Simcha Jacobovici
Encyclopedia
Simcha Jacobovici is a Canadian
film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three-times Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.
He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from McGill University
and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto
. He hosts the The Naked Archaeologist
on VisionTV in Canada and The History Channel
in the United States.
, Israel
to Romanian-born Jewish parents, Joseph and Ida, who had moved to Israel after surviving the Holocaust
. In 1962, when he was nine years old, the family moved to Montreal, Canada, where his father had been offered an engineering contract.
Jacobovici is an Orthodox Jew. He is married to Nicole Kornberg and has four girls and one boy.
From 1978-80, while a graduate student in Toronto, he was the chairperson of the North American Jewish Students' Network. He founded and chaired Network Canada, the country's national union of Jewish students, and founded the Canadian Universities Bureau of the Canadian Zionist Federation. He also served on the National Executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress
.
In 1979, Simcha Jacobovici was president of the International Congress of the World Union of Jewish Students
(WUJS). For his Zionist work on North American campuses, in 1980 he was awarded the Knesset Medal. During the same year, he served as special consultant on Nazi war criminals to the Solicitor General of Canada
.
Simcha Jacobovici is also co-founder of the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews (CAEJ) in 1980, and the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief in 1985. From 1987-1993, he served on the executive committee of the Toronto Centre for Creative Arts Therapy. In 1993, he served on the Ontario Region Executive of the Organization for Educational Research and Technological Training (ORT). Since 1993, he has served as the president of the Riverdale
Jewish Community Centre which he co-founded.
, the Falasha were evacuated from Sudan
during a famine in 1984 and airlifted to Israel.
-allied Romania
to British-controlled Palestine during World War II
. On February 23, 1942, with its engine inoperable and its refugee passengers aboard, Turkish
authorities towed the ship from Istanbul
harbor through the Bosphorus out to the Black Sea
, where they abandoned it without food, water, or fuel. Within hours, in the morning of February 24, it was torpedo
ed and sunk by the Soviet
submarine
Shch 213, killing 768 men, women and children, with only one survivor, a 19 year old man, making it the largest exclusively civilian naval disaster of the war.
The movie won the Audience Award Portland International Film Festival as best documentary.
created by Jacobovici and the producer/director James Cameron
. The documentary explores evidence for the Biblical account of the Exodus
. Its claims and methods were widely criticized both by Biblical scholars and by mainstream scientists.
Jacobovici suggests that the Exodus took place around 1500 BC, during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I
, and that it coincided with the Minoan eruption. In the documentary, the plagues that ravaged Egypt
in the Bible are explained as having resulted from that eruption and a related limnic eruption
in the Nile Delta
. While much of Jacobovici's archaeological evidence for the Exodus comes from Egypt, some comes from Mycenae
on mainland Greece, such as a gold ornament that somewhat resembles the Ark of the Covenant
.
The documentary makes extensive use of computer animation and visual effects made by Gravity Visual Effects, Inc., based in Toronto
. It runs for 90 minutes and was first aired in Canada
on April 16, (Easter Day) 2006 (Discovery Channel Canada
). Shown in the US
on August 20, 2006 (History Channel US), UK
on December 23, 2006 (Discovery Channel UK
) and Spain
on December 25, 2006 (Cuatro).
Bryant G. Wood
, a Young Earth creationist
, criticizes The Exodus Decoded, saying that "Jacobovici does more harm than good since he mishandles the archaeological evidence, hence providing fuel to skeptics who wish to undermine the Exodus." In an episode of The Naked Archaeologist, Carl Ehrlich, a biblical historian at York University, Toronto, noted that Jacobovici's hypothesis that an earthquake may have been responsible for the collapse of the walls of Jericho requires inserting an earthquake into the Biblical narrative. Consequently, Ehrlich labels Jacobovici a Velikovskian
.
is a documentary
co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel
and Vision TV
in Canada
on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb
. It was directed by Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric Esther Bienstock, while James Cameron
served as executive producer. The film was released in conjunction with a book about the same subject, The Jesus Family Tomb
, issued in late February 2007 and co-authored by Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino
. The documentary and book's claims are the subject of controversy within the archaeological and theological fields, as well as among linguistic and biblical scholars.
Jacobovici argues that the bones of Jesus
, Mary
and Mary Magdalene
, along with some of their relatives, were once entombed in this cave, working with statistician
s, archaeologists, historians, DNA
experts, robot-camera technicians, epigraphers
and a forensic expert to argue his case. This claim is rejected by most biblical scholars of archaeology.
Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner, who was among the first to examine the tomb when it was first discovered, said the names marked on the coffins were very common at the time. "I don't accept the news that it was used by Jesus or his family," he told the BBC News website. "The documentary filmmakers are using it to sell their film."
