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.
A Road in the Woods in Summer
Camille Pissarro was notable among his fellow impressionist painters in that he often put trees at the center of his compositions instead of using them primarily as a framing device. He also…
The Interpretation of Dreams
A fourth dream, occurring shortly after the last one mentioned, brings me back to Rome. I see a street-corner before me and am astonished to see so many German placards posted there. On the day before…
Sermon: On the Secularization and Degradation of Iraqi Jewry
[ . . . ] But before we come to analyze the dreadful calamity [i.e., the drought] that has befallen us, and before we come to see what is the putrid humor harbored in our midst…
An Essay on Hebrew Eloquence, Exposed in a Practical Lesson by Doctor Anania Coen, First Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Florence
To truly form a sense of good taste, one must be in full command of the metaphysics of the sacred tongue, something which is so necessary (and which…
Judaism and Its History
There are facts of such an overwhelming power that even the most stubborn opinion must yield to them. Such a fact is the origin of Judaism in the midst of rude surroundings, like a vigorous…
Kerakh shel romi (City of Rome)
The Bah (Bayit Hadash) was asked concerning the practice in synagogues of using music which is sung in the houses of worship (of non-Jews). It is only forbidden regarding…
Prayer book
This siddur from Greece contains the prayers of the Romaniote (Greek-speaking Jewish) community of the eastern Mediterranean. It is open at a piyyut (liturgical poem) called “God’s Beloved Daughter,”…
The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam
This image depicts the interior of the synagogue that served the Beth Israel congregation in Amsterdam. Before 1639, there were three Sephardic congregations in Amsterdam: Beth Jacob (founded possibly…
Jewish Clothing from Fürth
In 1705, the Nuremberg artist, Johannes Alexander Böner, published a slim volume about Fürth, Germany, containing several copper-engravings dealing with the life of Jews in the city. This print…
Sivlonot Belt
Sivlonot were, traditionally, gifts from the groom to his bride before the wedding. German Jewish brides and grooms gave each other belts, which were then worn during the wedding ceremony, sometimes…
Portrait of Tzvi Ashkenazi
Tzvi Hirsch ben Jacob Ashkenazi was a talmudist and community leader from Moravia. He was also known as the Ḥakham Tzvi, a Sephardic scholarly title he is thought to have received from the rabbinic…
Me‘on ha-sho’alim (Abode of the Supplicants)
This is the title page of Me‘on ha-sho’alim (L’abitacolo degli oranti; Abode of the Supplicants), by the poet and translator Devorà Ascarelli, a member of the Catalan community in Rome. Me‘on ha-sho…