JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

anks seized the world’s attention. The United States government
stepped up its involvement: Eizenstat was now deputy
secretary of the U.S. Treasury and became the lead U.S. mediator
not just in the class action lawsuits against the Swiss banks
but in negotiations between Jewish organizations, such as the
World Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Restitution Organization,
and the governments and companies of Germany,
Austria, and France. In his book, Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets,
Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II,
Eizenstat recounts his efforts, which led to the disclosure of
more than 20,000 dormant accounts in Swiss banks; $8 billion
in class action settlements against private Swiss, German,
Austrian, and French companies and their governments; the
negotiation with 40 countries of the Washington Principles
on Art regarding the return of looted works of art; and – most
importantly – the emergence of truth about the large-scale
theft of property and the financial methods the Nazis used to
sustain their war effort.
[Lisa Lubick-Daniel (2nd ed.)]
EKRON (Heb. ןֹ ורְ קֶ ע), one of the capital cities of the Philistine
Pentapolis. According to the Bible, Joshua allotted it to
the tribe of Dan on its northeastern border with Judah (Josh.
15:11, 45–46; 19:43), and Judges 1:18 relates that it was captured
by the tribe of Judah. In Joshua 13:3, however, and all later
sources, Ekron appears as one of the five cities of the Philistine
confederation. After the Ark of the Covenant, which
was captured at Eben-Ezer, had brought misfortune to the
Philistine cities that received it, the people of Ekron refused
to admit it and proposed returning it to Israelite territory
(I Sam. 5:1ff.; 6:16–17). Cities in the region of Ekron and Gath
were restored to Israel by Samuel (I Sam. 7:14). In the story
of David and Goliath, the Israelites pursued the Philistines to
“the gates of Ekron” (I Sam. 17:52). In the ninth century messengers
of King Ahaziah of Israel consulted “Baal Zebub, the
god of Ekron,” receiving a stern rebuke from Elijah (II Kings
1:2–16). Amos (1:6–8) reprimanded Ekron and its sister cities
for their slave trade and threatened it with destruction as did
Jeremiah (25:20) and Zephaniah (2:4) in King Josiah’s time
(640–609 B.C.E.). Zephaniah threatened Ekron with being
“rooted up” (רֵ קָ עֵּ ת), a play on words.
The siege of ‘amqar(r)una (Ekron), which took place in
712 B.C.E., was depicted on a wall relief in the palace of Sargon
II at Khorsabad. Sennacherib captured Ekron in 701 B.C.E.
during his suppression of the rebellion led by King Hezekiah
of Judah. According to Sennacherib’s Royal Annals, Padi, king
of Ekron, who was loyal to Assyria, was deposed by a part of
the populace who handed him over to Hezekiah for imprisonment.
Despite the help Ekron received from the Egyptians,
Sennacherib took the city, executed the rebels, and forced Hezekiah
to release Padi, whom he restored as ruler of the city.
Padi also received territory taken from Judah. His successor,
Ikausu, however, was not so fortunate and, together with
Manasseh of Judah, paid heavy tribute to both Esarhaddon
(particularly materials for the palace at Nineveh) and Ashur-
ekron
banipal during their campaigns against Syria, Egypt, and
Cush, in the first half of the seventh century B.C.E.
In 147 B.C.E. Alexander Balas granted the city and its
district to Jonathan the Hasmonean as a reward for his loyalty
(I Macc. 10:89; Jos., Antiq., 13:102). Eusebius describes it
as “a very large Jewish village called Akkaron” (Onom. 29:9).
Jerome situates it to the east of Azotus and Iamnia, mentioning
also that some equated Accaron with Straton’s Tower at
Caesarea; similarly in the Talmud R. *Abbahu mistakenly identifies
Ekron with Caesarea (Meg. 6a). It is also mentioned in
connection with a march by Baldwin I during the Crusades
(c. 1200).
The biblical city of Ekron is now identified with Tel
Miqne (Khirbat al-Muqannaʾ), a large fortified mound (75
acres), situated 22 mi. southwest of Jerusalem on the frontier
zone that once separated Philistia from Judah. J. Naveh
was the first to identify Muqanna’ with Ekron, correcting
W.F. Albright who had suggested that it should be identified
as biblical Eltekeh. Naveh’s identification has been borne out
by subsequent excavations at the site (14 seasons) that were
undertaken between 1981 and 1996 by T. Dothan and S. Gitin
on behalf of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
and the Hebrew University. Apart from ceramic finds
from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages, the earliest remains
of a settlement at the site date from the Middle Bronze
Age (MB II), including monumental platforms – the base of a
fortifications rampart, and intramural burials. The Late Bronze
Age settlement was apparently unfortified and restricted to
the ten acres of the northeast acropolis/upper city, while the
lower city was abandoned. Finds attest to links with Cyprus,
the Aegean, and Anatolia, on the one hand, and Egypt, on the
other. The final LB stratum was destroyed by fire.
Ekron saw a process of re-urbanization during the Iron
Age I with the founding of the first Sea Peoples/Philistine
city in the second quarter of the 12th century B.C.E. This fortified
urban center, encompassing upper and lower cities, was
characterized by a new material culture with Aegean affinities,
including megaron-type buildings and local versions of
Mycenaean (IIIC:1) wares. The Iron Age I city was destroyed
in the first quarter of the tenth century B.C.E., either by the
Egyptians (at the time of Pharaoh Siamun) or by the Israelites.
The Iron Age IIA–B city (tenth–eighth centuries B.C.E.)
was limited to the northeast acropolis/upper city. Following
the Assyrian conquest in 701 B.C.E., when Ekron became an
Assyrian vassal city-state, the city once again expanded encompassing
the lower and upper cities and a new area of 25
acres to the north of the site. During the Iron Age II period,
when the Aegean affinities of the Philistine material culture
had ceased to exist, the Philistines themselves did not disappear
but underwent a process of acculturation. Nevertheless,
throughout this period the Philistines were able to maintain
their ethnic identity. Excavations have shown that in the seventh
century B.C.E. Ekron achieved its zenith of economic
growth, with the largest industrial center for the mass production
of olive oil yet known from antiquity. Seventh century
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