Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Offbeat Israel: Homer Simpson in Jerusalem

As the Forward reported, Grover from Sesame Street have just made an Israel visit. Now another animated celebrity is en-route to the Holy Land – and it’s none other than Homer Simpson, together with his darling family.

They come to Israel with a church trip in an episode due to air in March. Their tour guide is voiced by none other than Sacha Baron Cohen of “Borat” and “Brüno” fame. Homer develops Jerusalem Syndrome and starts believing that he is the messiah.


Jewish holidays mean day trip season in Israel, and there are always lots of great exhibitions. This year, however, there’s one that you can visit wherever you are. The Israel Antiquities Authority is running an exhibition featuring archaeological artifacts connected the holidays. It’s online here.

The finds featured include ancient depictions of grape vines, figs, wheat, barley, olives, palm trees, and pomegranates that adorn pottery vessels, stone and bone artifacts. There are mosaics, pottery vessels and glass vessels depicting a menorah, the Holy Ark, a shofar, and a lulav, as well as coins from the times of the Great Revolt (66-73 C.E.) and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 C.E.) The artifacts are dated from the Second Temple-era (516 B.C.E.–70 C.E.) until Talmudic times (40–500 C.E.)


A Ben Gurion University scientist is a step closer to his research goal of developing a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease. Alon Monsonego has demonstrated that it is possible to test and measure specific immune responses in mice carrying human genes and to anticipate the immune response in Alzheimer’s patients. Amyloid beta-peptide accumulates in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease patients where it appears to promote neuronal damage. Monsonego has determined that introducing A-beta into the brain triggers a natural immune response that can be detected in humans.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.