Thank G-d for our brave young men; may G-d bless them and their holy work.

Contributed by Jack.

September 11 World News: Menorah Depiction from Second Temple found in the Galilee; Eat your Heart out, Muslims, "palestinians", Rome, and other related entities!

First-Ever Find: Temple Menorah Relief by Jewish Eyewitness

Elul 22, 5769, 11 September 09 10:42

by Gil Ronen

(Israelnationalnews.com) The Israel Antiquities Authority has uncovered one of the world's oldest synagogues in an excavation at Migdal, near the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). Inside the synagogue, a stone relief contains a depiction of the seven branched Menorah which stood in the Temple, and which was most likely seen by the artist who sculpted the stone relief.
Known depictions of the Menorah from Second Temple times include the famous relief of Titus's Arch in Rome, which shows Roman soldiers taking it away after destroying the Temple, and depictions on contemporary coins as well as graffiti etched into stone in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter. However, the new find is said to be the first which includes a relief etched by an artist contemporary with the Temple. 

The Menorah relief. (Israel Antiquities Authority, Moshe Hartal)
The synagogue has been dated to the years 50 BCE – 100 CE. The rectangular stone bearing the Menorah relief stands inside its central chamber. The chamber is about 120 square meters in size and stone benches line its sides.
The decorated stone depicts amphorae (earthenware vessels) on both sides of the Menorah and bears additional decorative motifs on its four sides and its top. %ad%
The floor of the synagogue was adorned with a mosaic and its walls were covered with a colorful fresco.
The dig was conducted by Dina Avshalom-Gorni and Arfan Najer of the Antiquities Authority. According to Gorni, the find is "unique and exciting."

Aerial view of synagogue (picture by SkyView)
"This is the first time that a Menorah decoration is discovered from the days in which the Temple still stood," she said. "It is the first Menorah that is discovered in a Jewish context, which is dated to Second Temple times – the early Roman period. We can estimate that the inscription that appears on the stone... was made by an artist who saw the seven-branched Menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue joins only six synagogues known in the world from Second Temple times."
The dig was conducted on land owned by a company which intends to build a hotel on the property.
Ancient Migdal – or Migdala, in Aramaic – was mentioned in Jewish sources and served as one of the central bases for forces under the command of Josephus Flavius (Yosef Ben Matityahu), who commanded the Galilee rebellion but later crossed over to the Roman camp. Resistance at Migdal continued after Tiberias and the rest of the Galilee had surrendered.
Migdal is also mentioned in the Christian "New Testament" as the place where Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala, came from.
In late Second Temple times the town was an administrative center of the western Sea of Galilee area. Until the establishment of Tiberias in the year 19 CE, it was the central town on the coast of the Sea of Galilee.
The site will be open to visitors in the future.

Archaeologists find early menorah depiction

By AMY TEIBEL,  Associated Press Writer 47 mins ago

JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday.
The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee.
Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah was kept, said archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The artist might have seen the menorah during a pilgrimage and then recreated it in the synagogue, she suggested.
A small number of depictions of the menorah have surfaced from the same period, she said, but this one was unique because it was inside a synagogue and far from Jerusalem, illustrating the link between Jews around Jerusalem and in the Galilee to the north.
The menorah, depicted atop a pedestal with a triangular base, is carved on a stone which was placed in the synagogue's central hall.
The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman legions in 70 A.D.. The Arch of Titus in Rome, erected to mark the Roman victory, depicts troops carrying the menorah from Jerusalem to symbolize the defeat of the Jews. The menorah became a Jewish symbol and is featured today on Israel's official emblem.
Most other depictions of the menorah were made only after the temple's destruction, and if this finding is indeed earlier it could be closer to the original, said Aren Maeir, an archaeology professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
"If you have a depiction of the menorah from the time of the temple, chances are it is more accurate and portrays the actual object than portrayals from after the destruction of the temple, when it was not existent," he said.
The ancient prayer house was discovered in the town of Migdal, usually identified as the birthplace of the New Testament's Mary Magdalene, whose name is thought to be based on the town's.

It is called CHUTZPAH in Hebrew: this Hussein Obama thinks he can do what he wants. But he is NO PROPHET, and HE WILL FAIL MISERABLY, G-d willing.

New Outpost Named “Obama Hilltop”
Sivan 13, 5769, 05 June 09 12:34
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Jewish youths in Judea and Samaria, refusing to accept Obama’s “no Jews” decree, have built yet another neighborhood outpost – and named it “Obama Hilltop.”

The few against the mighty? With U.S. President Barack Obama having told billions of people across the world that a Palestinian state will happen, and that Jews have few if any rights in Judea and Samaria, several dozen Jewish youths in Israel continue to build more outpost neighborhoods in those very areas.

