Arthur Ziffer

Masada Revisited Arthur Ziffer

The play "Masada Revisited" is a semi - fictionalized retelling in play form of an incident set in the locale of Masada, a place near the Dead Sea in modern day Israel, that occurred in 73 ce. It refers to the last event of the Jewish War against the Romans that lasted from 66 ce to 70 ce with cleanup operations lasting until 73 ce, Masada being the last one. The only historical refence is from the book "The Jewish War Against the Romans" written by the historian Josephus who lived in the first century ce. Josephus was not an eyewitness to the incident and was notoriously inaccurate sometimes as well as having to write under the constraint of ingratiating himself with his Roman sponsors. Many Jewish people object to the original form of the story. This version is, hopefully, less objectionable. The book "Judas the Galilean" by Daniel Unterbrink published by iUniverse contains some background material that is referred to in the play "Masada Revisited".