Oded Lipschits is Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University and the Director of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. He is also the Incumbent of the Austria Chair of the Archeology of the Land of Israel in the Biblical Period and the head of the international M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Ancient Israel Studies. Professor Lipschits directed the excavations at Ramat Raḥel between 2005 and 2010. Since 2012 he has been the Director of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition, and in recent years he has also been directing excavations in the new temple of the biblical period discovered in Moẓa, a few kilometers from Jerusalem.