The Island People

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow has one of the world’s greatest collections of art, with more than 700,000 artifacts – yet the Jewish treasures of the museum have never been exposed. Join award-winning author Matti Friedman as he takes us on a rare tour and a glimpse of Jewish history and culture as they appear in the treasures of the Pushkin Museum.

Beit Avi Chai presents the fifth episode of Let Objects Speak: Jewish Artifacts in Russian Museums series that focuses on inscribed shards known as ostraca, fragments of baked clay dishes. These inscriptions in Aramaic shed light on the daily existence of the Jewish garrison located on the island of Elephantine in the upper Nile, a millennium after the Exodus from Egypt. Who were the thirteen individuals referenced in the ostracon currently housed in the Pushkin Museum?

Script: Julia Idlis
English Script: Matti Friedman
Director: Daria Shtyrkova
Videographer: Andrey Kovalenko
Academic Consultant: Alexey Lyavdansky
Voice-over: Matti Friedman
Music: Masha Logofet
Sound Mix: Alex Nadzharov
Animation: Vadim Tugeev, Galina Palchik
Editing: Evgeniy Todich

Beit Avi Chai is grateful to the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for permission to film the artifacts and to The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow for their assistance

Beit Avi Chai: Dr. David Rozenson, CEO; Dr. Simon Parizhsky, Educational Director of Ideas Without Borders; Svetlana Busygina, Administrative Director Ideas Without Borders..