David Hendin
Encyclopedia
David Bruce Hendin is America
’s leading expert in ancient Jewish and Biblical coins
and artifacts. He is also known for his earlier career as a medical journalist, newspaper columnist, publishing executive, and author. Hendin’s published books range from the groundbreaking bestseller Death as a Fact of Life to the standard reference Guide to Biblical Coins.
, Great Britain
, Israel and the United States. His monthly column, Biblical Coins, has appeared in the numismatic magazine, The Celator, every month since 1988 – more than 200 articles, which resulted in the Numismatic Literary Guild award for “Best Magazine Column,” in 2000 and 1993. In 1996 he received the Ben Odesser Judaic Literary Award for his writing on ancient coins of the Holy Land. In 2003 he received the Presidential Award of the American Numismatic Association.
Hendin’s widely published books and articles about coins and pre-coinage currency and weights of the ancient Middle East span his more than 40-year study of the subjects. In 1985 and 1986 he was chief numismatist of the Joint Sepphoris (Israel) Project excavations under the auspices of Duke University
(Eric and Carol Meyers) and Hebrew University
(Ehud Netzer). As chairman of the numismatic committee of the Jewish Museum
in New York, Hendin worked with the late Prof. Ya'akov Meshorer
to prepare and acquire coins for the exhibit, and edited the catalog Coins Reveal in 1983. Hendin also edited and published Ancient Jewish Coinage Vols. I & II, by Ya’akov Meshorer and the English edition of A Treasury of Jewish Coins by Ya'akov Meshorer
. In 1992 he was elected a Fellow
of the American Numismatic Society
and is now a Life Fellow. Hendin has donated many significant numismatic and archaeological objects to the Israel Museum
, Jerusalem, and as a result was honored in 2001 as a Sponsor of the Israel Museum.
Hendin’s interest in ancient Jewish and Biblical coins began during a year-long stint as a volunteer of Israel’s Six-Day War
in 1967–68, during which he learned to speak Hebrew and taught biology at an agricultural high school near Ashkelon
. Previously his father, Aaron Hendin, a St. Louis physician, had been a long-time collector and student of ancient Jewish coins. But it took a year of living in Israel for the younger Hendin to spark to the subject. Once he began his studies, however, he did not let up and he was mentored for decades by the world leaders in the field including Ya'akov Meshorer
, Professor of Archaeology
and Numismatics
at Hebrew University, founding curator Numismatic Department and Chief Curator of the Israel Museum
; Dan Barag, Professor of Archaeology and Numismatics at Hebrew University; and Shraga Qedar, a well known Israeli numismatic scholar. On Meshorer’s death in 2002 Hendin helped establish the Meshorer Prize in Numismatics given by the Israel Museum, and he sits on the board that awards the Meshorer Prize. He is also a board member of the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild
.
Guide to Biblical Coins, first published in 1976 as Guide to Ancient Jewish Coins, is now in its 4th edition, with a 5th edition expected in 2010. It is one of the standard texts and references in the field. Hendin has lectured at various numismatic societies throughout the U.S. and Israel, including The Israel Museum and the Israel Numismatic Society.
(Miss Manners ), Alan Dershowitz
, Scott Adams
(Dilbert
), Mayor Ed Koch
, Julian Bond
, George McGovern
, Ben J. Wattenberg
, Sen. William Proxmire
, Michael Kinsley
, Mort Kondracke
, Jeffrey Zazlow, Elaine Viets
, and Dr. Peter Gott
. He also worked closely with Pulitzer Prize
winning muckraker Jack Anderson and cartoonists Charles M. Schulz
(Peanuts ), Jim Davis
(Garfield
), Mort Walker
(Beetle Bailey
, Gamin & Patches ), Mike Peters (Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist), artist Peter Max
, and many others. He launched the first newspaper column that led to America’s 1980s coupon-clipping craze, The Supermarket Shopper by Martin Sloane. In 1992 Hendin was a featured speaker at Ohio State University
’s Festival of Cartoon Art.
