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.
“L’aigle déplumé! . . .” (The Bald Eagle!)
This caricature of Napoleon III (1808–1873), the last monarch of France, was made after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), when Napoleon was being held in captivity in…
Drawings Published in Harper’s
An illustration for the monthly magazine Harper’s, The Thirty-Second Indiana Regiment (Colonel Willich) Building Pontoons in Kentucky was likely drawn by Henry Mosler during the Civil War. Engravings…
The Maccabees
Today it is possible for us to observe the process of Hellenization in individual features only. But these features are sufficiently significant to enable…
The Essence of Judaism (Second Edition)
During the thousands of years of its history, Judaism has learned and experienced a good deal. In its people the commanding urge to think further, to struggle with ideas, has…
The Song of the Dying: To the History of Jewish Creativity under the Nazi Occupation
Among the illegal publications that appeared in Poland during the Nazi occupation, one can find a small anthology of poems entitled Z otchlani, from the Abyss. This modest volume, published by the…
Havurat Shalom: Draft of a Covenant
We join together in this covenant out of a sense of divine mission, out of a search for the realization of the sacred in our lives as individuals and as brothers and sisters in a community. Though…
The Polish Lad
If my father had been able to foresee even a thousandth part of the trials I was to endure he might have been rather less ardent on the night my mother conceived me. . . . Now, of…
Jewish Man and Woman from Frankfurt
The Jewish couple in Frankfurt am Main depicted here are wearing distinctive clothing that would have clearly identified them as Jews: the man’s collar, hat, and cloak, and the woman’s ruff and winged…
Juedisches Ceremonial (Jewish Ceremony): Death and Mourning
This illustration depicting Jewish death and mourning rituals (a sick man on his deathbed, a body laid out for burial, and a funeral procession) appeared in the book, Jüdisches Ceremoniel (Jewish…
Minhage Vormeiza (Customs of Worms): On Weddings
On Tuesday afternoon prayers, when the cantor reaches Taḥanun [prayers of supplication], the groom walks to the door of the synagogue while the congregation recites Taḥanun, and…
Sheloshah perushim (Three Commentaries) on the Song of Songs: On the Edition
One day, I was reading a certain book, which contained eight commentaries on the Song of Songs. More precious than pearls they are; all of their commentaries are sapphires, the words of the living God…
Colophon: Tefilah le-Moshe (Prayer of Moses)
All the letters in this beautiful new prayer book,
from beginning to end, I set with my own hands.
Gele, daughter of R. Moses the printer
and Frau Freide, who bore me among ten children, may they…