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.
Window Balustrade from Ramat Rahel Palace
Palm imagery is a common motif in decorative architectural elements like window balustrades. Each of the four columns in this partial restoration from the biblical period is six inches in diameter and…
Roommates: My Grandfather’s Story
Gootie, my grandma, was a short, large-boned woman who made the kitchen her kingdom. She entered the living room only on special occasions—like Monday night to watch “I Love Lucy.” She had to think…
Black White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self
In twelfth grade I am at the height of my power as a young woman. I am experienced. I am loved. I am excelling in my classes. I am president of my school and lead all school meetings in the gym every…
Dave at Night
I went back to my letter. “Every Sunday there’s a chess tournament.” I stopped writing.
It was crazy. Mr. Doom was supposed to take care of all of us. Mr. Meltzer was supposed to take care of the…
Cow and Calf
This drawing of a cow and her calf appears on the right side of a pithos (storage jar) from Kuntillet Ajrud. The cow and calf are a common motif associated with fertility and protection. Kuntillet…
Necklace of Beads
This necklace of beads is predominantly of orange glass but incorporates stone beads and gold spacers as well. The beads range in shape from bi-conical to cylindrical and also include larger…
Dancers on a Seal from Abel Beth Maacah
Seals from numerous sites in ancient Israel and elsewhere in the Levant have schematic depictions of two or three people with hands linked or raised, reaching toward each other. All the members of the…
Samaria Ostracon (A Shipment of Wine)
Samaria ostracon (A Shipment of Wine), early 8th century BCE, from the ruins of a building near the royal palace. The text can be read here.
Bodily Discharges and Impurity
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
When any man has a discharge issuing from his member, he is unclean. [ . . . ]
When one with a discharge…
Witnesses
A single witness may not validate against a person any guilt or blame for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more. If a man appears…
A Ruling about Deferring Passover
The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the passover…
Marriage Contract
In the month of Tishri, that is Epeiph, year four of Darius the king, then in Elephantine the fortress, Ananiah son of Haggai, an Aramean of Elephantine the fortress of the detachment of Iddinnabu…