During his years as a journalist with Scripps-Howard’s news and feature syndicates, Hendin was a leading medical journalist, and author of more than 1,000 newspaper and magazine articles, Hendin has been honored with many journalism awards, including the American Medical Writer's Association Book of the Year (1977), Medical Journalism Award of the American Medical Association (1972), Blakeslee Award of the American Heart Association (1973), and the Claude Bernard Science Journalism Award (1974). The New York Times
has called Hendin’s writing “brilliant and highly sensitive,” and The Washington Post
referred to it as “journalism of the highest order.” His book Death as a Fact of Life was serialized for a full week in the New York Post
and other newspapers nationwide. His books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Hendin’s syndicated newspaper column The Medical Consumer was published in newspapers nationwide for six years. His earlier column, Man and His World, was the first syndicated newspaper column on ecology and ran from 1970 to 1974. During his journalism career, Hendin wrote more than 1,000 articles for daily newspapers and magazines such as Saturday Review, Reader's Digest
, and Science News
.
From 1971 to 1986 he was Adjunct Professor of Journalism at the University of Missouri
School of Journalism, and he founded and directed their New York Science Journalism Program. In 1975 and 1976 Hendin was a lecturer in science and medical journalism at the Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism. He served on the boards of trustees of the Scripps Howard Foundation; the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender, and Reproduction; The Newspaper Comics Council; The Holy Land Conservation Fund, and of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
In 1993 he became a consultant and literary agent who has counted among his clients Judith Martin (MISS MANNERS), Elaine Viets, Mike Peters (GRIMMY), Rabbi Abraham Twerski, M.D., Brad and Guy Gilchrist (NANCY), Alan Dershowitz, Tom Wilson (ZIGGY), the late Charles M. Schulz (PEANUTS), and many other talented creators. Hendin was co-executive producer of the 1993 PBS Special Miss Manners and Company.
, Columbia, and received his BS degree in Biology (1967) and his MA degree from Missouri’s School of Journalism in 1971.
He has been married since 1985 to Jeannie Luciano, vice chair and director of trade publishing at W.W. Norton & Co. Publishers. He has three children, Sarah, born 1972, Ben, born 1975 and Alexander, born 1990.
Hendin has been listed in Who's Who in America since 1974.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
’s leading expert in ancient Jewish and Biblical coins
Coins of the Bible
A number of coins are mentioned in the Bible, and they have proved very popular among coin collectors.Specific coins mentioned in the Bible include the widow's mite, the tribute penny and the thirty pieces of silver, though it is not always possible to identify the exact coin that was used.-Widow's...
and artifacts. He is also known for his earlier career as a medical journalist, newspaper columnist, publishing executive, and author. Hendin’s published books range from the groundbreaking bestseller Death as a Fact of Life to the standard reference Guide to Biblical Coins.
Jewish-Biblical coins expertise
Hendin is well known worldwide as an authority on Biblical and ancient Jewish coins. He has published more than a 20 articles in this field in scholarly journals and has been an invited speaker at symposia in ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Great Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Israel and the United States. His monthly column, Biblical Coins, has appeared in the numismatic magazine, The Celator, every month since 1988 – more than 200 articles, which resulted in the Numismatic Literary Guild award for “Best Magazine Column,” in 2000 and 1993. In 1996 he received the Ben Odesser Judaic Literary Award for his writing on ancient coins of the Holy Land. In 2003 he received the Presidential Award of the American Numismatic Association.
Hendin’s widely published books and articles about coins and pre-coinage currency and weights of the ancient Middle East span his more than 40-year study of the subjects. In 1985 and 1986 he was chief numismatist of the Joint Sepphoris (Israel) Project excavations under the auspices of Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
(Eric and Carol Meyers) and Hebrew University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
(Ehud Netzer). As chairman of the numismatic committee of the Jewish Museum
Jewish Museum (New York)
The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...
in New York, Hendin worked with the late Prof. Ya'akov Meshorer
Ya'akov Meshorer
Professor Ya'akov Meshorer was the Chief Curator for Archaeology at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and a prominent Israeli numismatist.-Early life:...
to prepare and acquire coins for the exhibit, and edited the catalog Coins Reveal in 1983. Hendin also edited and published Ancient Jewish Coinage Vols. I & II, by Ya’akov Meshorer and the English edition of A Treasury of Jewish Coins by Ya'akov Meshorer
Ya'akov Meshorer
Professor Ya'akov Meshorer was the Chief Curator for Archaeology at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and a prominent Israeli numismatist.-Early life:...
