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.
Nineteen Letters on Judaism
You ask me for my opinion on the question which at present agitates so greatly the minds of men, emancipation; whether I consider it feasible and desirable, according to the spirit of Judaism, our…
Paris, Rome, Jerusalem, or the Religious Question in the Nineteenth Century
In all times of transition such as the one we are now undergoing, on every occasion when human society passes from one era to another era, from one way of doing things to another way of doing them…
Phaedon
Following the example of Plato, I have Socrates in his last hours relate the arguments for the immortality of the human soul to his students. The dialogue of the Greek author, which has the name Phaed…
The Brazilian’s Song from the Opera La vie parisienne
Brazilian, I’m rich, I’ve got dough
There’s plenty of gold in my sack
Paree, here I am, I’ve come back
And richer than ever before!
Two times was I here in the past
My suitcases bulging with gold
A…
Jew in the Holy Land
This illustration is from Franciscan monk Eugène Roger’s La terre saincte (The Holy Land), a comprehensive study of the Land of Israel which includes dozens of etchings depicting Jewish, Muslim, Druze…
Self Portrait in his Map of Eretz Israel
When Jacob ben Abraham Tsaddik created the first printed map of the Holy Land in Hebrew, he included this portrait of himself. The Hebrew under the image of the sun intertwined with a Star of David…
Ketubah (Amsterdam)
Adorned with a lush vegetative frame and putti (cherubs) carrying banners, this ketubah (marriage contract) marks the wedding of David and Dona Rachel Curiel, prominent members of Amsterdam’s…
High Synagogue (Krakow)
The High (Wysoka) Synagogue was built in a Renaissance style in the mid-sixteenth century in the Kazimierz district of Kraków. It is the third-oldest synagogue in Kraków. This synagogue owes its name…
Portuguese Synagogue, 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 (ca. 1636–1686), a non-Jew, who had…
Five Children of Francisco Lopes Suasso
Don Francisco (Abraham Israel) Lopes Suasso (ca. 1657–1710), a prominent financier of Portuguese Jewish heritage, had ten children with his second wife, Leonora (Rachel) da Costa (1669–1749). This…
Lecterns (Jablonów)
These two lecterns are from Jablonów in the southern part of eastern Galicia and may have graced the town’s wooden synagogue, which was built as early as 1674. Carved from wood, and standing on two…
Torah Finials
These silver and filigree Torah finials used by Amsterdam’s Ashkenazic community are shaped like four-tiered towers. They have gilt bells in their arches and gilt urns on their corners and are topped…