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.
Marjorie Morningstar
[ . . . ] Marjorie returned to the bedroom and waited for a moment, watching the doorknob. Then she walked to the full-length mirror on the closet door, and draped the black dress…
The Chosen
For the first fifteen years of our lives, Danny and I lived within five blocks of each other and neither of us knew of the other’s existence. [ . . . ]
Danny and I probably would never have met—or we…
Sefer yesh manḥilin (Those Who Bequeath)
Behold, I am aged and my eyes are dim and my hands heavy and shaky, and at a time when my strength, enabling me to remain standing upon my watch, is ebbing away—with the yoke of the…
A Letter to Chief Rabbi Raffael Natan Tedesco of Trieste
Most Distinguished Sir,
The undersigned, your most humble servant, is a wretched woman of twenty-three years of age. I was married for five and a half years to this Mr. Lucio Luzzatto, [but] I was…
The Jewish Manual of Practical Information in Jewish and Modern Cookery with a Collection of Valuable Recipes & Hints Relating to the Toilette
Nothing contributes more to the elegance and refinement of a lady’s appearance than delicate hands; and it is surprising how much it is in the power of all, by proper care and attention, to…
Folktales of the Kurdistani Jews
The year 5573 (1813) was a leap year (in the Jewish calendar). On the twenty-fourth of Nisan, the Sabbath right after Passover, after midday, the skies became overcast and…
Mor u-ketsiyah (Myrrh and Cassia)
In times of emergency, all types of kitniyot (legumes, pulses) may certainly be permitted to be eaten during Passover, for even our Master, the Ba‘al Ha-Turim [Rabbenu Jacob, son of Asher]…
Rabbinic Reports on Circumcision
Altona, 24 Ab 5603
Chief Rabbi!
Messrs. Adler and Fuld, members of your congregation, asked for my opinion, from the Jewish-religious perspective…
Menorat zahav (Golden Menorah)
When Rabbi Zusya went to suffer the exile in Germany, he came to a city of Reform Jews. When they saw his ways, they mocked him and thought he was crazy. When he came into the synagogue, some of them…
From the Editor, El Jurnal israelit
From the Editor:
With God’s help, the time has come for our newspaper to appear before the community, and I am sure that at first our esteemed subscribers will not judge us for its errors, because all…
Letters of a Young Ex- Hasid
We live in a time of a universal striving for science and civilization, and the spirit of the time warms the hearts of everyone alike with its breath. It permeates the depths of the soul and reason…
Niggun of Four Stanzas
A notated version of a wordless Hasidic niggun, melody, attributed to Shneur Zalman of Liady, the founder of Chabad Hasidism.