Well, it's been about a year and a half since I've last done this and I've got a little spare time.
As most of you may know, I'm an Orthodox Jew. I regard myself as part of what's known in Israel as the "Dati Leumi" community, which translates as "National Religious" (wiki). It essentially means that we observe traditional Jewish law like Ultra-Orthodox Jews (the so-called "black-hatters") but have a strong Zionistic worldview, and believe in the importance of serving in the military and being part of the general Israeli society.
This is where I'm at right now in life:
I'm finishing my BA in archeology and Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University and I'm working as a research assistant for one of my history professors. I'm thinking about pursuing a fast-track doctorate, but I'm having difficulty deciding on a topic for my dissertation.
Until recently I also had a writing job writing about Biblical and Hellenistic archeological sites in Israel for a website developed by Tel-Aviv University's archeology department, but the project's money ran out a few weeks ago, so we (the writers) have basically been fired.
Recently I completed three straight (annual) seasons of excavations at a site called Tel Tibneh in southwestern Samaria. I've been on the expedition's media team since the the start (I did some graphic design, reconstruction artwork, and post writing, but mainly translated posts from Hebrew into English; I'm basically the expedition's official translator), and for the last season and a half also worked as an assistant area supervisor (which is a lot more fun than busting your back with a pickaxe eight hours a day, but on the other hand, you sleep a lot less than the digging students). Much as I'd like to keep on excavating at the site, the expedition's director, one of our archeology professors, has decided to move on to other cool projects, so we're directing our attention to working on the excavation's final report. I was pleasantly surprised to be offered to work on the publication of an Iron Age I (ca. Book of Judges-period/11th-early-10th century BCE) installation found at the site.
IMO, my crowning achievement in art this year was drawing and painting a reconstruction of one of the structures we found at Tel Tibneh, a washing and ritual purification complex from the Second Temple/Inter-revolt periods (ca. mid-1st-mid-2nd centuries CE). The painting became the centerpiece of the poster I designed for the department's annual Young Researchers conference.
Recently, an academic paper I wrote was accepted for publication and should come out sometime in the next ten months. This is an exciting first for me.
Feel free to ask me anything you'd like, on these or other topics. Please keep it clean (nothing vulgar, etc).
As most of you may know, I'm an Orthodox Jew. I regard myself as part of what's known in Israel as the "Dati Leumi" community, which translates as "National Religious" (wiki). It essentially means that we observe traditional Jewish law like Ultra-Orthodox Jews (the so-called "black-hatters") but have a strong Zionistic worldview, and believe in the importance of serving in the military and being part of the general Israeli society.
This is where I'm at right now in life:
I'm finishing my BA in archeology and Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University and I'm working as a research assistant for one of my history professors. I'm thinking about pursuing a fast-track doctorate, but I'm having difficulty deciding on a topic for my dissertation.
Until recently I also had a writing job writing about Biblical and Hellenistic archeological sites in Israel for a website developed by Tel-Aviv University's archeology department, but the project's money ran out a few weeks ago, so we (the writers) have basically been fired.
Recently I completed three straight (annual) seasons of excavations at a site called Tel Tibneh in southwestern Samaria. I've been on the expedition's media team since the the start (I did some graphic design, reconstruction artwork, and post writing, but mainly translated posts from Hebrew into English; I'm basically the expedition's official translator), and for the last season and a half also worked as an assistant area supervisor (which is a lot more fun than busting your back with a pickaxe eight hours a day, but on the other hand, you sleep a lot less than the digging students). Much as I'd like to keep on excavating at the site, the expedition's director, one of our archeology professors, has decided to move on to other cool projects, so we're directing our attention to working on the excavation's final report. I was pleasantly surprised to be offered to work on the publication of an Iron Age I (ca. Book of Judges-period/11th-early-10th century BCE) installation found at the site.
IMO, my crowning achievement in art this year was drawing and painting a reconstruction of one of the structures we found at Tel Tibneh, a washing and ritual purification complex from the Second Temple/Inter-revolt periods (ca. mid-1st-mid-2nd centuries CE). The painting became the centerpiece of the poster I designed for the department's annual Young Researchers conference.
Recently, an academic paper I wrote was accepted for publication and should come out sometime in the next ten months. This is an exciting first for me.
Feel free to ask me anything you'd like, on these or other topics. Please keep it clean (nothing vulgar, etc).
