ as a “disgusting little exercise in money-making,” and calling Jacobovici “an appalling, disrespectful man”.[1] The article cited Amos Kloner, the first archeologist to examine the site where the ossuaries were taken, "They just want to get money for it. It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave. The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time." It also cited the film’s own archeologist Dr. Shimon Gibson who stated his own skepticism on Jacobovici's interpretation of the finds.[1] Kloner’s opposition has appeared in several media outlets who points out that Cameron and Jacobovici “are not archeologists” and calling their claims “impossible” and “nonsense.” [2] Archaeologists Joe Zias (of Rockefeller University in Jerusalem) said that “Simcha [Jacobovici] has no credibility whatsoever.”[2] Jacobovici’s critics also point to a 2006 episode of Jacobovici’s The Naked Archaaeologist were he defended the possibility that an ossuary found in 2002 actually belonged to “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” despite the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in 2003 condemning part of the inscription (not the name itself) as a modern addition added by a forger.[2] Christians and Messianic Jews both disagree with Jacobovici.

On an episode of the Naked Archaeologist an accredited archaeologist pointed out that Jacobovici's theory that an earthquake may have been responsible for the walls of Jericho falling was neither supported by the Bible nor any archaeological evidence. When Jacobovici persisted in his claim the archaeologist accused him of being a follower of the scientifically discredited Immanuel Velikovsky.

Jacobovici also drew significant amounts of criticism from historians and archaeologists for his controversial theories in the Exodus Decoded.

[edit] Notes and external links

  1. ^ a b David Warren. "Tomb raiders of the most appalling kind", Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 28, 2007. Retrieved on March 1, 2007
  2. ^ a b c ""Jesus' Tomb discovery is titanic fraud”", Catholic League, February 28,2007. Retrieved on March 1, 2007
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/i/m/Simcha_Jacobovici_75e6.html"