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 Rations
To Elyashib: And now, give to the Kittim 1 bath and 3 hin of wine and write the date. And from the surplus of the best flour you shall load 1 kor (?) to make bread for them. From the wine of the…
Imprisonment of Jewish Leaders
[To my brother PN, your brother Islah.
It is well for me here]. May the gods seek after your welfare at all times. And now, . . . PN son of PN went to Syene and did/made . . . .
Behold, these are the…
Another Shipment of Wine
In the ninth year,
From Siptan, to Baalzamar:
A jar of aged wine
Translated by Anson F. Rainey from Shmuel Aḥituv’s Hebrew edition.
Mesha Inscription
I am Mesha son of Chemoshyat king of Moab, the Di-bonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years and I reigned after my father.
And I built this high place for Chemosh in the “citadel,” a high place…
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…