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.
Shir Leshalom (A Song for Peace)
Let the sun come up today,
Let the morning shine,
All the prayers and plaintive words,
Won’t bring us back to life.
For we whose light is darkened now,
Are covered by the dust,
The bitter tears…
Igrot Meshulam (Epistles of Meshulam)
Sivan, 5529 Livorno [1769]
In the name of G-d, the G-d of mercy!
In such measure as light exceeds darkness, such is the superiority of the people of this country over the people of Spain…
Love and Illusion
Dedicated to my friend Ignacio Móntes de Oca.
Why, if summer strips the garden
Of flowers and verdant foliage,
Does Spring so generously restore
Lush greenery, soft flowers,
And brilliant color;
An…
Open Letter
Open Letter to His Most Worthy,
Supreme Consistorial Counselor and
Provost Teller at Berlin, from some
Householders of the Jewish Religion
But when the more perfect comes, the
imperfect will pass…
Vindication of the Jews
The means of making the Jews happy and useful? Here it is: stop making them unhappy and unuseful. Accord them, or rather return to them the right of citizens, which you have denied them, against all…
Le prophète
Le prophète (The Prophet) is a grand opera in five acts based on the life of John of Leiden, a sixteenth-century Anabaptist leader. It premiered in Paris in 1849 and was soon being performed in London…
Hallelujah: Eine Cantatine für 4 Männerstimmen mit begleitung einer obligaten orgel und des chores ad libitum
The manuscript is believed to be the earliest extant Reform Jewish liturgical composition. An early example of the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer, “Hallelujah” was probably prepared for use at a service at…
Portrait of Menasseh Ben Israel
Born to converso parents and baptized as Manoel Dias Soeiro, Menasseh Ben Israel moved as a boy with his family to Amsterdam, where they reverted openly to Judaism. In 1626, he established the first…
Portrait of Yeḥiel Mikhel ben Nathan of Lublin
The rhymed Hebrew inscription below the picture of Yeḥiel Mikhel ben Nathan of Lublin notes that he had formerly been a cantor in Lublin and is presently serving in that role in Amsterdam, in 1699…
Cemetery (Altona)
The Jewish cemetery of Altona is made up of two separate cemeteries, one Sephardic (established in 1611 and later expanded several times) and one Ashkenazic (1616, also later expanded). In the…
Rema Synagogue (Kraków)
The Rema Synagogue, named after the famous rabbi and scholar Moses Isserles (known by the Hebrew acronym “Rema”), was built in 1553 in the city of Kazimierz (today a district of Kraków). It was…