menu_open Columnists
Rossella Tercatin

Rossella Tercatin

The Times of Israel

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

UK jails 3 for kidnapping Israeli music producer: ‘Felt like my own personal Oct. 7’

UK jails 3 for kidnapping Israeli music producer: ‘Felt like my own personal Oct. 7’

Judge says the trio were ‘motivated by events taking place elsewhere in the world’ and chose the victim based on their ‘understanding of his...

15.03.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Can a grand 1,600-year-old synagogue rewrite the history of Jewish life in Christian Rome?

Can a grand 1,600-year-old synagogue rewrite the history of Jewish life in Christian Rome?

New radiocarbon dating at the Huqoq sanctuary in the Galilee puts its construction after the empire embraced Christianity, and hints that Jews still...

15.03.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Burning Haman: The lost Purim tradition of India’s ancient Cochin Jewish community

Burning Haman: The lost Purim tradition of India’s ancient Cochin Jewish community

For centuries, Cochin Jews marked Purim by burning effigies of Haman, while the holiday represented the day when Jews from all backgrounds celebrated...

15.03.2025 70

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Roman-era Jewish bath in Italy may be oldest outside of Israel, points to vibrant Diaspora

Roman-era Jewish bath in Italy may be oldest outside of Israel, points to vibrant Diaspora

A newly excavated site in Ostia Antica, dating as early as the 3rd century CE, offers fresh insight and new enigmas about the city’s potential...

14.03.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Jerusalem gets ready for rare triple Purim: ‘The main goal is to take care of others’

Jerusalem gets ready for rare triple Purim: ‘The main goal is to take care of others’

In a sporadic occurrence that will next repeat itself in 2045, Jews in the capital get to celebrate a three-day holiday

13.03.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted in prehistoric Israel, rare cave burials show

Sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted in prehistoric Israel, rare cave burials show

Using dentists’ tools, archaeologists painstakingly uncover evidence that Israel’s Tinshemet Cave housed hominins who shared rituals and...

11.03.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Chained in faith: 5th-century female skeleton may be world’s 1st self-mortifying Christian nun

Chained in faith: 5th-century female skeleton may be world’s 1st self-mortifying Christian nun

Cutting-edge technology allows a team of Israeli researchers to determine that mysterious ironclad remains found in a church near Jerusalem belonged...

10.03.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Morocco’s Spanish-speaking Jewish minority illuminated in prizewinning book

Morocco’s Spanish-speaking Jewish minority illuminated in prizewinning book

National Jewish Book Award recipient Aviad Moreno’s work focuses on northern Morocco’s Hispanic Jews, whose yearning for a ‘homeland’ was...

10.03.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Religious Services minister backs down from bid to control city rabbi appointments

Religious Services minister backs down from bid to control city rabbi appointments

Following High Court petition by Tzohar and ITIM groups, Michael Malkieli rolls back regulations guaranteeing him control of selection committees

10.03.2025 20

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Early humans in Israel really liked their steaks, new study shows

Early humans in Israel really liked their steaks, new study shows

While the region offered a great diversity of fauna, Middle Paleolithic humans favored hunting the ancestor of cows, archaeological remains from the...

07.03.2025 10

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Half of Israelis in rabbinical courts say they were wronged – survey

Half of Israelis in rabbinical courts say they were wronged – survey

According to a study by the ITIM nonprofit, one in five Israelis also report their connection to Judaism was negatively impacted by the experience

06.03.2025 10

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Jewish rebels and earthquake rubble: New dig aims to solve a pair of historical enigmas

Jewish rebels and earthquake rubble: New dig aims to solve a pair of historical enigmas

Sartaba/Alexandrium was built by the Hasmoneans and expanded by Herod. A team of archaeologists has launched a first excavation in 40 years to probe...

06.03.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Biblical-themed exhibit inaugurated at Roman site under Damascus Gate in Jerusalem

Biblical-themed exhibit inaugurated at Roman site under Damascus Gate in Jerusalem

A 2nd-century gate in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter offers a glimpse into the capital’s multilayered history — and complex present

05.03.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

For Rome’s Jews, ties with ailing pope are personal. And increasingly complicated

For Rome’s Jews, ties with ailing pope are personal. And increasingly complicated

With 2,000 years of history between the Jewish community and the Catholic Church, relations have been positive in recent decades. But October 7 has...

04.03.2025 50

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Lost and found: Early commentary on Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah on display in Jerusalem

Lost and found: Early commentary on Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah on display in Jerusalem

Now housed at the National Library, 15th-cent. Mezukak Shivatayim extensively quotes Jewish sages whose works are unknown to scholars, opening the way...

