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Simcha Jacobovici (born April 4, 1953) is a Canadian Israeli film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three time Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and a New York Times best selling author.

His filmmaking awards include a Certificate of Special Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a Gold Medal from the International Documentary Festival of Nyon, three U.S. Cable Ace Awards, two Gemini Awards, an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award and, from the Overseas Press Club of America, the Carl Spielvogel Award and Edward R. Murrow Award. In 2013 he won a Gold Dolphin from the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards.

Jacobovici earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science (w/honors) from McGill University and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto. He is an Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Huntington University, an affiliate of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. Jacobovici has been a guest lecturer at numerous conferences and on various campuses including Yale, Johns Hopkins, McGill, UCLA and York University.

Throughout his career Jacobovici has courted controversy. He was one of the first to advocate for the airlift of the Ethiopian Jews to Israel. His New York Times op-ed pieces on the subject and his first documentary "Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews" caused a storm in the Jewish community worldwide and in the media. His film "The Plague Monkeys" caused a level four biosafety lab slated for opening in Toronto to remain closed. In 2013 his film (directed by his associate Ric Esther Bienstock) "Tales From the Organ Trade" has once again raised the issue of decriminalizing kidney sales. In contrast, his 1991 film on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict "Deadly Currents" was runner up for the Peace Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, and was screened in Israeli and Palestinian settings.

For the past ten years, Jacobovici has conducted historical and archaeological investigations. He calls his technique "investigative archaeology". As a result, Jacobovici has appeared on shows including Anderson Cooper 360, Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC Today, and ABC Nightline. His most controversial claim is to have identified the Tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family in the Talpiot suburb of Jerusalem. He is involved in an ongoing libel suit against Joe Zias, a former curator and anthropologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

He hosted three seasons of The Naked Archaeologist on VisionTV in Canada and The History Channel in the United States. In 2013 the series began to be broadcast on the Israel Broadcast Authority (IBA) Channel 1.

Jacobovici has written for many top newspapers around the world including the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Globe and Mail, the Los Angeles Times and others. At present he blogs on SimchaJTV and The Times of Israel. He occasionally writes for the Jerusalem Post.

Biography
Jacobovici is married and is the father of five children.

Books




Filmography
Director


 * The Jesus Discovery/The Resurrection Tomb Mystery (2012)
 * Secrets of Christianity/Decoding the Ancients (2010)
 * The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007)
 * Charging the Rhino (2007)
 * The Naked Archaeologist (2006–2010)
 * The Exodus Decoded (2005)
 * James, Brother of Jesus (2003)
 * Quest for the Lost Tribes (2000)
 * The Struma (2001)
 * Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies & the American Dream (1997)
 * Expulsion and Memory: Descendants of the Hidden Jews (1996)
 * Deadly Currents (1991)
 * Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews (1983)

Producer


 * Living in the Time of Jesus (2010)
 * Sex Slaves/The Real Sex Traffic (2005)
 * Yummy Mummy (2005)
 * Impact of Terror (2004)
 * Tell It Like It Is (2003/04)
 * Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour (2000)
 * Frozen Hearts (1999)
 * Pandemic: Case of the Killer Flu (1999)
 * The Selling of Innocents (1996)
 * Jesus in Russia: An American Holy War (1996)
 * Ebola: Inside an Outbreak/The Plague Fighters (1996)
 * The Plague Monkeys (1994)
 * AIDS in Africa (1990)

Awards

 * 2013 Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards Gold Dolphin in the category of "Science & Knowledge" for the documentary "Resurrection Tomb Mystery" (also released as The Jesus Discovery).


 * 2013 Raven Award for Best Feature Documentary from the Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival for the documentary "Tales From the Organ Trade". The film was written and directed by Ric Esther Bienstock who also won a Raven Award for Best Director.


 * 2013 Banff World Media Festival Rockie Award in the category of "Social & Humanitarian Documentaries" for the documentary "The Age of Anxiety".


 * 2013 New York Festivals Gold World Medal in the category of "Best Innovation" for the documentary "Resurrection Tomb Mystery" (also released as The Jesus Discovery).


 * 2010 CINE Golden Eagle Award in the "History" category for the documentary "Beasts of the Bible".


 * 2010 CINE Golden Eagle Award in the "Science & Technology" category for the documentary "Science of the Soul".


 * 2010 Religion Communicators Council Wilbur Award in the "Television, Documentary" category for the documentary "Science of the Soul".


 * 2007 News and Documentary Emmy Award in category of "Outstanding Investigative Journalism" for the documentary "Sex Slaves" (also released as The Real Sex Traffic), written, directed, and produced by Ric Esther Bienstock for Associated Producers, Ltd..


 * 2006 Overseas Press Club Edward R. Murrow Award awarded to Ric Esther Bienstock, Felix Golubev, Simcha Jacobovici, David Fanning, and Ken Dornstein for 2005 documentary by Ric Esther Bienstock created in association with CBC, Channel 4 and Canal D, in the category of "Best TV interpretation or documentary on international affairs" for their PBS Frontline documentary "Sex Slaves."


 * 2006 UK Royal Television Society Award awarded to Ric Esther Bienstock, Felix Golubev, Simcha Jacobovici, David Fanning, and Ken Dornstein for 2005 documentary by Ric Esther Bienstock created in association with CBC, Channel 4 and Canal D, for their PBS Frontline documentary "Sex Slaves."


 * 2004 Overseas Press Club Carl Spielvogel Award awarded to Tim Wolochatiuk, Simcha Jacobovici, Ric Esther Bienstock, Jennifer Hyde, and Sid Bedigfield for 2003 documentary by produced by Associated Producers for CNN and CNBC in the category of "Best international reporting in the broadcast media showing a concern for the human condition" for their documentary “CNN Presents: Impact of Terror."


