Simcha Jacobovici

Simcha Jacobovici (Template:PronEng) (born April 4, 1953 in Petah Tikva) is an Israeli-born Canadian award-winning, controversial film director and producer. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from McGill University and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto. He currently hosts the The Naked Archaeologist on VisionTV in Canada and The History Channel in the U.S.

Filmography

Jacobovici's films include:

• James, Brother of Jesus?
• The Exodus Decoded
• Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews
• Deadly Currents
• Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies & the American Dream
• Quest for the Lost Tribes
• The Struma
• The Lost Tomb of Jesus
• Charging the Rhino

Misleading Media Controversy

There are a lot of complaints and accusations raised by archaelogists and biblical scholars against Jacobovici's claims ranging from "controversial claims" up to accusing him of "falsifying facts", especially in The Exodus Decoded . Jacobovici and Cameron's "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" presented the theory that the Talpiot tomb was the burial place of Jesus' family. The heart of Jacobovici's theory is that while Jesus, Joseph and other names found in the tomb were common names in Jesus' time, the probability of finding the particular combination of names found there pointed to the possibility that this was, in fact, Jesus' family tomb.

This theory has been widely denounced by biblical scholars.

A symposium at Princeton in January 2008 reignited media interest in the Talpiot tomb, with notably Time and CNN devoting extensive coverage, hailing the case as being re-opened. "I feel vindicated," Jacobovici told TIME. "It's moved from 'it can't be the Jesus' family tomb' to 'it could be.' "

After three days of vigorous debate, the panel remained deeply divided. Opinions ranged from 'definitely yes' to 'impossible'.

Some scholars present at the symposium accused Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron of misleading the media by claiming that the symposium bolstered the viability of their theory. Several scholars, including all of the archaeologists and epigraphers, who had delivered papers at the symposium issued an open letter of complaint at what they viewed as misrepresentation, saying that Jacobovici and Cameron's claims of support from the symposium are 'nothing further from the truth'.

The list of scholars who signed the open letter's criticism included:

• Professor Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Professor Eric M. Meyers, Duke University
• Choon-Leon Seow, Princeton Theological Seminary
• F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Princeton Theological Seminary
• Lee McDonald, Princeton Theological Seminary, visiting
• Rachel Hachlili, Haifa University
• Motti Aviam, University of Rochester
• Amos Kloner, Bar Ilan University
• Christopher Rollston, Emmanuel School of Religion
• Shimon Gibson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Joe Zias, Science and Antiquity Group, Jerusalem
• Jonathan Price, Tel Aviv University
• C.D. Elledge, Gustavus Adolphus College

Joe Zias, Senior Curator of Archaeology/Anthropology for the Israel Antiquities Authority 1972-1997, cited a leaked memo issued from James Tabor before the symposium as proof of 'outside intervention by Jacobovici and Cameron in order to distort the agenda and skew the proceedings in a way that was favorable to their pre-conceived plan'. Geza Vermes issued a statement saying that the arguments for the Talpiot tomb are not 'just unconvincing but insignificant'. That "Discounting a handful, headed by James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici, the maker of the documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, most of the fifty or so participants shared this opinion"

Princeton Theological Seminary issued a letter following the controversy and reiterated concerns that:

"the press following the symposium gave almost the exact opposite impression (of the symposium's results), stating, instead, that the conference proceedings gave credence to the identification of the Talpiot tomb with a putative family tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. As is abundantly clear from the statements to the contrary that have been issued since the symposium by many of the participants, such representations are patently false and blatantly misrepresent the spirit and scholarly content of the deliberations."

Jacobovici has also theorized that the graves found in Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann belonged to runaway Jews. In particular, he claimed that one of the artifacts found at the site had a visual depiction of the Ark of the Covenant. According to Michael Wood in "In Search of the Trojan War," the graves were 1000 years older than the Trojan War and would, therefore, be about 750-800 years older than the Exodus. Additionally Jacobovici doesn't take his argument further than the supposed visual depiction of the Ark on the artifact. In short Jacobovici's claim is highly conjectural and has less validity than Schliemann's that one of the graves belonged to Agamemnon.

Personal life

Simcha is an Orthodox Jew. He is married to Nicole Kornberg and has 3 girls and a boy.

Awards

A Gold Medal from the International Documentary Festival of Nyon, a certificate of Special Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, a Canadian Genie Award, three U.S. Cable Ace Awards, two Canadian Gemini Awards, an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award, a British Broadcast Award, a Royal Television Society Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award. Jacobovici has also won the Emmy for "Outstanding Investigative Journalism" three times (1996, 1997 and 2007).

Bibliography

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

External links

• Simcha Jacobovici at IMDb
• Official Site for The Lost Tomb of Jesus
• Simcha Jacobovici Interview