A symposium at Princeton University
in January 2008 reignited media interest in the Talpiot tomb
. Time magazine covered the event as a re-opening of the argument about the tomb. "I feel vindicated," Jacobovici told Time. "It's moved from 'it can't be the Jesus' family tomb' to 'it could be.'"
Geza Vermes
issued a statement saying that the arguments for the Talpiot tomb are not "just unconvincing but insignificant." Vermes added, "[d]iscounting 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."
is a television show produced for VisionTV in Canada
and History International
in the US that is hosted and prepared by Jacobovici together with Avri Gilad
. The show ultimately reviews Biblical
stories, then tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land
looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts. Subsequent to its original run on VisionTV, it was picked up in the U.S. by The History Channel
and its sister network, History International
.
The episode "A Nabatean by Any Other Name" won the Special Jury Prize at the 8th International Archaeological Film Festival in Brussels.
in which he claimed that Atlantis has been found in Spain, and has said that evidence found by Hartford University Professor Richard Freund includes the unearthed emblem of Atlantis, and the biblical angle that has been largely overlooked.
People of Canada
Canadians are the people who are identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be genetic, residential, legal, historical, cultural or ethnic...
film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three-times Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.
He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. He hosts the The Naked Archaeologist
The Naked Archaeologist
The Naked Archaeologist is a television show produced for VisionTV in Canada and History International in the US that is hosted and prepared by the Emmy Award–winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici together with Avri Gilad...
on VisionTV in Canada and The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
in the United States.
Biography
Jacobovici was born in Petah TikvaPetah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
to Romanian-born Jewish parents, Joseph and Ida, who had moved to Israel after surviving the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. In 1962, when he was nine years old, the family moved to Montreal, Canada, where his father had been offered an engineering contract.
Jacobovici is an Orthodox Jew. He is married to Nicole Kornberg and has four girls and one boy.
From 1978-80, while a graduate student in Toronto, he was the chairperson of the North American Jewish Students' Network. He founded and chaired Network Canada, the country's national union of Jewish students, and founded the Canadian Universities Bureau of the Canadian Zionist Federation. He also served on the National Executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress
Canadian Jewish Congress
The Canadian Jewish Congress was one of the main lobby groups for the Jewish community in the country, although it often competed with the more conservative B'nai Brith Canada in that regard. At its dissolution, the president of the CJC was Mark Freiman. Its past co-presidents were Sylvain Abitbol...
.
In 1979, Simcha Jacobovici was president of the International Congress of the World Union of Jewish Students
World Union of Jewish Students
The World Union of Jewish Students is the international, pluralistic, non-partisan umbrella organisation of 48 national independent Jewish Student Unions from all over the world, founded in 1924, with Albert Einstein as its first President...
(WUJS). For his Zionist work on North American campuses, in 1980 he was awarded the Knesset Medal. During the same year, he served as special consultant on Nazi war criminals to the Solicitor General of Canada
Solicitor General of Canada
The Solicitor General of Canada was a position in the Canadian ministry from 1892 to 2005. The position was based on the Solicitor General in the British system and was originally designated as an officer to assist the Minister of Justice...
.
Simcha Jacobovici is also co-founder of the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews (CAEJ) in 1980, and the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief in 1985. From 1987-1993, he served on the executive committee of the Toronto Centre for Creative Arts Therapy. In 1993, he served on the Ontario Region Executive of the Organization for Educational Research and Technological Training (ORT). Since 1993, he has served as the president of the Riverdale
Riverdale
-Places:United States*Riverdale, California, in Fresno County*Riverdale, Mendocino County, California*Riverdale, Georgia*Riverdale, Chicago, Illinois*Riverdale, Illinois, in Cook County*Riverdale, Iowa*Riverdale, Anne Arundel County, Maryland...
Jewish Community Centre which he co-founded.
Filmography
Jacobovici's films include:- Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews
- Deadly Currents
- Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies & the American Dream
- Quest for the Lost TribesTen Lost TribesThe Ten Lost Tribes of Israel refers to those tribes of ancient Israel that formed the Kingdom of Israel and which disappeared from Biblical and all other historical accounts after the kingdom was destroyed in about 720 BC by ancient Assyria...
- The Struma
- James, Brother of Jesus?
- Impact of Terror
- Sex Slaves
- The Exodus DecodedExodus DecodedThe Exodus Decoded is a 2006 History Channel documentary created by Israeli-Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and the producer/director James Cameron. The documentary explores evidence for the Biblical account of the Exodus...
