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.
The One Facing Us
He spent much time at the home of Nona Fortuna and Grandpapa Jacquo. After a night on the town, he would fall asleep fully clothed on the couch in their living room, or in Uncle Sicourelle’s bed with…
In Babylon
Emmanuel Hollander worked at, and believed in progress, but progress was not a religious notion for him, as it was for his future wife. He was an engineer and knew that every machine began as a…
Exotic Birds
During the bitterest days of my European exile, I turn to the photo album where I keep, along with more recent memories, a few images from my childhood—images that enlarged and corrected, come back to…
Politics
No, Moshe was not a serious Jewish boy. He was not committed to the history of the Jewish people. If he were asked to locate Tel Aviv on a map of Israel, I am not sure that Moshe could have done it.
I…
Lord of the World
Please, increase the intensity of your signals.
Here I
can’t hear, can’t know, if you’ve
stuck another iron flower in the lapel
of the antenna. You’re so delicate. Why
are you so soft, why are you…
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…