. In 1992 he was elected a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of the American Numismatic Society
American Numismatic Society
The American Numismatic Society is a New York City-based organization dedicated to the study of coins and medals.-Introduction:...
and is now a Life Fellow. Hendin has donated many significant numismatic and archaeological objects to the Israel Museum
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
, Jerusalem, and as a result was honored in 2001 as a Sponsor of the Israel Museum.
Hendin’s interest in ancient Jewish and Biblical coins began during a year-long stint as a volunteer of Israel’s Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
in 1967–68, during which he learned to speak Hebrew and taught biology at an agricultural high school near Ashkelon
Ashkelon
Ashkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...
. Previously his father, Aaron Hendin, a St. Louis physician, had been a long-time collector and student of ancient Jewish coins. But it took a year of living in Israel for the younger Hendin to spark to the subject. Once he began his studies, however, he did not let up and he was mentored for decades by the world leaders in the field including Ya'akov Meshorer
Ya'akov Meshorer
Professor Ya'akov Meshorer was the Chief Curator for Archaeology at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and a prominent Israeli numismatist.-Early life:...
, Professor of Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and Numismatics
Numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...
at Hebrew University, founding curator Numismatic Department and Chief Curator of the Israel Museum
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
; Dan Barag, Professor of Archaeology and Numismatics at Hebrew University; and Shraga Qedar, a well known Israeli numismatic scholar. On Meshorer’s death in 2002 Hendin helped establish the Meshorer Prize in Numismatics given by the Israel Museum, and he sits on the board that awards the Meshorer Prize. He is also a board member of the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild
Ancient Coin Collectors Guild
Ancient Coin Collectors Guild was founded in 2004 as an advocacy group for private collectors of ancient coins. The ACCG is a 5014 non-profit organization chartered in the American state of Missouri.-Mission:...
.
Guide to Biblical Coins, first published in 1976 as Guide to Ancient Jewish Coins, is now in its 4th edition, with a 5th edition expected in 2010. It is one of the standard texts and references in the field. Hendin has lectured at various numismatic societies throughout the U.S. and Israel, including The Israel Museum and the Israel Numismatic Society.
Journalism career
In 1993, after a 23-year career, Hendin left Scripps Howard’s United Feature Syndicate/Newspaper Enterprise Association, most recently as senior vice president and editorial director for syndication and president and publisher of The World Almanac Books division. At United Feature Syndicate, Hendin was responsible for signing columnists and cartoonists such as Judith MartinJudith Martin
Judith Martin , better known by the pen name Miss Manners, is an American journalist, author, and etiquette authority. Martin's uncle was economist and labor historian Selig Perlman.- Early life and career :...
(Miss Manners ), Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
, Scott Adams
Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams is the American creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, business, and general speculation....
(Dilbert
Dilbert
Dilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. First published on April 16, 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character...
), Mayor Ed Koch
Ed Koch
Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
, Julian Bond
Julian Bond
Horace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
, George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
, Ben J. Wattenberg
Ben J. Wattenberg
Benjamin J. Wattenberg is an American conservative commentator and writer.-Early years:Wattenberg was born in The Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents, and went on to graduate from Hobart College in 1955, majoring in English. From 1955 to 1957 he was in the U.S. Air Force, based in San Antonio. He...
, Sen. William Proxmire
William Proxmire
Edward William Proxmire was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989.-Personal life:...
, Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley is an American political journalist, commentator, television host, and pundit. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on Crossfire...
, Mort Kondracke
Mort Kondracke
Morton M. Kondracke is an American political commentator and journalist. He gained great visibility via a long stint as a panelist on The McLaughlin Group. Kondracke worked for several leading publications, serving for twenty years as executive editor and columnist for the non-partisan Capitol...
, Jeffrey Zazlow, Elaine Viets
Elaine Viets
Elaine Viets is a Midwestern American newspaperwoman and mystery writer.A native of the working-class white southside of St. Louis, Missouri, the statuesque Viets has a degree in journalism and became a long-time popular media figure in St. Louis. She was a regular columnist for the St...
