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.
Figurine of Female Deity
Figurine of female deity, Tel Batash, 14th century BCE. Similar plaque figurines of naked women, often with breasts and genitals emphasized or with pregnant bellies, were very common in the ancient…
Plaque Figurine of Pregnant Woman
In this terra-cotta plaque figurine from Tell Beit Mirsim, 6 inches (15 cm) high, the pregnant woman’s arms cradle her belly and her navel and genitalia protrude. Incisions indicate the eyes, the hair…
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…
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…
A Night at the Mall
On the revolving stage, a shop called Burgermatch, with a sign that reads: “Buy 10 hamburgers, get a free tennis racket.” Next to it, a sports goods store, Our Sports, with a sign saying “Buy 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…
Declaration of Yom Kippur War
Citizens of Israel, today, at around 2 p.m., the armies of Egypt and Syria launched an attack against Israel. They carried out a series of attacks from the air, with armor and artillery, in Sinai and…
Scribes Writing Lists
Scribes writing lists, Nimrud, late eighth century BCE. Two Assyrian scribes, standing side by side, make lists of booty as it comes in. One writes on a clay tablet and the other writes on a scroll.
Under This Blazing Light
There are now 157 or 162 independent states in the world, both new and old. The vast majority of them are under the sway of oppressive regimes, slavery, mass-brainwashing, ruler-worship: in one way or…
To Mend the World
What is a Jew? Who is a Jew? After this catastrophe, what is a Jew’s relation to the Jewish past? We resume our original question as we turn from one rupture in post-Holocaust Jewish existence—of the…
Israeli Blues
“Secular is a terrible word”; “secular is a word I don’t like,” “there is no such thing as a secular Jew”—these clichés are common among absolutely secular intellectuals when they discuss problems of…
Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue Music in Nineteenth-Century Reform Sources from Hamburg: Ancient Tradition in the Dawn of Modernity
Let us begin with the most basic questions: Can oral traditions of music constitute a reliable source for historical research? While this question is applicable to most music…