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.
An Order Concerning a Jar of Oil
(Obverse) To Nahum, [and] now: go to the house of Elyashib son of Ishiyahu and you shall take from there 1 jar of oil and send to Ziph quickly, and seal it with your seal.
(Reverse) On the 24th of the…
Request about the Rebuilding of the Elephantine Temple
To our lord Bagavahya governor of Judah, your servants Jedaniah and his colleagues the priests who are in Elephantine the fortress.
May the God of Heaven seek after the welfare of our lord abundantly…
Tel Dan Inscription
[ . . . . . . . . ] and cut (a treaty) [
[ . . . e]l my father went up [against him when] he was fighting in Abe[l?]
And my father lay down, he went to his [ancestors (or: eternal place)]. And the…
Judith Trachtenberg: A Novel
There was a boy, Raphael, and a girl, Judith. The latter gave promise of great beauty. Both received a careful education, in accordance with the requirements of the age, from a tutor, one Herr…
Sideways
Within a few weeks the season arrived for merry walks in the marvelous woods, gay boat rides on the river, poetic campfires beneath dark, satiny skies, boisterous breachings of the silence of the…
The Deserted
Rosie thought about father—a repressed anxiety that never disappeared altogether and lingered as a dark shadow behind a light and joyful life, like the pale backdrop to a colorful stage—but she did…
At Night
At night once, I awoke in the dark, crowded, loudly snoring railroad car; instantly I saw him on the seat across from me and instantly I recognized him. There he sat, the old, familiar night-Jew, who…
The Cursed Well
Even though the town has a well right in the middle of the marketplace, many of its finest people use river water that they have to carry from the edge of the town half a mile away. The river water is…