- The Lost Tomb of JesusThe Lost Tomb of JesusThe Lost Tomb of Jesus is a documentary co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Canadian documentary and film maker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric...
, also co-wrote with Dr. Charles Pellegrino its companion book The Jesus Family Tomb (Harper Collins 2007). - Charging the Rhino
- Beasts of the Bible (2010)
Awards
- Gold Medal, Visions du réelVisions du réelVisions du Réel is an international documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current name in 1995....
documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland. - Certificate of Special Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
in Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants... - Genie AwardGenie AwardGenie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
- U.S. Cable Ace Award (three times)
- Canadian Gemini AwardGemini AwardThe Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
(twice) - Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award
- Broadcast Award (UK)
- Royal Television SocietyRoyal Television SocietyThe Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Award - Edward R. Murrow AwardEdward Murrow Award (OPC)The Edward Murrow Award is a journalism award given by the Overseas Press Club of America annually since 1978, for "Best TV interpretation or documentary on international affairs."- External links :*...
from the Overseas Press ClubOverseas Press ClubThe Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
(US) - Emmy for "Outstanding Investigative Journalism" three times (1996, 1997 and 2007)
Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews
In the 1983 documentary, Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews, Jacobovici tells the story of Ethiopian Jews, also called Falasha (strangers). According to the documentary, the group was conquered by neighboring tribes in the 17th century and suffered persecution. After the movie, during the Israeli Operation MosesOperation Moses
Operation Moses refers to the covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan during a famine in 1984...
, the Falasha were evacuated from Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
during a famine in 1984 and airlifted to Israel.
The Struma
The 2002 documentary The Struma, directed by Jacobovici, tells the story of the Struma, a ship chartered to carry Jewish refugees from AxisAxis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
-allied Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
to British-controlled Palestine during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. On February 23, 1942, with its engine inoperable and its refugee passengers aboard, Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
authorities towed the ship from Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
harbor through the Bosphorus out to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, where they abandoned it without food, water, or fuel. Within hours, in the morning of February 24, it was torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
ed and sunk by the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
Shch 213, killing 768 men, women and children, with only one survivor, a 19 year old man, making it the largest exclusively civilian naval disaster of the war.
The movie won the Audience Award Portland International Film Festival as best documentary.
Impact of Terror
Impact of Terror, produced by Jacobovici and directed by Tim Wolochatiuk, is a 2004 documentary about Israeli victims of terrorism struggling to cope in the aftermath of the August 2001 Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem.The Exodus Decoded
The Exodus Decoded is a 2006 History Channel documentaryDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
created by Jacobovici and the producer/director James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
. The documentary explores evidence for the Biblical account of the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
. Its claims and methods were widely criticized both by Biblical scholars and by mainstream scientists.
Jacobovici suggests that the Exodus took place around 1500 BC, during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I
Ahmose I
Ahmose I was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Eighteenth dynasty. He was a member of the Theban royal house, the son of pharaoh Tao II Seqenenre and brother of the last pharaoh of the Seventeenth dynasty, King Kamose...
, and that it coincided with the Minoan eruption. In the documentary, the plagues that ravaged Egypt
Plagues of Egypt
The Plagues of Egypt , also called the Ten Plagues or the Biblical Plagues, were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel's God, Yahweh, inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth...
in the Bible are explained as having resulted from that eruption and a related limnic eruption
Limnic eruption
A limnic eruption, also referred to as a lake overturn, is a rare type of natural disaster in which carbon dioxide suddenly erupts from deep lake water, suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the rising CO2 displaces water. Scientists...
in the Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
. While much of Jacobovici's archaeological evidence for the Exodus comes from Egypt, some comes from Mycenae
Mycenae
Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north...
on mainland Greece, such as a gold ornament that somewhat resembles the Ark of the Covenant
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
.
The documentary makes extensive use of computer animation and visual effects made by Gravity Visual Effects, Inc., based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. It runs for 90 minutes and was first aired in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on April 16, (Easter Day) 2006 (Discovery Channel Canada
Discovery Channel Canada
Discovery Channel is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel devoted to nature, adventure, science and technology programming. Discovery Channel is currently owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc...
). Shown in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on August 20, 2006 (History Channel US), UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on December 23, 2006 (Discovery Channel UK
Discovery Channel UK
Discovery Channel operated by Discovery Networks Western Europe produces an English speaking channel which targets the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel's programming is based on programming produced by Discovery Networks Europe, Discovery Channel Canada and Discovery Channel from the US.It...
) and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
on December 25, 2006 (Cuatro).
Bryant G. Wood
Bryant G. Wood
Bryant G. Wood is a Young Earth creationist and biblical archaeologist and Research Director of the inerrantist Associates for Biblical Research. He is known for his 1990 proposed redating of the destruction of Jericho to accord with the biblical chronology of c. 1400 BC. The proposal was later ...
