Half a Pin on the Map of the World (October-November 2013)

Beit Avi Chai presents “Half a Pin on the Map of the World“: Key crossroads in the history of the Land of Israel and her neighbors in the Middle East spanning the last 4,000 years

Encompassing kingdoms and world powers, wars and alliances, victories and defeats, interests and betrayals, beginning in the second millennium BCE. In this special series of lectures and discussions, historians, archaeologists and media personalities will shed light on the main intersections and interesting historical corners in the geopolitics of the Middle East.

First session: Before Israel

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 7:30 PM

Canaan caught in-between world power: the international order in the ancient Near East in the second millennium BCE.

Prof. Yoram Cohen, Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv UniversityThis event will take place at the Bible Lands Museum

Second Session: The New Players

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 7:30 PM

The Israelites, Philistines, and the peoples of Transjordan against the background of the disintegration of the world order in the Middle East during in the early Iron Age (12th to 11th cen. BCE)Dr. Sharon Zuckerman, Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of JerusalemThis event will take place at the Bible Lands Museum

Third Session: The Great Empires of the First Millennium BCE

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7:30 PM

The role of Eretz Israel during the age of the Great Empires in the first millennium BCE: Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia

Prof. Israel Eph’al, Department of the History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Judaism, the Hebrew University of JerusalemThis event will take place at the Bible Lands Museum

Fourth Session: The Rise of the Roman Empire in Eretz Israel

Monday, Oct. 21, 7:30 PM

The rise of Rome in the Near East and the impact on Eretz IsraelDr. Guy Stiebel, Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.This event will take place at BEIT AVI CHAI

Fifth Session: Longing for the Holy LandMonday, Oct. 28, 7:30 PM

The battle in the Middle Ages by the Muslim and Christian powers over Eretz Israel.Dr. Eyal Meiron, Institute of Israel Studies, Yad Yitzhak Ben-ZviThis event will take place at BEIT AVI CHAI

Sixth Session: Tsunami in the Middle East: The Current CenturyMonday, Nov. 4, 7:30 PM

Unrest in the Middle East, new technologies, global food prices, and the roles and political influence of China, Russia and the United StatesOren Nahari, foreign news editor, Channel 1This event will take place at BEIT AVI CHAI

*At The Bible Lands Museum: Admission to the lectures is included in the Museum entrance price; sessions at BEIT AVI CHAI admission is free, subject to available space (free tickets available an hour prior to the program)

*This is a Hebrew-language only event.