27.02.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Avoiding the Rabbinate, 3,000 Israeli couples married last year in Utah’s ‘Zoom weddings’

New report by group promoting religious freedom says 67% of Israeli public supports recognizing all types of marriages in Israel, including civil,...

21.02.2025 20

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Arab leaders gather in Saudi Arabia to hash out alternative to Trump’s plan for Gaza

‘Unofficial fraternal meeting’ of Egypt, Jordan and Gulf states expected to address Cairo’s proposal, which official says would see Hamas...

21.02.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

October 7 changed Israel forever, but the ultra-Orthodox? Not so much, report suggests

Israel Democracy Institute’s report indicates that Haredi solidarity with the rest of society was transient

21.02.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Mikvehs and monks: Vivid hues link rare Jewish and Christian finds in Judean Desert

Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem just concluded their second season of excavations at Hyrcania, where they found colorful...

20.02.2025 20

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis secure majority in Israel’s top Jewish legal body

Chief Rabbinate Council is the main authority on Jewish law for government and religious services; head of advocacy group says new members all appear...

19.02.2025 10

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Israel improves slightly in corruption survey as many nations get worst scores in years

Transparency International finds ‘global corruption levels remain alarmingly high, with efforts to reduce them faltering’

13.02.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Ben Gurion exhibit traces Jewish life throughout Israel’s history

The finds on display include a Hasmonean coin hoard, archaeological evidence of the biblical king Ahab, and a Western Wall stone

13.02.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Israel Antiquities Authority rejects bid to put it in charge of West Bank antiquities

Professionals warn that bill extending Israeli law over West Bank may strengthen claims of de facto annexation, would not solve neglect and looting...

13.02.2025 10

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Inscription found in Alexandrium fortress could shed new light on Jewish Revolt

Israeli researchers recently deciphered an ostracon in a grand 1st-century structure in the Jordan Valley that could prove Jewish rebels used the site...

12.02.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Prehistoric artifacts from Israel prove our ancestors made art 100,000 years ago

New study shows Middle Paleolithic people intentionally decorated stone tools, offering evidence that abstract thinking began earlier than 50,000...

10.02.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Mysterious 2,500-year-old burials hint at human trafficking in ancient Israel

A mass grave in the Negev excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority sheds light on funerary, divination, and commercial practices in the first...

09.02.2025 50

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Did a daring semiliterate sailor wreck a ship off the Israeli coast 2,400 years ago?

Parts of two double-handled jugs were found in the waters near Tel Achziv in 2016. Scholars recently deciphered the etched writing on one of them

07.02.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Hoard of coins illuminates triumphant Maccabee campaign in 2nd-century-BCE Israel

A rare intact Hellenistic estate at Khirbet el-Eika in Eastern Galilee was likely abandoned by its inhabitant as Yonatan Maccabee and his army drew...

05.02.2025 10

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Why sheep count: Lack of textile trade stymied Israel’s growth for millennia, study shows

During the Early Bronze Age, the Southern Levant’s inability to support mass sheep herding left the region lagging behind Syria and Mesopotamia. But...

03.02.2025 60

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Fraud, forgery and sedition: 1,900-year-old papyrus records Roman trial against Jews

New research on the longest Greek papyrus from the Judean Desert ever discovered offers unprecedented insights into life in the Land of Israel in Bar...

30.01.2025 40

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Was an ancient European ring found in Israel used as a wedding band depicting the Temple?

Unearthed at Huqoq, the artifact may represent the missing link between 1,300-year-old Merovingian rings and popular medieval Jewish nuptial bands,...

29.01.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Newly found letter shows Martin Buber’s concern over the fate of Polish Jews in 1945

On February 5, 1945, some Hebrew University scholars launched an appeal to fellow faculty members encouraging them to mobilize for European Jews

28.01.2025 20

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Roman-era boundary stone hints at a political tiff described in the Jerusalem Talmud

Unearthed in Upper Galilee, 3rd century CE artifact might prove rumored tensions between Emperor Diocletian and local population; also mentions two...

26.01.2025 20

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Magnificent hoard of gold and silver coins sheds unprecedented light on medieval Israel

New research examines artifacts found in 2018 in two vessels next to the synagogue at Huqoq, in an excavation led by Prof. Jodi Magness; its findings...

22.01.2025 20

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Sa’ar says a reformed Palestinian Authority could be involved in governing Gaza

But in a joint press conference with Italian counterpart, foreign minister says ‘pay to slay’ policy needs to end, as must incitement,...

21.01.2025 30

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin

Meet Sara Funaro, the first female – and first Jewish – mayor of Florence, Italy

JTA — In April, when a group of pro-Palestinian activists pressured Florence’s city hall to have the local honorary Israeli consul resign, they...

18.12.2024 5

The Times of Israel

Rossella Tercatin