The story centers around a genuine historical artifact, the so-called Copper Scroll, whose many secrets still remain undeciphered by contemporary scholars and treasure hunters. Despite decades of searching, not a single one of these invaluable treasures has ever been found.
Laced with clever spycraft, encrypted electronic files, mysterious ancient puzzles, plastique explosives, car chases, and Sherlockian ratiocination, The Deadly Scrolls explores the timely theme of fanaticism: among Christian millennialists, Jewish messianists, Islamic terrorists, Israeli politicians, Orthodox Jews, conspiracy theorists, devout Zionists—and spies. In other words, it’s a Jewish Da Vinci Code!
Ellen Frankel served for eighteen years as Editor in Chief and CEO of The Jewish Publication Society. She received her BA from the University of Michigan and her PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton.
She is the author of ten books, including The Classic Tales, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols, and The Five Books of Miriam. Her JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible won the National Jewish Book Award. She has traveled widely as a Jewish storyteller and lecturer.
Frankel’s first opera, Slaying the Dragon, about the unlikely friendship between a KKK Grand Dragon and a rabbi, with music by Michael Ching, premiered in Philadelphia in 2012. Her opera, The Triangle Fire, with composer Leonard Lehrman, was performed in NJ and NYC in 2016 and 2017. Her newest work, Beyond the Binary, about artificial intelligence, with composer Andrea Clearfield, will premiere in Philadelphia in May 2022.
Frankel and her husband, Herb Levine, divide their time between Florida and Maine.