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.
Besamim rosh (Scent of a Bitter Spice)
Now in regard to your inquiry as to my view on the question of the halakhic status of the odor of leavened substances on Passover, as there are some authorities who maintain that odor is…
Women of Israel, or, Characters and Sketches from the Holy Scriptures
As the first and most beautiful relationship in which woman is undeniably necessary to man—the object of his first affections, to whom he owes all of cherishing, happiness, and health, from infancy to…
Sefer ha-midot (Book of Virtues)
Noble-mindedness is a very fine character trait in the soul of man, and it extends in many directions: primarily in three, which are, noble-mindedness in wisdom, noble-mindedness in power, and noble…
La vocación de Abraham
Terah’s wife is pregnant
day after day she turned pale,
she already knew what she had
but she did not reveal it to her husband.
One day she went out to fields and vineyards,
she found a cavern and…
The Synagogue of Gwoździec, Galicia
Wooden synagogues were a distinctive style of vernacular architecture that first developed in the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the sixteenth century and then flourished in the…
Portrait of Jacob Sasportas
Born and raised in Oran, Algeria, the talmudic scholar Jacob Sasportas served as rabbi of Tlemcen. Forced to flee Morocco due to political unrest, in 1647 he embarked on a life of wandering. In 1664…
Circumcision for a Sephardic family in Amsterdam
The wealthy Sephardic family of Curiel d’Acosta is believed to have commissioned the artist Romeyn de Hooghe to make this large pen-and-ink drawing to commemorate the circumcision, in Amsterdam, of a…
The Jewish Cemetery at Ouderkerk
The Jewish Cemetery at Ouderkerk is one of Jacob van Ruisdael’s better-known works. Purchased for use by the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in Amsterdam in 1641, the cemetery holds twenty…
Torah Crown
This Torah crown from Suriname was made originally in Amsterdam by Evert van Heerdan (active 1644–1683). It is a fine repoussé piece exemplifying the mastery of Dutch silverwork. Inscribed on the…
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.
Portrait of Shabbetai Tzvi
Shabbetai Tzvi was the central figure of a messianic movement that swept the Jewish world in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in Izmir (Smyrna), as an adolescent Shabbetai Tzvi embarked on the study…