, and Dr. Peter Gott
Peter Gott
Peter Gott was an English politician. He was a Member of Parliament for Hastings from 1690 to 1695 and again from 1698 to 1701.He died aged 56.-References:...
. He also worked closely with Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winning muckraker Jack Anderson and cartoonists Charles M. Schulz
Charles M. Schulz
Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.-Early life and education:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul...
(Peanuts ), Jim Davis
Jim Davis (cartoonist)
James Robert Davis is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the comic strip Garfield, which he signs as Jim Davis. He has also worked on other strips: Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, U.S. Acres and a strip about Mr...
(Garfield
Garfield
Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
), Mort Walker
Mort Walker
Addison Morton Walker , popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He has signed Addison to some of his strips.Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri...
(Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey is an American comic strip set in a fictional United States Army military post, created by cartoonist Mort Walker. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator...
, Gamin & Patches ), Mike Peters (Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist), artist Peter Max
Peter Max
Peter Max is a German-born Jewish American artist. At first, works in this style appeared on posters and were seen on the walls of college dorms all across America. Max then became fascinated with new printing techniques that allowed for four-color reproduction on product merchandise...
, and many others. He launched the first newspaper column that led to America’s 1980s coupon-clipping craze, The Supermarket Shopper by Martin Sloane. In 1992 Hendin was a featured speaker at Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
’s Festival of Cartoon Art.
During his years as a journalist with Scripps-Howard’s news and feature syndicates, Hendin was a leading medical journalist, and author of more than 1,000 newspaper and magazine articles, Hendin has been honored with many journalism awards, including the American Medical Writer's Association Book of the Year (1977), Medical Journalism Award of the American Medical Association (1972), Blakeslee Award of the American Heart Association (1973), and the Claude Bernard Science Journalism Award (1974). The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
has called Hendin’s writing “brilliant and highly sensitive,” and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
referred to it as “journalism of the highest order.” His book Death as a Fact of Life was serialized for a full week in the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
and other newspapers nationwide. His books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Hendin’s syndicated newspaper column The Medical Consumer was published in newspapers nationwide for six years. His earlier column, Man and His World, was the first syndicated newspaper column on ecology and ran from 1970 to 1974. During his journalism career, Hendin wrote more than 1,000 articles for daily newspapers and magazines such as Saturday Review, Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
, and Science News
Science News
Science News is an American bi-weekly magazine devoted to short articles about new scientific and technical developments, typically gleaned from recent scientific and technical journals. Science News has been published since 1922 by Society for Science & the Public, a non-profit organization...
.
From 1971 to 1986 he was Adjunct Professor of Journalism at the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
School of Journalism, and he founded and directed their New York Science Journalism Program. In 1975 and 1976 Hendin was a lecturer in science and medical journalism at the Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Graduate School of Journalism. He served on the boards of trustees of the Scripps Howard Foundation; the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender, and Reproduction; The Newspaper Comics Council; The Holy Land Conservation Fund, and of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
In 1993 he became a consultant and literary agent who has counted among his clients Judith Martin (MISS MANNERS), Elaine Viets, Mike Peters (GRIMMY), Rabbi Abraham Twerski, M.D., Brad and Guy Gilchrist (NANCY), Alan Dershowitz, Tom Wilson (ZIGGY), the late Charles M. Schulz (PEANUTS), and many other talented creators. Hendin was co-executive producer of the 1993 PBS Special Miss Manners and Company.
Education
Born and raised in St. Louis, Hendin is the son of Dr. Aaron and Lillian Hendin. He graduated Horton Watkins (Ladue) High School (1963), which recognized him in 2002 as one of 37 distinguished alumni in the school’s 50-year history. He attended the University of MissouriUniversity of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
, Columbia, and received his BS degree in Biology (1967) and his MA degree from Missouri’s School of Journalism in 1971.
He has been married since 1985 to Jeannie Luciano, vice chair and director of trade publishing at W.W. Norton & Co. Publishers. He has three children, Sarah, born 1972, Ben, born 1975 and Alexander, born 1990.
Hendin has been listed in Who's Who in America since 1974.