THE TOMB STONE | 12 Stones of Jerusalem | Ep. 4

What happens when a people fighting to preserve their faith begin to absorb the culture they once resisted? This episode explores Jerusalem during the Hasmonean dynasty, when Jewish rulers who rose in revolt against Hellenistic domination gradually adopted the very Greek styles they opposed. Through the city’s remarkable rock-cut tombs on the Mount of Olives and the Kidron Valley, we trace how foreign artistic traditions began to shape Jewish architecture—even in death. With their Ionic columns, Doric friezes, and lotus crowns, these monuments tell a story of identity, influence, and contradiction. As few Hasmonean palaces or public buildings survived the great earthquake of 31 CE, these funerary sites remain our key window into a pivotal moment when Jerusalem stood between isolation and assimilation.

0:00 Jerusalem’s struggle between faith and foreign power
0:24 Tombs on the Mount of Olives – the city of the dead
1:25 East of the walls – where the living met the dead
2:26 The Hasmonean dynasty – revolt and revival
3:26 Between purity and influence – the Greek challenge
4:25 Greek columns, Jewish tombs – a fusion in stone
5:28 The legacy of faith and identity in stone

Author – Yana Tchekhanovets, Ben-Gurion University
Narrator and editor – Matti Friedman
Screenwriter – Anastasia Ryabtseva
Director – Dasha Shtyrkova
Director of Photography – Aleksei Malinkovich
Lighting – Konstantin Prosnikov
Music & Sound – Fika Magarik
Editor – Zhenya Todich
Graphics – Andrei Olshevsky
Preliminary Script Development – Maria Kaspina
Producer – Aviel Kravchenko

Beit Avi Chai: Dr. David Rozenson, CEO; Dr. Simon Parizhsky, educational director of the Ideas Without Borders project; Svetlana Busygina, administrative director IWB
Special thanks to:
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Jerusalem Municipality

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