Este volumen es en honor a Joan Goodnick Westenholz, una mujer erudita que ha estado toda su vida involucrada en investigaciones centradas sobre todo en la cultura de Mesopotamia. Ha desarrollado sus estudios en importantes centros de American Assyriology en Filadelfia y en Chicago. También ha estado trabajando en la ciudad Santa de Jerusalén donde recientemente se retiró, como conservadora jefe del Museo de las Tierras Bíblicas durante dos décadas, ampliando sus conocimientos sobre diferentes culturas que se asentaron en la región en los tiempos bíblicos.

This volume is for our friend Joan, a true Woman of Valor. Joan has been involved in the work of Assyriology for a lifetime that has brought her from the great centers of American Assyriology in Philadelphia and Chicago, to the holy city of Jerusalem where she recently retired from her position as Chief Curator of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem. In honor of Joan's many contributions to the field, and her countless personal kindnesses - including those wonderful dinners at her apartment - we, Joan's friends with ties to Jerusalem, have come together in this modest mode of appreciation. We look forward to many more years of fruitful contacts with Joan both here in the byways of Jerusalem, and beyond.