"The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke
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Israel - Light onto Nations endorses various Canadian media-watch organizations, such as: CLIC - Canadian Light on Israel Coverage, Honest Reporting (www.honestreporting.ca) and The Media Action Group (info@mediaactiongroup.com).
Did You Know?
Israel engineers are behind the development of the largest communications router in the world, launched by Cisco.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
First Israeli exhibition displayed at Louvre
The Lod mosaic (photo courtesy of Lod Municipality)
Hundreds of thousands of tourists expected to view spectacular Lod mosaic at world’s most visited museum this summer
History is being made at the Louvre Museum in Paris: For the first time an official Israeli exhibition will be displayed in the world’s most visited museum.
The spectacular Lod mosaic that was uncovered in an archaeological excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority will be on display in the Cour du Sphinx (Sphinx Courtyard) in the Roman wing of the museum between May 23 and August 19.
So far, the mosaic has been shown at five museums in the United States, first and foremost among them a successful presentation held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and a total of some 700,000 visitors have attended the exhibitions in America.
Until today, only a number of private Israeli artists have been exhibited in the Louvre, and now, for the very first time, an official Israeli exhibition will be displayed in the French museum.
According to the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Shuka Dorfman, “This is a great honor and achievement for the Israel Antiquities Authority and a wonderful opportunity for the millions of visitors to the museum to see the masterpiece from Lod and learn about the archaeology and history of the Land of Israel.”
The 1,700-year-old mosaic, one of the most magnificent and largest ever revealed in Israel, was uncovered in the city of Lod in 1996 and covered over again in order to protect it.
In 2009, after obtaining the necessary funding to expose it, the Israel Antiquities Authority renewed the archaeological excavation there and removed the mosaic from the site in order to conserve it.
The mosaic constitutes a rare archaeological gem that is extraordinarily well-preserved. It measures approximately 180 square meters and is composed of colorful carpets that depict in detail mammals, birds, fish, flora and the sailing and merchant vessels that were used at that time. It is thought the mosaic floor was part of a villa that belonged to a wealthy person in the Roman period.
The Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center, which will be constructed in the city of Lod where the mosaic was discovered, is presently in the advance stages of planning. The center is scheduled to be opened in the autumn of 2014.
Click here for the Lod mosaic exhibition announcement on the Louvre Museum website
This four-minute video produced by the Metropolitan Museum from footage provided by the Israel Antiquities Authority documents the initial discovery of the Lod mosaic in 1996 and its lifting and conservation in 2009. The work in 2009 produced some dramatic results that shed light on the way the mosaic was laid some seventeen hundred years ago.
Produced by Christopher Noey Edited by Kate Farrell Animation by Paul Caro Production Assistant - Sarah Cowan Audio Post-Production - David Raymond Scholarly Consultant - Christopher Lightfoot
Special Thanks: Miriam Avissar Jacob Fisch Carlos Picón Jacques Neguer
All photographs and video footage courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Israeli artists have developed new bus stop libraries available free of charge to commuters and travelers across the country.
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Did You Know?
Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.
Children injured in the school siege in Beslan, Russia in 2004 were able to convalesce at an Israeli coastal resort in Ashkelon – at the invitation of that city’s mayor.
LUSH Cosmetics has quietly closed its Beverly Hills, California location several months after a group known as “Join the Boycott LA” (www.JTBLA.com) organized a protest outside the store to expose the company’s support of PLO extremism. LUSH, with headquarters in the UK and stores in over 40 countries around the world, is using its customers’ money to support the PLO’s extremist “One World Campaign”. This virulently anti-Israel organization portrays Israel as an “illegal” occupier committing crimes against “Palestine” and grossly exaggerates the suffering in Gaza, placing responsibility solely on the Israelis.
There is much more work to be done. We urge you to ACT NOW FOR ISRAEL by sending an email to customercare@lush.co.uk to protest their anti-Israel extremism.
It has come to our attention that LUSH, a leading luxury handmade cosmetics company, gives a percentage of its profits to an anti-Israel organization called “OneWorld”. Upon visiting the OneWorld website (http://freedomoneworld.org/), it is very clear that they are supported by extreme anti-Israel groups that are sympathetic to terrorist activity against the State of Israel. For example, one of the supporting groups is called “Friends of al-Aqsa”. Visiting their website speaks for itself: http://www.foa.org.uk/.
Did You Know?
Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
Did You Know?
An Israeli-initiated project is drastically lowering the mortality rate of Ethiopian children infected with the AIDS/HIV virus.