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.
Ketubah (Rome)
The ketubah is a religious and legal contract of marriage. Traditionally, ketubot outline the conjugal and economic conditions of a marriage and are written in Aramaic. This ketubah was copied and…
Essay on the History of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire
It was in the early eighteenth century (1700–1706) when some Ottoman Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin left Turkey to settle in Vienna. A chronicle has preserved for us the names of the three…
Table of Jewish Assimilation in “The Jews of Today”
The Four Sections of Jewry Jewish AssimilationNumber. Typical Representatives.Economic Condition.Religious Outlook.EducationBirth- rate per 1,000 souls.Percentage of Mixed Marriages.Conversions…
The Jewish Woman
The position of the Jewish woman in Germany today cannot be ascertained from understanding the present alone. A brief look at the recent and distant past—perhaps even the long-distant past—is…
How Should One Pray South of the Equator?
Rosario, Argentina, June 16, 1914Your Eminence,Permit me to bother you in the name of the Jewish collective of Rosario, because of a divergence of opinion arising between us, about which we desire…
The Ninth of Ab
August is flat and still, with ever-thickening green
Leaves, clipped in their richness; hoarse sighs in
the grass,
Moments of mowing, mark out the
lengthening summer. The ground
We children…
Travail in an Arab Land
Free of any preoccupations, I allowed myself to seek out and investigate the Jews, their manners and customs. They are good-hearted folk, charitable and hospitable to strangers. They honor the Torah…
The Symptoms of the Time
By emphasizing religious activity, Judaism is completely tied to life and becomes the property of every individual Jew. A religion of pure ideas belongs primarily to the theologians; the masses who…
The Fake Doctor
A Play by Molière in One Act of Sixteen Scenes[Carlo, Esterina]Carlo:Is there any news, Esterina? Do you have any advice for me?Esterina:Why do you want advice? I have a lot of news for you…
Portuguese and Ashkenazic Synagogues in Amsterdam
In 1670, Amsterdam’s Portuguese Jewish community commissioned a new synagogue, which, when finished, was the largest in the world. The master mason Elias Bouman, a non-Jew who had helped design the…
Ketubah (Hamburg)
On June 7, 1690, Samuel de Isaac Senior Teixeira married Rachel Teixeira de Mattos Senior in Hamburg. Their beautiful ketubah (marriage contract) depicts the couple under the wedding canopy…
Persian Carpet
This Persian carpet, manufactured between 1600 and 1630, was later used for a reader’s desk and desk cover in the Portuguese Synagogue in The Hague, Netherlands.