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.
Tikun li-kro’ laylah va-yom (A Tikkun to Read Day and Night)
The frontispiece of this book of penitential prayers published in Amsterdam, Tikun li-kro’ laylah va-yom (A Tikkun to Read Day and Night) has a three-tiered illustration. The top level depicts Moses…
O my creator!: On Entering the Synagogue
O my creator! Pay heed to the servant that knocks at your doors; open up for him the entrance to the lintel of your dwelling place.
As he lifts up his eyes to you, may his supplication, his cries…
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…
Proofreader’s Preface: Seder tefilot ke-minhag kahal kadosh Sefarad (The Order of the Prayers of the Holy Congregation of Spain)
Menasseh ben Joseph ben Israel, seeing the Bomberg types worn out, and since nothing can be imperfect for the Holy Work, arose from within the community and went out, and came to the house of an…
Ḥerem against the Karaites
We have placed in ḥerem [excommunication] David Henriq[ue]s, alias David Almansa, [and] Aron and Ishack Dias da Fonseca and the account reads, as follows:
(In Adar I). The gentlemen of the Mahamad…
Dreaming of Junk Food
Leehee woke me up at a quarter of four in the afternoon and asked me to come with them to Ein Hod for the Seder, despite everything.
“Don’t do this to me,” I said. “You know I’m not…
Exiled from Exile: Existential Reflections
To be in exile, with a religious or historical sense that one is exiled, is to have already a mission and purpose in life. One’s clear project then is to end the exile and to return to…
Revolutions in Halakhah
The process that ultimately enabled women to serve as pleaders in the rabbinical courts began thanks to the initiative of one woman, Ruth Margarit Neiger of Raananah…
Solomon’s Senior Officials and His District Prefects
These were his officials:
Azariah son of Zadok—the priest;
Elihoreph and Ahijah sons of Shisha—scribes;
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud—recorder;
Benaiah son of Jehoiada—over the army;
Zadok and…
Front Cover Illustration for Hans Christian Anderson’s Finf arbeslakh (Five peas)
The Russian Revolution initially brought new freedom for Jewish writers and artists. The new regime lifted restrictions on Jewish publishing, sparking a burst of creativity. In 1918, a group of…
Cover, Di malke Shvo: dramatishe poeme
In 1920 and 1921, Broderzon, the guiding force of Yung-yidish (Young Yiddish), a literary and artistic group he co-founded in Łódź, published over half a dozen books of poetry and plays. Prolific and…
El Tiempo Celebrating 400 Years of Sephardic Life in the Ottoman Empire
El Tiempo (Time) was the first Ladino-language newspaper published in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) and the longest-running Ladino newspaper in the city, with a run of almost sixty…