Goodbye Jenn!

To all of our supporters and follower and lovers of archaeology,

There comes a time in every person’s career where they have to take a new opportunity even if it means leaving a place and people that they love. Unfortunately for me, that day is today and it is with deepest melancholy that I have to say farewell.

I have been blessed to have spent the last 2 ½ years with the Temple Mount Sifting Project. You may not know me, but I am the person behind most of our blog posts, newsletters, and social media, with a little grant writing, donor relations, video editing, and research added in for good measure. I also led many of the tours in English at the site in Emek Tzurim.

I cannot express in words how fantastic this project is, the importance of the research being done here, or the truly amazing people who work here. Instead, I thought I would share some of my favorite memories from the past few years as an insight into the people and the project that I love. So in no particular order:

1. Finding TWO coins on my Hebrew Birthday and Zachi telling me that he believes that coins are usually found by people who deserve it / are special in some way.

2. Driving Dr. Gaby Barkay anywhere and listening to his history lessons of Jerusalem as he points out landmarks and the sites of historical events both big and small. Dr. Barkay is a treasure and I am blessed to have worked with him.

3. Sharing the ASOR conference in 2017 in Boston with Aaron Greener and Haggai Cohen Klonymus.

4. Lab conversations between the researchers as they made discoveries. I will never forget the day that Frankie came in so excited that she had found another tile for her Second Temple period floor, or my first day when Frankie and Hillel were discussing various artifacts for about an hour while I waited for Zachi to arrive and tell me what to do.

5. Finding a tiny Roman die – one of a handful ever found by the project.

6. Giving my first lecture in the lab with a wonderful family from Australia. I love sharing the history of the Temple Mount with guests. That is one of the reasons I loved writing all of these blog posts. This history is so important, but more than that, it speaks to a different level of the soul because this is YOUR history; this is the Temple Mount.

7. Working with our two amazing interns Hannah and Renata. It was a bit surreal to be considered a professional enough to merit an intern and it was a pleasure to see them grow and fall in love with Israel.

8. Making bullot in the lab for last year’s campaign. We used our 10th century BCE seal to make seal impressions to send to the first 25 donors in the campaign. Mixing modern clay with Temple Mount soil for tempering and then making replicas that really meant something was really special. Also, shout-out to my mom for being one of the first 25 donors and getting one of the sealings. Check out the video: How to Make Bullot!

9. Writing and shooting my first movie and sitting for hours with our talented video editor to make a campaign video. Join Us!

Haggai showing artifacts on Yom Yerushalayim in the Old City

10. Getting sunburned on the 50th Yom Yerushalayim from standing in the Old City and sharing our project with the thousands of visitors. We had a display case with some of our modern artifacts from the 6 Day War as well as artifacts from the entire history of the Temple Mount.

11. Carrying a 17 kilo plaque through airport security and then driving it down to the Hamptons. The Hamptons community were so welcoming and the bakery near the synagogue has the best black and white cookies I have ever had.

12. Watching the faces of our visitors as they actually touched a piece of the floor from the Second Temple – a floor that the High Priest walked upon. Or coins, or architecture, or anything that they discovered from the Temple itself. There is nothing like the look on a child’s face when they physically touch history and you know that your message reached them. Making future archaeologists and those who will fight to protect our heritage.

13. Getting the news that we were going to do a pilot program and try to restart the sifting as a mobile project. Working with the students in Tekoa after such a long hiatus reminded me how special the Temple Mount material really is. Every bucket has amazing material from all the time periods in the history of the Temple Mount.

14. The humility, generosity, and humor of the lab staff. Staff dinners, singing together at the barbecue last year as everyone’s kids ran around, celebrating births, deaths, and weddings. I have worked in a lot of places and I am so grateful for how quickly I was included in the TMSP family. It is also really special to be working with so many female archaeologists in one place. I truly love you all.

15. My first trip to the Temple Mount was with the TMSP staff. Seeing this holy place with people who really appreciate it, and learning about everything that this site has gone through from war, to fire, to rebuilding, to being so contested and yet remaining, was a really moving experience. Every time I have gone up to the Temple Mount, with other staff, with Dr. Barkay and a group of US Congressmen, I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to visit such an amazing, holy, important place. My grandfather only ever dreamed of visiting Israel, and here I am, an Israeli citizen as of 3 years ago and standing on the Temple Mount itself. It is a feeling I hope never grows old, and is something I will take with me forevermore.

These are just a few of the memories, but I hope that you can see just a glimpse of how special the Sifting Project is. I can tell you with complete certainty that the staff really does consider all of its supporters as part of the Sifting Project family. We could not be the project we are today without you. From sifting to supporting our research, you are the foundation of this project.

Now that I am gone, there may be fewer blog posts and fewer videos or Facebook posts. This does not mean that the Sifting Project staff are being idle; it just means that there isn’t a budget to continue putting out the kind of content we have for the past few years as they are not replacing me when I leave for a new opportunity. Breakthroughs and news media will definitely be shared with you as well as the occasional amazing artifact and other news. If you haven’t yet subscribed to the quarterly newsletter, do it now! That is a great way to get updates on the project and make sure you don’t miss anything.

My email, development@tmsifting.org, will continue to be active and your emails will now be answered by our lovely and talented office manager Inbal, or by one of our directors.

With much love and gratitude, thank you for the past 2 1/2 years,

Jennifer Greene
Director of International Development and Public Relations