Israeli Boy Who Broke Ancient Jar Learns How Museum Is Piecing It Back Together

Ariel Heller helps to glue a broken clay jar during a special tour with his family after he accidentally broke another jar at the Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, on Aug. 30, 2024. Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo

HAIFA, Israel—As her 4-year-old son perused the Israeli museum’s ancient artifacts, Anna Geller looked away for just a moment. Then a crash sounded, a rare 3,500-year-old jar was broken on the ground, and her son stood over it, aghast.

“It was just a distraction of a second,” said Geller, a mother of three from the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. “And the next thing I know, it’s a very big boom boom behind me.”