When Israel’s armed forces come to raze the structures, the youths rebuild them once more.

Ramat Migron, Pnei Shilo
This pattern has repeated itself several times just this week. On Tuesday, youths who had been thrown out of Ramat Migron – outside Migron, north of Jerusalem – set up camp in an abandoned army base near Shilo. Army forces arrived the next day on the scene, named Pnei Shilo, and destroyed the lone wooden hut. The youths say they will return – or rebuild somewhere else.

Shvut Ami, Maoz Esther
In Shvut Ami, just west of Kedumim, young pioneers have rebuilt two structures, which had been destroyed a few days earlier by Border Guard police forces.

In Maoz Esther, outside Kokhav HaShachar in eastern Binyamin (north of Jerusalem), some 250 people gathered to celebrate the re-dedication of a synagogue in memory of Merkaz HaRav terrorist victim Yehonadav Hirschfeld. The synagogue had been destroyed just the day before, as well as the week before, by security forces, and was rebuilt each time.

The hundreds of singing and dancing celebrants were joined by Rabbi Dov Lior, the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hevron, and MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union). Rabbi Lior blessed the participants, saying, “Thank G-d, you are healthy in soul and spirit, and are not affected by the weaknesses around us.”

Ben-Ari said, “We can see here yet another healthy expression of the Jewish People’s return to our Land, and we are not planning to leave. We have no other land; the Arabs have 22 countries, and it’s too bad that Obama did not mention that in his speech. Giving them another country means an attempt to destroy the Jewish People in Israel – and we have no intention of being destroyed. The Jewish People are holding on tight to their Land.”

Obama Hilltop
Near Kokhav Yaakov, between Jerusalem and Beit El, a new outpost was formed on Friday morning, tentatively called Givat Obama, or Obama Hilltop. The builders say the name is “in recognition of the president’s actions, which have led to a dramatic increase in the number of outposts being built throughout Judea and Samaria.”

Oz Yehonatan
Yet another new outpost was formed on Friday near Kochav HaShachar. The outpost, named Oz Yehonatan, consists, so far, of one wooden building.
www.IsraelNationalNews.com


THE JERUSALEM POST

Chanting "No, you can't!" and waving signs bearing messages in a similar vein, nearly 200 people held a demonstration outside the US Consulate on the capital's Rehov Agron on Wednesday evening, protesting the growing American pressure to stop construction in West Bank settlements.

Speakers at the event included MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) and Esther Pollard, the wife of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. All brought a similar message - that the American government does not have the right to dictate where Jews may or may not live within the Land of Israel.

"Mr. Obama, we started demonstrating 16 years ago," said Rabbi Shalom Gold, the founder of Kehillat Zichron Ya'acov in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood, alluding to the early days of the Oslo Accords. "You were in your '30s and you probably didn't know the first thing about Eretz Yisrael... but we're part of God's divine plan, we're here and we're staying here!"

"Be a friend of Israel, but even if you won't be, we have the greatest ally in the world," he said, pointing to the heavens.

Esther Pollard followed, telling the crowd that her message to the US president was that "your problem isn't with Prime Minister Netanyahu, nor is it with the People of Israel. Your problem, Mr. President, is with the almighty God of Israel!"

The protest continued for more than two hours, as the demonstrators ebbed and flowed and consular staff across the street came out to watch the goings-on.

The protest was only a part of a wider campaign launched by activists on Wednesday, in which they will try to counter the American stance by portraying Obama as an anti-Semite whose policies would harm the Jewish state.

Over the coming days, activists plan to hang posters throughout the country of Obama wearing a keffiyeh, flanked by the words, "Anti-Semite," and "Jew-hater," written in red in both English and Hebrew. Another poster published by the campaign shows Obama shaking hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against a background of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion.

The Jewish National Front, which is backing the protests, said in a statement: "We decided to launch a campaign against the president of the United States and to say that Barack Hussein Obama is bad for the Jews."

"From the moment that he entered the White House, we have been feeling anti-Semitism and hatred toward Israel," the statement continued. "We have a number of plans, among which are demonstrations in the US and protests in front of the consulate and homes of the ambassadors."

Later Wednesday evening, Peace Now issued a statement harshly criticizing the campaign, saying the anti-Obama posters and demonstrations would cause considerable damage to the friendship between the US and Israel.

"The radical Right is damaging our strategic alliance with the US, and is embarrassing Israel in front of the world," the organization said. "[Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] must renounce this campaign of the settlers at once, and act decisively against the hilltop youth and those who are breaking the law in the settlements."