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.
Sermon of the Fast of Av (Synagogue of Amsterdam)
Edouard Brandon’s painting of Amsterdam’s famous Portuguese Synagogue (1675) is set on the Ninth of Av, a fast day commemorating and mourning the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Members of the…
Letter to the Editor: On Zionism and the Mizrachi
God bless. Lida, 17th of Tammuz 5664To the distinguished editor, the great and wise rabbi, may his name be praised and glorified, etc., our teacher R. David Katzburg, publisher of the journal Tel…
A Call for the Assistance of the Refugees from Germany
The situation of our brethren in Germany is so frightful that it is unparalleled since the Middle Ages and the time of the decrees of 1648 and 1649. [ . . . ] In “cultured” Germany an enemy has arisen…
An Open Letter
With God’s help, may the Lord order blessing, life, and peace for the leaders and fine men, preeminent individuals, etc., and for their head, the Great Rabbi, etc.Hear, congregation of the Lord and…
The End of the Jewish People?
At last you admit that Israel, caught up in the wave of technical progress, is becoming an industrial society “like the others.” You find it acceptable that the Jews, transformed in the…
The Rise of Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism is a phenomenon of man’s restless spirit. At its best it is a dynamic faith—and its very dynamism…
Jews and Ottomans Defending the City of Buda
From May through August 1541, the forces of the Ottoman Empire laid siege to the city of Buda (present day Budapest, Hungary) and captured it, ushering in 150 years of Ottoman rule. This illustration…
Jewish Merchant (Mercante Giudeo)
This depiction of a Jewish merchant is from a travelogue by French geographer Nicolas Nicolay, who is believed to have also done his own illustrations. Considered at the time a key source of…
Alte Synagogue (Berlin)
Built by the non-Jewish architect Michael Kemmeter, the Alte Synagoge (Synagogue) was the first edifice in Berlin built specifically to serve this function. Originally known as the Heidereutergasse…
Amulet for Woman in Childbirth (Amsterdam)
This printed amulet to protect a woman in childbirth features a central scene depicting Adam and Eve and several animals in the Garden of Eden, with a snake coiled around the forbidden “tree of…
Jewish Funeral in Ouderkerk
This etching depicts a body being brought for burial in the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk, the oldest Jewish cemetery (est. 1614) in the Netherlands, located on the Amstel River.