First Person: My Sulkha with Shuka

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Longtime BAR readers and even more recent ones are familiar with the fact that the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Shuka Dorfman, has refused to speak to me since 2002—now more than seven years.^a My efforts at reconciliation have been rebuffed. But I have never ceased trying.

Last December I called Shuka’s office and left him a message: I am going to be 80 years old, the message said, and I would like you to give me a birthday present—shake my hand. You don’t have to speak to me, just shake my hand.

The next day the phone rang. I picked it up, and the voice on the other end said, “This is Shuka Dorfman.”

“Shuka!” I exclaimed. I could hardly believe it.

“Let’s make shalom, peace,” he said. “I have no hard feelings.”

I welcomed the gesture and said that I would come to Jerusalem and we would have a sulkha, which is Arabic for a peace dinner.

On January 12, 2010, Shuka and I had dinner together in Jerusalem, just the two of us. The first rule of a sulkha is that you don’t talk about the past. The focus is on the present and the future. We both observed this rule. Shuka was warm, friendly and engaging. We talked about specific ways we could work together. We talked about the changes in archaeology. We talked about publications that are coming out. We talked about our families. I found Shuka to be direct, but in his own way charming for all that. And the food at “Olive Fish Restaurant” was excellent. (I will spare you the details of what we ordered.)

We also talked about the extraordinary “campus” the IAA has broken ground for next to the Israel Museum. The IAA campus is going to be a unique structure designed by famed Israeli architect Moshe Safdie.^b The construction hole won’t be completed until the end of the year; they are going to go down eight stories. The whole thing won’t be completed until 2016—too late for a possible Biblical 072archaeology congress in Jerusalem in 2013 to mark the centennial of the Israel Exploration Society.

The archaeological find that was creating a stir at that moment was a block of stone uncovered in a first-century synagogue in Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene. The stone’s function is unclear. It may be a reading stand. It is decorated on all sides and has four stumpy legs. On one side is a carved menorah, a seven-branched candelabra.

Just two days before our dinner, the stone artifact had been brought from Galilee to the IAA stores in Jerusalem for both safety and conservation. Shuka invited me to come to the Rockefeller Museum the next day to see it in the conservation lab. It is quite amazing. There is really nothing to compare it to.

A few days later, I drove to Magdala, where IAA archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gurni, who excavated the synagogue, gave me a tour of the site. The synagogue also features the remains of some very early mosaics and fragments of colorful frescoes. Dina will be writing an article on the synagogue when she puts all the pieces of the complicated excavation together.

My dinner with Shuka marked the beginning of a new chapter in the relationship between BAR and the IAA. We look forward to working together.