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.
Six-Language Dictionary
Title page of the second edition of a six-language (Hebrew-Aramaic, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish) dictionary published in Jerusalem in 1908.
Esther Play for Purim
Purim plays (Purim shpiln, in Yiddish), sometimes also called Esther plays, have been known since the fifteenth century in both Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities. These folk plays were performed on…
Sport
Zoltan Kluger was one of the most influential and prolific photographers in Palestine and, after the establishment of the state, during the first decade of Israel’s existence, as attested to by his…
Nerves
A perfumelike smell, which came from the low clumps of acacia trees, or “mimosas,” as some liked to call them, scented the air of the small Jewish colony in southern Palestine. In the expanse of sky…
Wise Virgins
Man is not naturally a gregarious animal, though he has become so under the compulsion of circumstances and civilisation. You can see this in the history of his dwellings. In the beginning…
The Daredevil
She heard a sudden loud squeaking, so she raised her head. Seeing the cart she let out a happy shout: “A troupe!”
Her mother came out from the kitchen and looked through the window. “A fat lot of good…
Portrait of Itzik Manger
Chaim Gliksberg was well-known for his portraits of literary figures. Here, he has pictured Itzik Manger, the celebrated Yiddish poet and playwright. Manger was particularly renowned for his modernist…
David Ben-Gurion Standing on His Head (Sharon Hotel Beach, Herzliya)
Paul Goldman was notable for keeping his distance from his subjects, perhaps as a show of respect. He photographed many of Israel’s early leaders. Here, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister…
Letter to My Honored Captain
My red blood is dripping, slowly flowing,
My panting heart slowly calms down in peace,
I lie here peacefully on a narrow stretcher,
And my hazy eyes gaze into the distance.
My red blood is dripping…
Carob Tree Boulevard
Ori Reisman painted with a spatula, reducing his subjects to large blocks of vibrant color with little or no detail, which could be experienced as both figurative and abstract. During his lifetime he…
I Am the Creeper
I am the creeper, the wild one
Climbing your garden hedge,
Reaching, a red one, a wild one,
Up to your window ledge;
To inhale your dress’ rustling
As on your floor I lay,
To pale in the light of…
Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan
Madame Butterfly [Impassively, her eyes narrowing]:Speak concerning marriage once more, you die! [She fans herself. Suzuki salaams and backs quickly toward the door. Madame Butterfly claps her hands…