On December 15, the Israeli Cultural Center at the Embassy of Israel in Moscow held a round table titled “Biblical History: Reality or Invention.” The organizators invited EAJC PR Department Deputy Head Nikolai Propirniy.

The round table was moderated by writer and Bible scholar Leonid Gomberg. The discussion was based on a book he co-wrote with Chairman of the Israel Federation of Writers Union Ephraim Baukh, titled “Apology for Non-Existence. Shlomo Sand: A new myth about the Jews” (M.: Biblioteka "Edinaia kniga," 2011).

Tel-Aviv University professor Shlomo Sand wrote a book titled “The Invention of the Jewish People,” which completely denies the Bible as a historic source. Sand believes that the lives of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, the Judges of Israel are merely inventions of certain “later compilers,” the kings David and Solomon, if they existed at all, were little-known tribe chiefd, and Jerusalem was but a small mountain village. In turn, Baukh and and Gomberg, as well as the author of the introduction to their book, Dana Rubina, demonstrated the implausibility of the ideas of the Tel-Avivan professor and thoroughly deconstructed them.

Among those who participated in discussing the two diametrically opposed approaches to the history of the Jewish people were: critic and TV anchor Lev Anninskiy; historian and archaeologist, RGGU professor Vladimir Petruhin; religious studies scholar and journalist Yuri Tabak; writer, editor-in-chief of the “Informprostranstvo” newspaper Evgeniy Ben'; social commentator Mikhail Gorelink; political studies scholar, editor-in-chief of the “Znaniye-Sila” magazine Igor Harichev; First Secretary of the Embassy of the State of Israel in Russia Shlomo Voskoboynik. The absolute majority of the gathering criticized Sand's ideas from various positions while noting the importance of the Gomberg's and Baukh's book.

As Nikolai Propirniy noed in his speech, “In Sand's book, denying the history of Jews as told in the Bible and attempting to tear the historic thread of the Jewish people's existence are merely a poorly-hidden reason to delegitimize the Jewish state, to undermine its right to existence as a national Jewish nucleus. Yet, as one of the founders of Israel said, two things define Israel's fate – its strength and its rightness. It has become fashionable to doubt Israel's rightness in certain social circles. Gomberg's and Baukh's book can dispel some of those doubts, at least in people capable of hearing and listening. As for other followers of Sand's ideas – they just have to remain convinced of Israel's strength.