Presenters

TOARCH speakers include Jewish educators, archaeologists, scientists, historians, geographers and original thinkers. Here is our current list of available speakers.

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Jim Long

Documentarian, filmmaker, raconteur - and renowned Noahide, Jim has written, produced, and directed two archaeological films - Riddle of the Exodus and Treasures of the Copper Scroll.

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Barnea Selavan

Rabbi and archaeologist, Barnea wrote his MA thesis on the use of fat in antiquity and how it enabled brain development. Currently a PhD candidate at TAU in Archaeology. He presents on a wide variety of topics including Battles of the Maccabees and ancient Yavne.

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David Willner

Experienced in both formal and informal education, who did MA studies at LMU, and archaeology at Haifa U. Identified the second gate at Khirbet Qeiyafa in 2008. Producer of LandMinds and the developer of the TOARCH program.

Our Presenters

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Chaim ben David

Prof. Chaim Ben David is the Head of the MA program of the Land of Israel Studies in the Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee. He is teaching Land of Israel studies in the Kinneret College for the last 30 years and taught Land of Israel Studies in the Herzog College in Alon Shvut 20 years. He headed the excavations in the ancient synagogues Deir Aziz and Umm Qanatir on the Golan Heights.
His research interest includes ancient synagogues in Eretz Israel ancient roads in the Negev and Transjordan and the Galilee and the Golan in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
Chaim Ben David lives in Moshav Keshest in the Golan Heights. With his wife Hanna he has 7 children and 18 grandchildren.

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Bob Cargill

Assistant Professor of Classics and Religious Studies at The University of Iowa. He is a biblical studies scholar, classicist, archaeologist, author, and digital humanist. His research includes study in the Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, literarycriticism of the Bible and the Pseudepigrapha, and the Ancient Near East. He has appeared as an expert on numerous television documentaries and specials and is an advocate for social justice and public higher education. He previously worked and taught at UCLA.
Cargill was recently appointed editor of Biblical Archaeology Review.

TOPIC: Sensationalism in Archaeology

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Aaron Demsky

Aaron Demsky is a professor of biblical history and the founder of the Project for the Study of Jewish Names at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. He has published widely on Hebrew and Semitic epigraphy. His knowledge, gentle demeanour, and scholarship make him an outstanding presenter and addition to our team. Make sure you catch his presentation of the "Beit HaTekia".

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Norma Franklin

Dr. Norma Franklin is a field archaeologist who is happiest with complex stratigraphy. Other interests include ancient building techniques, water systems, and technology – old and new. Her research has focused on the three key cities of the Northern Kingdom of Israel: Samaria, Megiddo and Jezreel. On behalf of Tel Aviv University she excavated at Jezreel in 1990 and in 1992 became a founding member of the Megiddo Expedition, resigning in 2011 in order to launch the Jezreel Expedition. She is currently a Research Associate at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Israel and an Associate Fellow of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

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Steven Fine

Steven Fine (born 1958), historian of Judaism in the Greco-Roman World, is the Dr. Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University. He is the director of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project and of the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies. Fine is a founding editor of Images: A Journal of Jewish Art and Visual Culture.

Education
Ph.D, Jewish History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1993; MA, Art History and Museum Studies, University of Southern California, 1984); BA in Religious Studies (Jewish Studies emphasis), University of California, Santa Barbara (1979).

Thought and approaches
A cultural historian, Fine's research focuses on relationships between the literature of ancient Judaism, art and archaeology. Fine’s blend of history, rabbinic literature, archaeology and art, together with deep engagement with historiography and contemporary culture, is expressed in a broad range of publications.[1] He is the author of academic monographs, museum catalogs, over seventy academic articles and even a book for children.

Chaim Ben David
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Prof. Chaim Ben David is the Head of the MA program of the Land of Israel Studies in the Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee. He is teaching Land of Israel studies in the Kinneret College for the last 30 years and taught Land of Israel Studies in the Herzog College in Alon Shvut 20 years. He headed the excavations in the ancient synagogues Deir Aziz and Umm Qanatir on the Golan Heights.
His research interest includes ancient synagogues in Eretz Israel ancient roads in the Negev and Transjordan and the Galilee and the Golan in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
Chaim Ben David lives in Moshav Keshest in the Golan Heights. With his wife Hanna he has 7 children and 18 grandchildren.

Steven Fine
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Steven Fine (born 1958), historian of Judaism in the Greco-Roman World, is the Dr. Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University. He is the director of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project and of the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies. Fine is a founding editor of Images: A Journal of Jewish Art and Visual Culture.

Education
Ph.D, Jewish History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1993; MA, Art History and Museum Studies, University of Southern California, 1984); BA in Religious Studies (Jewish Studies emphasis), University of California, Santa Barbara (1979).

Thought and approaches
A cultural historian, Fine's research focuses on relationships between the literature of ancient Judaism, art and archaeology. Fine’s blend of history, rabbinic literature, archaeology and art, together with deep engagement with historiography and contemporary culture, is expressed in a broad range of publications.[1] He is the author of academic monographs, museum catalogs, over seventy academic articles and even a book for children.

Yuval Gadot
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Is a research archaeologist at the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. Obtained his PhD 2004 on the “Continuity and change: the transition between the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Israel central coastal plain”. The work included the first full publication of the excavations at Tel Aphek (see Aphek-Antipatris II) and a regional study of trends in the material culture as they understood in relation to historical Yuval is Currently directing and co-directing a number of field excavations and publication projects and he is the archaeological director of the 'Reconstructing Ancient Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective (Funded by the European Research Council). Current Projects Exploring Ancient Jerusalem: Excavations in Areas D3  The Valley of the King Project: Jerusalem's Rural Hinterland during the Iron, Persian and Early Hellenistic Period: Excavation and Publication Project The Lautenschlager Azekah Expedition The Ramat Rahel Expedition Reconstructing Ancient (Biblical) Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective Field of Interest The Archaeology of Jerusalem Landscape Archaeology Environmental Archaeology Archaeology of the Late Bronze and Iron Ages Micro Archaeology and Macro History Archaeology and the Public

Aaron Demsky
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Steven Fine (born 1958), historian of Judaism in the Greco-Roman World, is the Dr. Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University. He is the director of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project and of the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies. Fine is a founding editor of Images: A Journal of Jewish Art and Visual Culture.

Education
Ph.D, Jewish History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1993; MA, Art History and Museum Studies, University of Southern California, 1984); BA in Religious Studies (Jewish Studies emphasis), University of California, Santa Barbara (1979).

Thought and approaches
A cultural historian, Fine's research focuses on relationships between the literature of ancient Judaism, art and archaeology. Fine’s blend of history, rabbinic literature, archaeology and art, together with deep engagement with historiography and contemporary culture, is expressed in a broad range of publications.[1] He is the author of academic monographs, museum catalogs, over seventy academic articles and even a book for children.

* Partial list of speakers from both past and upcoming programs. The 2021 program will be finalised at a later date.

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