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Archabologists Debate Mount Sivai Location

September 19, 1927
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(Jewish Telegraphich Agency)

Cireles of archaeplogical stadents in Palestine are discussing the recent assertion made by Ditlef Mielsen. a Danish scholar who claims to have establishd the site of the Biblical Mount Sinai. on which Moses gave the Isrelites the Tables of the Law. He stated that after exhaustive research in Palestine, Egypt and Transiordania. he can prove that Mount Sinai is not sitnated in the Sinai Peninsula but in the land of Edom, south of the Dead Sea. Archacologists here are eagerly awaiting proofs which Dr. Nielsen proposes in support of his assertion. The theory has been aired before and exploded.

It is pointed out that the present Mount Sinai conforms geographicaily to the statements in the Bible, for it is impossible to believe that the Jews. upon crossing the Red Sea. struck out in a straight line across the land of Canaan. The forty years’ wandering in the desert was more the nomadic journey of a large tribe than the regular migration of a nation. To take Mount Sinai to Edom would mean deferring the giving of the Law by at least 10 or 15 years, as it was after a long journey that the Jews reached Edom.

Congregation B’nal Israel of Austin, a western section of Chicago, has called to its pulpit Rabbi Louis J. Lehrfield. Rabbi Lehrfleld served for the Congregation Shomray Hadah of Kensington, the south side of Chicago. He is a graduate of the University of Chieago where he recelved the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He is also a grednate of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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