The remains of 27 defenders of Masada, the Jewish mountain fortress that held out against Roman legions in 73 C.E., will be given a heroes’ burial on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the site of Solomon’s Temple, the Ministry for Religious Affairs announced. The remains were discovered six years ago by Prof. Yigal Yadin, a Hebrew University archaeologist. An examination and investigation by scholars in London reportedly confirmed that the remains are those of the defenders of Masada who chose suicide rather than surrender to Roman hands.
The heroism and the identity of the Masada defenders has been questioned by an American rabbinic scholar who is said to be an outstanding authority on the Second Jewish Commonwealth. According to Dr. Solomon Zeitlin, professor of rabbinic law and history at Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate learning in Philadelphia, the Masada defenders were not the zealots who defended Jerusalem against the Romans but Sicariis whom he calls “a rebel and fanatic group.”
He said their resistance was an “inglorious chapter in Jewish history” because they committed mass suicide in violation of Jewish law and left the Masada stronghold to the Romans without the loss of a single Roman soldier. In contrast, he said, the zealots fought heroically for the city of Jerusalem which fell to Rome, but at a heavy cost to its legions. Dr. Zeitlin said the Sicariis were interested only in their personal freedom, did not aid the defenders of Jerusalem and even attacked their fellow Jews. Dr. Zeitlin stirred another controversy several years ago when he claimed that the Dead Sea Scrolls were not antiques, but dated from the Middle Ages.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