, a Young Earth creationist
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
, criticizes The Exodus Decoded, saying that "Jacobovici does more harm than good since he mishandles the archaeological evidence, hence providing fuel to skeptics who wish to undermine the Exodus." In an episode of The Naked Archaeologist, Carl Ehrlich, a biblical historian at York University, Toronto, noted that Jacobovici's hypothesis that an earthquake may have been responsible for the collapse of the walls of Jericho requires inserting an earthquake into the Biblical narrative. Consequently, Ehrlich labels Jacobovici a Velikovskian
Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky was a Russian-born American independent scholar of Jewish origins, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950...
.
The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Lost Tomb of JesusThe Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a documentary co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Canadian documentary and film maker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric...
is a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
and Vision TV
Vision TV
VisionTV is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that broadcasts multi-faith, multicultural, and general entertainment programming aimed at the 45 and over demographic....
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb
Talpiot Tomb
The Talpiot Tomb is a rock-cut tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighborhood, five kilometers south of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It contained ten ossuaries, six of them with epigraphs, including one with the inscription that has been interpreted as "Jesus, son of Joseph", though...
. It was directed by Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric Esther Bienstock, while James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
served as executive producer. The film was released in conjunction with a book about the same subject, The Jesus Family Tomb
The Jesus Family Tomb
The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History is a controversial book by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino published in February 2007...
, issued in late February 2007 and co-authored by Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino
Charles R. Pellegrino
Charles R. Pellegrino is the controversial author of several books relating to science and archaeology, including Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, Ghosts of the Titanic, Unearthing Atlantis and Ghosts of Vesuvius....
. The documentary and book's claims are the subject of controversy within the archaeological and theological fields, as well as among linguistic and biblical scholars.
Jacobovici argues that the bones of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
and Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
, along with some of their relatives, were once entombed in this cave, working with statistician
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
s, archaeologists, historians, DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
experts, robot-camera technicians, epigraphers
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
and a forensic expert to argue his case. This claim is rejected by most biblical scholars of archaeology.
Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner, who was among the first to examine the tomb when it was first discovered, said the names marked on the coffins were very common at the time. "I don't accept the news that it was used by Jesus or his family," he told the BBC News website. "The documentary filmmakers are using it to sell their film."
A symposium at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in January 2008 reignited media interest in the Talpiot tomb
Talpiot Tomb
The Talpiot Tomb is a rock-cut tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighborhood, five kilometers south of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It contained ten ossuaries, six of them with epigraphs, including one with the inscription that has been interpreted as "Jesus, son of Joseph", though...
. Time magazine covered the event as a re-opening of the argument about the tomb. "I feel vindicated," Jacobovici told Time. "It's moved from 'it can't be the Jesus' family tomb' to 'it could be.'"
Geza Vermes
Geza Vermes
Géza Vermes or Vermès is a British scholar of Jewish Hungarian origin and writer on religious history, particularly Jewish and Christian. He is a noted authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient works in Aramaic, and on the life and religion of Jesus...
issued a statement saying that the arguments for the Talpiot tomb are not "just unconvincing but insignificant." Vermes added, "[d]iscounting 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."
The Naked Archaeologist
The Naked ArchaeologistThe Naked Archaeologist
The Naked Archaeologist is a television show produced for VisionTV in Canada and History International in the US that is hosted and prepared by the Emmy Award–winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici together with Avri Gilad...
is a television show produced for VisionTV in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and History International
History International
H2 , formerly History International , is a digital cable and satellite television channel that features historical documentaries, traditionally with an international focus...
in the US that is hosted and prepared by Jacobovici together with Avri Gilad
Avri Gilad
Avri Gilad is an Israeli media personality.Gilad was born Avraham Kwastler; he changed his name to "Avri Gilad" when he started his professional career in the mid-1980s in the Israel Defense Forces Radio...
. The show ultimately reviews Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
stories, then tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts. Subsequent to its original run on VisionTV, it was picked up in the U.S. by The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
and its sister network, History International
History International
H2 , formerly History International , is a digital cable and satellite television channel that features historical documentaries, traditionally with an international focus...
.
The episode "A Nabatean by Any Other Name" won the Special Jury Prize at the 8th International Archaeological Film Festival in Brussels.
Finding Atlantis
Jacobovici was involved in the production of a documentary shown in March 2010 on the National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
in which he claimed that Atlantis has been found in Spain, and has said that evidence found by Hartford University Professor Richard Freund includes the unearthed emblem of Atlantis, and the biblical angle that has been largely overlooked.