Elisha Linder, one of the founding fathers of maritime archaeology in Israel and a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa, died on June 8, a few days before his 85th birthday.
Linder was responsible for initiating the establishment of the Association for Underwater Research in Israel, as well as the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies and the department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa. He directed excavations at nearly all of the underwater sites in Israel—Acre, Atlit, Caesarea, Ashdod, Shavei Tzion and the Coral Reef—as well as some abroad.
One of his most important projects surfaced in 1985 20 miles south of Haifa, off the shores of Kibbutz Ma’agen Micha’el, where he had lived since 1955. A member of the kibbutz happened upon an ancient shipwreck while diving in the shallow waters just off the coast and alerted the authorities. A team, headed by Linder, undertook the study, excavation, conservation and reconstruction of the ship—an extremely well preserved merchantman from around 400 B.C.—which filled an important gap in knowledge about seafaring of that time period.a The reconstructed hull of the ship was put on display at the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa.
After studying Biblical history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Linder earned his master’s degree at Columbia University and then completed his doctorate at Brandeis University. In the course of his career, he was awarded several prizes in recognition of his contributions to underwater archaeology, including Italy’s Franco Papo prize and the Dioscuri prize, as well as the Israel and Bible Lands Percia Schimmel Award from the Israel Museum.
Moshe Weinfeld (1925–2009)
On April 29, 2009, Moshe Weinfeld, professor emeritus of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, passed away. He was 84 years old.
His scholarly interests varied widely—from social justice ideology in ancient Israel to the perception of the inheritance of the Land of Israel and from the social structure of the Qumran sect to ancient Jewish liturgy.
Perhaps his greatest influence, however, was on Deuteronomistic studies. His book Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (1972), based on his doctoral dissertation, is now considered a classic reference work. In one of the several articles he wrote for BAR’s sister magazine Bible Review (of which he was also a member of the editorial advisory board), Weinfeld remarked that “Deuteronomy marks a turning point in Israelite religion. It is not too much to call it a theological revolution.”b
Weinfeld was born in Poland in 1925 and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1947. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as his Ph.D., at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he then spent his career teaching.
Weinfeld was the founding editor of the Hebrew journal Shnaton: Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies until his retirement in 1993.
That same year he won the Ben Zvi Prize for the History of the Land of Israel for his book From Joshua to Josiah (Magnes Press, 1991), and in 1994 he was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for Biblical Research.
Elisha Linder (1924–2009)
Elisha Linder, one of the founding fathers of maritime archaeology in Israel and a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa, died on June 8, a few days before his 85th birthday.
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