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.
The Panic, or, The Town of Hérres
In the year 5594 (1834) it was the Ninth of Av, the holy day commemorating the Destruction of the Temple. In the morning, when the worshipers were lamenting at the…
How Does a Newspaper Survive?
In order to survive, a newspaper needs numerous subscribers, the help of the community, paid publications, the aid of the friends of education, the generosity of the nation, and the support of the…
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…
On the Glory of the Eggplant
Various eggplant recipes have been passed down to us.
the first is one inherited from the late Morena:
you cut it into slices and throw them into the main dish
for that is how she was taught her by…
The Tale of a Kite
It’s safe to say that we Jews of North Main Street are a progressive people. I don’t mean to suggest we have any patience with freethinkers, like that crowd down at Thompson’s Café; tolerant within…
Gayness and God: Wrestlings of an Orthodox Rabbi
I am an Orthodox rabbi and I am gay. For a long while I denied, rejected, railed against this truth. The life story that I had wanted—wife, kids, and a family that modeled Torah and hesed—turned out…
Lamentations
Alas!
Lonely sits the city
Once great with people!
She that was great among nations
Is become like a widow;
The princess among states
Is become a thrall.
Bitterly she weeps in the night…
We Turn Our Thoughts
We turn our thoughts to yesterday…to a world that lives only in our memory.
As we recall the days gone by, we know the past is irretrievable.
Yet—through the gift of memory, we recapture treasured…
Reform Synagogue, Plauen
This modern synagogue in Plauen (in the Saxony region) was one of the few synagogues built in Germany in the economically turbulent years of the Weimar Republic. Jews and non-Jews contributed funds…