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.
Coin with Shofar/Falcon
The front of this coin depicts an animal horn, probably a shofar (parallel lines across the horn suggest horns of rams and some other animals). If this is a shofar, it likely signifies praying to God…
Musicians in a Relief from Nineveh
Depicted in a relief from Sennacherib’s Palace in Nineveh, these musicians, followed by an Assyrian soldier, hold stringed instruments against their chests, plucking the strings as they walk. Dressed…
Elephantine Letter (Request about the Rebuilding of the Elephantine Temple)
Elephantine letter, dated to year 17 of King Darius II (November 25, 407 BCE). See Request about the Rebuilding of the Elephantine Temple) and Darius and Xerxes, Kings of Persia. The letter is…
Why I Would Rather Not Be a Jew—and If I Must, Then Rather Not in Germany
When it came time for me to start school, my mother went to the director of the Wilhelm Pieck School in Katowice, Poland, where we were living then, to register me. My sister, nine years my senior…
The Ratification of the Covenant
Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of the Lord and all the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, saying, “All the things that the Lord has commanded we will do!” Mos…
The Pilgrimage Festivals
Observe the month of Abib and offer a passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, for it was in the month of Abib, at night, that the Lord your God freed you from Egypt. You shall slaughter the…
The Nazirite
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If anyone, man or woman, explicitly utters a nazirite’s vow, to set himself apart for the Lord, he shall abstain from wine…
A Property Dispute Settled by Oath
On the 18th of Kislev, that is the 17th day of Thoth, year 21 (of Xerxes the king), the beginning of the reign when Artaxerxes the king sat on his throne, Dargamana son of Khvarshaina, a Khwarezmian…
Jotham’s Fable
All the citizens of Shechem and all Beth-millo convened, and they proclaimed Abimelech king at the terebinth of the pillar at Shechem. When Jotham was informed, he went and stood on top of Mount…
Self-Portrait with Candles
Self-Portrait with Candles is a rare example of a work with a Jewish theme by Lily Delissa Joseph. Here she has painted herself holding two Sabbath candles. Her head is covered, as is traditional for…
A Proper Time for Everything
A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven:
A time for being born and a time for dying,
A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted;
A time for slaying…
Curse in Burial Cave at Khirbet el-Kom (Makkedah) #6
Cursed be Hagab! Son of Hagab
To YHWH of the Hosts
Translated by Anson F. Rainey from Shmuel Aḥituv’s Hebrew edition.