Trude Weiss-Rosmarin Rejects ViewThere Were Suicides on Masada
tions in Israel and abroad,
It is being argued that disclosed at the opening ses - presented to the congress.
It contains 10 chapters of including the Rothschild
with so many eye-witnesses sion a week ago that 27 re-
to the end of Masada, Jo- searchers in Jewish studies the Book of Isaiah, edited Foundation (Yad Avi Ha-
sephus could not have falsi- from the USSR had been by Prof. Moshe Goshen- Yishuv), the Lucius N. Lit-
Gottstein, Hebrew Univer- tauer Foundation and the
fied the record. This is an invited.
anachronistic argument, ac-
He said some of them sity professor of Semitic Memorial Foundation for
cording to Dr. Weiss-Ros- wrote to him stating that linguistics and biblical phil- Jewish Culture.
marin, which retrojects con- they wanted to attend but ology, and is part of a unique
and left."
"If a single sentry could temporary mass communica- were prevented. But dele- project, which will collect
have controlled the entrance tion into the past. The num- gates from three Communist and collate the wealth of
to this compound, would not ber of manuscripts of bloc countries — Czechoslo- existing Bible variants known
Eleazar have made the most Josephus' "The Jewish War" vakia, Hungary and Ro- at present.
of it?" she asked, and added: in circulation during his life- mania — did attend. There
Working on this project
"Is it likely that the Sicarii time surely could be counted was an 11-member delega- since 1958 is a group of some
would have chosen suicide on the fingers of two hands. tion from Spain but only one 15 researchers headed by
rather than fight, when the Nor should it be assumed, member was a Jew.
three editors of the univer-
building on Masada provided she said, that the Roman
Another resolution adopted sity's Institute of Jewish
AS THE
many natural barricades for legionnaires who fought the at the closing session called Studies—in addition to Prof.
DOLLAR
denying the Romans an easy Masada defenders returned for an intensification of Jew- Goshen - Gottstein, Prof.
victory?" to Rome. Moving troops ish studies all over the Chaim Rabin of the Hebrew
VALUE
According to Dr. Weiss- across the Mediterranean world.
Language Department and
Rosmarin, the Masada de- was much too difficult. Also,
Prof. Urbach said the Prof. Shemaryahu Talmon of
DECREASES,'
fenders were not made of the Roman legions, except status of Jewish studies has the Bible department.
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were guerrilla fighters who mostly non-Roman and they research and teaching. He project is the Hebrew Uni-
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had held the Romans at bay were rarely literate. They indirectly criticized Israel's versity's Magnes Press; it
for almost three years after could not and would not have news media which showed is supported by a number
INCREASES
Jerusalem had fallen. Such known of Josephus' "The little interest in the congress. of institutions and founda-
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men will not commit suicide Jewish War." Considering
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reason, first of all, said Dr. carii failed to make provision
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39 men to commit suicide at themselves? If we are to ac-
Jotapata so as to save his cept, as Dr. Yadin submits,
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS cide as the acme of heroism,
th
For
possible to think that they
he
"proved"
to
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18—Friday, August 24, 1973
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said
Dr.
Weiss-
of the Hebrew University,
Phone: (616) 637-2007
N111 Your dollar
Rosmarin.
president of the Congress,
JERUSALEM — Address-
ing the Sixth World Congress
of Jewish Studies, Dr_ Trude
Weiss-Rosmarin of New York
rejected the generally ac-
cepted view that there were
suicides on Masada.
As evidence, she cited the
fact that the only record cf
the alleged mass suicide of
Masada's Sicarii defenders,
are the two speeches (and a
terse postscript) Josephus
cites in his history of the
"The Jewish War,'' repre-
senting them as the words
of Eleazar Ben-Ya'ir, the
commander of the Masada
Sicarii.
double-
"However,
the
speech of Eleazar is unani-
mously considered by all
Josephus specialists as an
invention," Dr. Weiss-Ros-
marin said. H. St. John
Thackeray, the most re-
spected authority on Jo•
sephus, described these
speeches as "purely ima-
ginary."
Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin said
the situation of the Masada
defenders was far from be-
ing so desperate as the in-
vented Eleazar speeches im-
ply. Although the Romans
had breached the wall of the
fortress and were poised for
an all-out attack, the Sicarii
still commanded so many
strategic advantages that it
would have taken the Ro-
mans considerable time and
hard fighting to subdue the
Masada defenders.
The various buildings on
Masada and its subterranean
installations provided ample
opportunities of entrench-
ment for the Sicarii, she
said.
The mesa of Masada is an
expanse of about 20 acres.
As one example of the stra-
tegic possibilities favoring
the Sicarii, Dr. Weiss-Ros-
marin cited the access to the
storehouse compound and the
northern palace villa, where
entry, according to Dr. Yi-
gaol Yadin, was possible
only in one place and where,
as Dr. Yadin wrote, "a
single watchman posted here
could check all who entered
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