On his last visit to the US in 1995, Prof. Shahak, whom Gore Vidal called âthe latestâif not the lastâof the great prophets,â described how apartheid was functioning in Israel and the OT following Oslo and between the 1st and 2nd Intifadas. He also spoke of his book, âJewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years,â in which he outlined the connections between Talmudic Judaism and modern day Israel with its pre-modern mentality. Shahak was born in Poland and was imprisoned by the Nazis in Bergen-Belsen from which he immigrated to Israel following the war.