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It is with great sadness that we communicate to International Catacomb Society directors, sponsors, and friends news of the death of ICS founding member and longtime executive officer, Florence Z. Wolsky, on 28 February 2018, in Woburn, MA (link to obituary). Our thoughts and prayers are with ICS president, Alfred Wolsky, Esq. and other…

Daily Life in Ancient Athens: A View from the Agora 2018 Brettman Memorial Lecture by John Mck. Camp II Free and open to the public (museum admission by voluntary contribution after 3 p.m.). Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium (Auditorium 161) Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington…

The International Catacomb Society is proud co-sponsor of a colloquium organized by Prof. Sarah Madole on current research on the Catacombs of Rome at the 2018 AIA/SCS Joint Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. Many participants are current ICS directors and/or former Shohet Scholars.  SESSION 1J: Colloquium “New Approaches to the Catacombs of Rome” Friday,…

In celebration of the  Jewish Festival of Lights, the ICS inaugurates its digital manuscript archive on Jews in 20th century America, “The Estelle Papers,” with the release of an extensive and long-lost account of Jewish life in northern New England. Written over half a century ago and never before available to the public, Gabriel…

(Source: Mary Jaharis Center) Art and Identity in the Late Roman World, Toledo Museum of Art, GlasSalon, December 7–8, 2017) This colloquium is undertaken in conjunction with the exhibition Glorious Splendor: Treasures of Early Christian Art. Art and Identity in the Late Roman World is generously supported by The Ferrell Family Fund and the…

As part of the International Catacomb Society’s on-going collaboration with the peer-reviewed web journal “Ancient Jew Review” (AJR) to highlight current research on Ancient Judaism in its Mediterranean context, this week’s “Dissertation Spotlight” is authored by International Catacomb Society Executive Director Jessica Dello Russo (the first article of the AJR/ICS series, by Catacomb Society Director…

Philo’s Mission to Rome: A Historical Archaeological View – Lecture (in English) by Annewies van den Hoek (Harvard University) and John J. Herrmann, Jr. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) Thursday, December 07, 2017, 6:00 pm, in the Theological Faculty of Humboldt University, Burgstr. 26, 10178 Berlin, seminar room 117  Vortrag_vdHoek_071217 (invitation pdf) Abstract: In spite of its highly rhetorical character, Philo’s…

Boston-area artist Janet Shapero is displaying recent works in her signature technique of Rete-Chrome at the Waltham Open Studios on November 4 & 5, 2017. Shapero’s studio address is 144 Moody Street, Building 4, 2d floor, Studio 1. Artist Web site: www.janetshapero.com. ICS founder, Estelle Brettman, was a friend of Shapero’s parents, and traveled with Shapero…

Rome Diary of Louise LaGorce Hickey October-November 1984 Edited by Jessica Dello Russo (2017) Preface – Louise LaGorce Hickey was a close friend of International Catacomb Society founder Estelle Shohet Brettman and served on the society’s executive board as Assistant and later Associate Executive Director until her death in 1988. She had the rare…

In 1976, the Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana published Fr. Umberto M. Fasola’s report on the excavation of two Jewish catacombs below the Villa Torlonia in Rome. The dig had been made between 1973 and 1974 at the start of Fasola’s tenure as secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology (PCAS), the Vatican entity…