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.
Scroll of the Book of Esther
Moses ben Abraham Pescarol’s illuminated scroll of Esther, completed in Ferrara, constitutes one of the oldest examples of an illustrated manuscript of this biblical book, which is chanted on the…
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…
Takkanot Kandia (Regulations of Candia): On Purim
May salvation be near, and we be cleansed of great sin. Amen.
I, the undersigned, have witnessed the bad custom practiced among young men on the days of Purim, that in the synagogue during the…
Ner mitsvah (Light of the Commandment): On Hanukkah
And this, too, must be said, that the main reason for establishing the days of Hanukkah is because they [the Jews] were victorious over the Greeks. However, it did not appear that the victory was…
Colophon: Elye Bokher’s Petaḥ devaray
And thus was finished the book Petah DebaraiIn the name of the living God my redeemer and rockIn the year of the creation 306On the 29th day of TishriEdited by the Hebrew grammarianElijah the Levita…
Debate between Wine and Water
“I’m called the offspring of the grape,” said the wine. “People drink me fervently, and I’m very fine. I can make people joke and jibe, I can drive away their terrible pains, I can delight their…
Awake, my heart, from your slumber!
A poem that I, Sa‘adia Longo, wrote to an important and wealthy man from Nicopolis, who came here to Salonika to marry a woman. I was not able to participate in his celebration because I was…
Like a wooer and a husband
Like a wooer and a husbandI devote myself to your faithsince being a husband does not implya courtly surrender.Like a wooer I pursue your lovebecause I wish to meritthe privileges of a husbandthough I…
Are You
Are you Avraham’s, Yitzhak’s, Yaakov’s?
Are you my mother’s god?
What’s mine of all this?
What did I take by force of hand
and why am I alone
in a city meant to be my city
on account of a mother born…
The Poverty Line
As if you could draw a line and say: below this there’s poverty.
Here’s the bread that turned black in the colorations
Of cheap makeup
And the olives in their little plate
Atop the cloth over the…
Figurine of a Young Bull
This bull figurine, 7 × 5 inches (17.5 cm × 12 cm), was cast in bronze with considerable detail. It combines highly realistic features—horns and ears, genitalia, legs and hooves—with more stylized…
Seal of Netanyahu Son of Yaush
Found in Jerusalem in the plaza of the Western Wall and possibly made of limestone, the top register of this seal contains a garland of four pomegranates, one of which was damaged when the seal was…