Pessah Bar-Adon (; b. 1907, d. 1985) was a Polish-born Israeli archaeologist and writer.

Early life

Born Pessah Panitsch in

Kolno Kolno is a town in northeastern Poland, located in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, about northeast of Warsaw. It is the seat of Kolno County, and the seat of the smaller administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Kolno, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Gmin ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, to a

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

Haredi Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

family, he was educated in a

Jewish orthodox Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Torah, Written and Oral Torah, Oral, as literally revelation, revealed by God in Ju ...

school and in

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

s. He immigrated to Israel in 1925. While working in housing and road construction to support himself, he studied for a degree in

Middle Eastern studies Middle Eastern studies, sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies, West Asian Studies or South Western Asian studies, is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, an ...

at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

Career

For a period, he lived amongst

Bedouins The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

near

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

Bet She'an Beit She'an ( '), also known as Beisan ( '), or Beth-shean, is a town in the Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below sea level. Beit She'an is believed to be one of the oldest citie ...

, and

Kuneitra Quneitra (also Al Qunaytirah, Qunaitira, or Kuneitra; , ''al-Qunayṭrah'' or ''al-Qunayṭirah'' ) is the largely destroyed and abandoned capital of the Quneitra Governorate in south-western Syria. It is situated in a high valley in the Golan ...

in order to learn their lifestyle. Part of his motivation for this endeavor was to understand why many of the ancient Kings of Israel were originally shepherds. During this period he wore traditional Bedouin clothing and went by the name Aziz Effendi. During the

1929 Palestine riots The 1929 Palestine riots, Buraq Uprising (, ) or the Events of 1929 (, , ''lit.'' Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), was a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longstanding dispute between Palestinian Arabs and Jews ove ...

and the

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration, later known as the Great Revolt, the Great Palestinian Revolt, or the Palestinian Revolution, lasted from 1936 until 1939. The movement sought i ...

, he was an active member of the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

Jerusalem. Later he also took part in the

Aliyah Bet ''Aliyah Bet'' (, "Aliyah 'B'" – bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews, many of whom were refugees escaping from Nazi Germany or other Nazi-controlled countries, and la ...

. In 1932 he participated in one of the first movies made about the Jewish

Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...

in the British Mandate of Palestine, called "Sabra", directed by

Aleksander Ford Aleksander Ford (born Mosze Lifszyc; 24 November 1908 in Kiev, Russian Empire – 4 April 1980 in Naples, Florida, United States, U.S.) was a Polish film director and head of the Polish People's Army of Poland, People's Army Film Crew in the Sov ...

. In 1939, he married Dorothy Kahn, an American journalist who fell in love with the Land of Israel, and the two moved to the Blumenfeld house in

Moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

Merhavia. She died in 1950 at age 43. Bar-Adon was involved in many archaeological excavations, among them: Bet Shearim,

Tel Bet Yerah Khirbet Kerak ( , "the ruin of the fortress") or Beth Yerah (, "House of the Moon (god)") (also Khirbat al-Karak) is a tell (archaeological mound) located on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee in modern-day Israel. The tell spans an area of ...

, and the discovery of the Nahal Mishmar hoard. He engaged in archaeology until the age of 70.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bar-Adon, Pessah Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Israeli archaeologists 1907 births 1985 deaths Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Haganah members Aliyah Bet activists People from Kolno 20th-century Israeli Jews 20th-century Polish archaeologists Immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah