Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Brickmaking by Prisoners
Brickmaking by prisoners. Thebes, Egypt, 15th century BCE. This mural, from the tomb of the vizier Rekh-me-re, shows Semitic (“Asiatic”) and Nubian prisoners of war making mud bricks and repairing a…
Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria
Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (reigned 681–669 BCE). This copy of the treaty was found in the inner sanctum of the Assyrian temple in Tell Tayinat (in southeastern Turkey), where it was…
Idol-quickening Instructions
Idol-quickening instructions, Babylonia, 6th century BCE. The “mouth-washing” ritual was a ceremony for transforming a newly manufactured idol into a living deity. The instructions include these…
Four Room House Plan
“Four-room” house plan, Iron Age II. The typical Israelite dwelling was a rectangular or square house of between roughly 500 and 1,200 square feet (50–110 sq m). It is often called a “four-room” or…
The Tongue Set Free
Ruschuk, on the lower Danube, where I came into the world, was a marvelous city for a child, and if I say that Ruschuk is in Bulgaria, then I am giving an inadequate picture of it. For…
Tombs from Ketef Hinnom Cemetery
A group of elaborate tombs was found on the slopes of Jerusalem’s Hinnom Valley, including a cluster at Ketef Hinnom behind what is now the Menachem Begin Center. This is an artist's reconstruction of…
The Life and Adventures of a Provincial Soul: A Poema
“The comparative image of Natal’ia Rostova and Tat’iana Larina”—indeed, which one of them would have worked better on the Line?
The mid-1990s, the desert, a profitable little newly fledged factory on…
Baghdad, Yesterday
My parents had been married for five years when I was born, the second child after my sister, and, as far back as I can remember, I never heard them quarreling. It is possible that they…
The Rabbi’s Girls
The first two nights of Passover we had big Seders, which are festive dinners. Everyone wore their best clothes, and Mama cooked special traditional foods like chicken soup with matzo balls and potato…
Bent
The same. Three days later.Max is moving rocks. Horst is putting the rock pile into neat order.Horst:The air is fresh today. Clean.[Max hands Horst a needle and a thread as he passes the…
Coin with Owl and Inscription
On this coin, the owl has lost some of the distinctive features of the Athenian prototypes. Instead of the large prominent eyes, the face is relatively small, and the eyes are even smaller. The bird’s…