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 Symptoms of the Time

By emphasizing religious activity, Judaism is completely tied to life and becomes the property of every individual Jew. A religion of pure ideas belongs primarily to the theologians; the masses who…

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The Fake Doctor

A Play by Molière in One Act of Sixteen Scenes[Carlo, Esterina]Carlo:Is there any news, Esterina? Do you have any advice for me?Esterina:Why do you want advice? I have a lot of news for you…

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Print of city square with large buildings, river, trees, and many people, with Dutch title in ribbon above, and French and English text on bottom margin.

Portuguese and Ashkenazic Synagogues in 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, a non-Jew who had helped design the…

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Page of Aramaic text surrounded by ornate illustrations, including couple under wedding canopy at the top of the page with many well-dressed people around them and two angels flying overhead, and two women on pedestals on either side of the bottom of the page on either side of a wreath with text inside.

Ketubah (Hamburg)

On June 7, 1690, Samuel de Isaac Senior Teixeira married Rachel Teixeira de Mattos Senior in Hamburg. Their beautiful ketubah (marriage contract) depicts the couple under the wedding canopy…

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Carpet with embroidered designs and four small posts near each corner.

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.

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Print engraving of man in turban pointing to open book with Dutch and French text underneath.

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…

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Printed page with English and two Hebrew sentences near top and bottom of page.

A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue

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Manuscript page of Hebrew text in center framed with decorations and figures and scenes including two cherubs holding a crown at top, a king holding a harp, and a man holding censer, both with crowns above their heads, and figures at bottom.

De Pinto Psalter

This decorated psalter was made for Aaron de Joseph de Pinto, a member of the prominent Portuguese Jewish family in Amsterdam. It is a manuscript, copied from a print edition done by David de Castro…

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Purim Scroll

May this be written for a coming generation, that people yet to be created will praise Jah. For the signs and wonders that the most high God has performed for us, I am pleased to relate: Know that in…

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Drawing of front view of a house on the far side of a canal, with people in front of the canal and alongside the house.

The Amsterdam Residence of Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mazes Curiël)

The wealthy merchant and diplomat Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mozes Curiël; 1620–1697) was born in Florence. In 1627, his family settled in Hamburg, where his father, a businessman, became an important…

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Minhage Vormeiza (Customs of Worms): On Tishah be-Av

The people recite teḥinot [supplications] during the morning prayers on the eve of the Tishah be-Av (Ninth of Av). They then dine before entering into the synagogue for the…

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Pesak (Decision): On a Secret Marriage

At a sitting of three judges we the undersigned sat as a court on the fourth day of the month of Adar 2 in the year 5376 [1616] here in Vercelli after permission was given to us from his excellency…

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