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.
Bullas from Jerusalem
The backs of many bullas, like those shown here from the City of David in Jerusalem, have impressions of the strings that once tied the rolled document and marks from the papyrus fibers of the…
The Sixteenth Lamb—Songs and Stories for Children
How is a song born?
Like a baby.
At first it hurts
But then, it comes out
And everyone is happy
And suddenly—
How wonderful!
It’s walking
All on its own.
How is a song born?
Like…
Seal of Hagab, with Archer
This phosphorite seal, found in the plaza of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, portrays an archer with a bow prepared to shoot. The quality of the carving is very high. The depiction of the archer is…
Ivory Spoon
This spoon from Hazor has a wide handle intricately incised on its front with a sequence of palmettes curving upward instead of the more common downward-turning volutes. The spoon’s use is unclear. It…
The Scapegoat
(The stage is bare, on stage are Sonia and Yishai. Music.)Sonia:Yishai, aren’t you the one who’s bringing the children from Ahuza?Yishai:No, Yoska, from the…
Coin with Ear
The image of an ear on this coin may symbolize God as the one who hears prayers, as in passages such as Psalm 34:16, 18, and Psalm 130:2. The image is paralleled on Egyptian stelas that depict…
1948
The living room is deserted, dark and quiet. Knocking is heard. Rina comes out of her room carrying an oil lamp to see where the sounds are coming from. She walks around the living room in a…
Woman Playing Frame Drum
The drumhead of this Phoenician-style terra-cotta figurine from Shikmona (south of Haifa) is recessed, suggesting that the drum had only a single head. Figurines like this are typically found in…
Integration and Survival
Jewish identity in the preemancipation period assumed essentially one of two forms—religion or communalism. Each in its own way was a break with tradition. Each was predicated on acceptance of the…
Joseph
Now Jacob was settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan. This, then, is the line of Jacob:
At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended…
The Division of the Kingdom
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to acclaim him as king. Jeroboam son of Nebat learned of it while he was still in Egypt; for Jeroboam had fled from King Solomon, and had…