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.
The Hypocrite
After finishing the letter, Elisheva handed it back to Hogeh and gracefully added: “Would that letters such as this might appear more often in our literature! For only such refinement of language will…
Reader for Jewish Children
The Lion’s Chancellor, the Wolf, was taken to court by all the animals, who complained that no living being was safe from his predatory jaws. “This insatiable creature…
Megaleh temirin (The Revealer of Secrets)
Thus I went to all the tsadikim and I heard what they say in secret, and I also took the letters that they or those who serve them sent to one another and they didn’t see, because by means of the…
A Great Announcement
God be praised, it is now a year since we began printing our supplement to Ha-melits, the Kol mevaser, the world’s first newspaper in plain Yiddish. At first, many people ridiculed us, but time has…
Alberti: A Play in Five Acts
As Performed at the Charleston Theatre Alberti, Commander of the Florentine Army Lorenso D’Medici, surnamed the Magnificent Ippolito, betrothed to Antonia
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein is an opéra bouffe (French comic opera), composed by Jacques Offenbach when his career was at its height. It premiered in 1867 and had performances at the Paris…
Esther’s Triumph
Friends, let’s celebrate this day—Viva!
Purim, occasion to be gay—Viva!
Safe and free from Haman’s wrong,
Let’s shout in unison this song—Viva, viva, viva . . .
Esther, brilliant as the sun—Viva!
G…
Compilation of Folk Remedies and Amulets
Traditionally, until increased access to doctors and hospitals was available after World War I, many East European Jews relied on folk medicine, which included amulets and magical cures. Books, like…
Tombs in the Holy Land
This map showing tombs in the land of Israel was drawn in Italy by a Jewish scribe and is an example of a “pilgrimage scroll.” Pilgrimage scrolls, also known as itineraries, included visual and…
Ketubah (Rome)
This rare example of a Roman ketubah (marriage contract) from the seventeenth century was written on the occasion of the marriage of Menahem ben Samuel Zadik to Zevia, daughter of the prominent banker…
Old Synagogue (Krakow)
The Old Synagogue (Alte-Schul, or Stara Bożnica) of Kraków is located in the Kazimierz district of the city. Because it was in a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth vulnerable to attack by…
Bevis Marks Synagogue, London
Joseph Avis, a Quaker carpenter, was commissioned to build the first synagogue in England following the readmission of Jews in 1656: the synagogue of London’s Spanish and Portuguese community, on…