 * 1997 Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Gemini Award in category of "Best Science Documentary" for the documentary "Ebola: Inside an Outbreak" (released internationally as Plague Fighters) for PBS’ NOVA, Channel 4 and the CBC, written and directed by Ric Esther Bienstock and produced by Simcha Jacobovici, Elliott Halpern, and Ric Esther Bienstock for Associated Producers, Ltd..


 * 1997 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for the documentary "Ebola: Inside an Outbreak" (released internationally as Plague Fighters) for PBS’ NOVA, Channel 4 and the CBC, written and directed by Ric Esther Bienstock and produced by Simcha Jacobovici, Elliott Halpern, and Ric Esther Bienstock for Associated Producers, Ltd..


 * 1992 National Academy of Cable Programming CableACE Award for the documentary Deadly Currents produced in association with City TV.

Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews
In the 1983 documentary, Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews, Jacobovici tells the story of Ethiopian Jews, also called Falasha (strangers) and properly known as Beta Israel. According to the documentary, the group was conquered by neighbouring tribes in the 17th century and suffered persecution. After the movie, during the Israeli Operation Moses (מִבְצָע מֹשֶׁה, Mivtza Moshe), the Falasha were evacuated from Sudan during a famine in 1984 and airlifted to Israel.

Expulsion & Memory: Descendants of the Hidden Jews
In this 1996 documentary, Jacobovici studies the Crypto Jews of New Mexico and the tiny population of Jewish descendants in Spain and Portugal, known as nuevos Cristianos ("new Christians"). He explores the Jewish ancestry of the New Mexican Hispanic families presently living in New Mexico, and finds many of them have always been aware of their Jewish heritage.

The Struma
The 2002 documentary The Struma, directed by Jacobovici, tells the story of MV Struma, a small ship chartered to carry Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to Mandatory Palestine in World War II. Only one man and his wife were let off the ship. The man was the representative of the Mobil Oil Company in Romania, and was helped by Mobil's representative in Turkey, Vehbi Koc. Koc asked this favor of the Istanbul Chief of Police, Sabri Caglayangil, who later became a Minister of the Interior. On February 23, 1942, with her engine inoperable and her refugee passengers aboard, Turkish authorities towed Struma from Istanbul harbor through the Bosphorus back to the Black Sea, where they set her adrift without food, water, or fuel. Within hours, on the morning of February 24, she was torpedoed and sunk by the SOVIET SUBMARINE Shch-213, killing at least 768 men, women and children, and possibly as many as 791, of whom 785 were Jews.

The movie won the Audience Award Portland International Film Festival as best documentary.

Quest for the Lost Tribes
In this 2003 wide-ranging documentary, Jacobovici goes on a worldwide search for the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel (stating there are actually only nine since the remnant of the Tribe of Dan was confirmed to be the Ethiopian Jews). Traveling from western Europe to China and India, Jacobovici finds tantalizing evidence that the "lost tribes" are not really lost.

Impact of Terror
Impact of Terror, produced by Jacobovici and directed by Tim Wolochatiuk, is a 2004 documentary about Israeli victims of terrorism struggling to cope in the aftermath of the August 2001 Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

The Exodus Decoded
The Exodus Decoded is a 2006 History Channel documentary created by Jacobovici and the producer/director James Cameron. The documentary explores evidence for the biblical account of the Exodus. Its claims and methods were widely criticized both by Biblical scholars and by mainstream scientists.

Jacobovici suggests that the Exodus took place around 1500 BC, during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I, and that it coincided with the Minoan eruption. In the documentary, the plagues that ravaged Egypt in the Bible are explained as having resulted from that eruption and a related limnic eruption in the Nile Delta. While much of Jacobovici's archaeological evidence for the Exodus comes from Egypt, some comes from Mycenae on mainland Greece, such as a gold ornament that somewhat resembles the Ark of the Covenant.

The documentary makes extensive use of computer animation and visual effects made by Gravity Visual Effects, Inc., based in Toronto. It runs for 90 minutes and was first aired in Canada on April 16, (Easter Day) 2006 (Discovery Channel Canada). Shown in the US on August 20, 2006 (History Channel US), UK on December 23, 2006 (Discovery Channel UK) and Spain on December 25, 2006 (Cuatro).

The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a documentary co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric Esther Bienstock, while James Cameron served as executive producer. The film was released in conjunction with a book about the same subject, The Jesus Family Tomb, issued in late February 2007 and co-authored by Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino. The documentary and book's claims are disputed by most experts within the archaeological and theological fields, as well as among most linguistic and biblical scholars.

The Naked Archaeologist
The Naked Archaeologist was a television show produced for VisionTV in Canada and History International in the US that was hosted and prepared by Jacobovici together with Avri Gilad. The show ultimately reviewed Biblical stories, then tried to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land looking for archaeological evidence, making personal inferences and deductions, and interviewing scholars and experts. Subsequent to its original run on VisionTV, it was picked up in the U.S. by The History Channel and its sister network, History International.

The episode "A Nabatean by Any Other Name" won the Special Jury Prize at the 8th International Archaeological Film Festival in Brussels.

Finding Atlantis
Jacobovici was involved in the production of a documentary shown in March 2010 on the National Geographic Channel in which he claimed that Atlantis has been found in Spain, and has said that evidence found by University of Hartford Professor Richard Freund includes the unearthed emblem of Atlantis, and the biblical angle that has been largely overlooked.