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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.
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A Pogrom in Fez

We have awoken from a horrible nightmare that I believed myself unable to describe to you. The sack of the Mellah [the Jewish quarter of the city] by the mutinous Sherifian troops began at midday on…
Spherical silver and gold Torah finials
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Pair of Torah Finials

Torah finials are a pair of ornaments used to decorate the upper ends of the rollers on which the Torah scroll is wound. The Hebrew term rimonim, which means “pomegranates,” references the…

In the Junk Cellar

A large load of old rags and broken things had been delivered to the basement of the junk dealer today, and the newcomers were received unkindly and with surly faces in all corners. “Please do not…

Hear, O Israel!

I want to profess straight off that I am a Jew. Does it require justification if I write in a spirit other than that of defending the Jews? Many of my fellow tribesmen know themselves only as Germans…
Painting of man seated at podium with children standing and seated on benches along wall.
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Heder

Jacques Brandon set his painting of a heder, a traditional Jewish elementary school for boys, in a Mediterranean or Near Eastern location or in an imagined distant past. The boys are dressed in white…

Judaism and the Jews

The question I put before you, as well as before myself, is the question of the meaning of Judaism for the Jews. Why do we call ourselves Jews? Because we are Jews? What does that mean: we are Jews? I…

Perversion of Justice (in Serbia)

In one of the recent issues of Ha-Melits, which for unknown reasons I only received today, I read about Mr. W. Shor’s complaint about the Serbian Jews’ refusal to accept Jews, persecuted in other…

In Judah and the Galilee

Not fire and sun—but our blood will redden, Oh Zion, your mountains— Right after disembarking and finishing my business with the numruk [custom house], I hurried to Petah Tikva. My friends implored…

On the Question of Ethical Behavior

The primary task of our discussion today on the question of ethical behavior is that we gain clarity about the field as a whole, that we review and discuss our particular stance on this matter, and…

Lunacharsky and Hebrew

During the summer of 5679 [1919] the government suddenly stopped supporting Tarbut and its schools, and after regaining our composure, we decided to address [Anatoly] Lunacharsky regarding this…