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.
Bene ‘arav (Arabs)
That summer there was a famine in the Negev. From the beginning of winter until its conclusion, not even a single drop of rain fell. The floodgates (Genesis 7:11) were closed; they…
Hasan-Pasha the Terrible
But the moment he disembarked in Kostan, he was seized and thrown into the bottom of the prison in Yedikule. In this terrible prison, which people entered only to die, he was thinking of his great…
T.B.
The figurative underworld of a great city has no ventilation, housing or lighting problems. Rooks and crooks who live in the putrid air of crime are not denied the light of day, even though they…
Letters to Conrad Habicht
Bern, Thursday [18 or 25 May 1905]Dear Habicht,Such a solemn air of silence has descended between us that I almost feel as if I am committing a sacrilege when I break it now with some inconsequential…
The Promised Land
I was born, I have lived, and I have been made over. Is it not time to write my life’s story? I am just as much out of the way as if I were dead, for I am absolutely other than the person whose story…
The Right Hon. B. Disraeli M.P. Chancellor of the Exchequer
Twice elected prime minister of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) initially turned to writing in an effort to pay his debts; his early works were fashionable “silver-fork novels” depicting an…
The House on Henry Street
A sick woman in a squalid rear tenement, so wretched and so pitiful that, in all the years since, I have not seen anything more appealing, determined me, within half an hour, to live on the East…
Emunas tsadikim (Faith of the Tsadikim)
It is a work that contains two hundred precious and wondrous stories, full of ethical [edification] and [inspiring] fear of the Lord, sweeter than honey, bringing joy to oppressed hearts and souls…
Our Distant Brothers: Letters from Tunis
Tunis, Rosh Ḥodesh Adar 5648When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, for they commit falsehood; and the thief enters in, and the troop of…
Essay on the History of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire
It was in the early eighteenth century (1700–1706) when some Ottoman Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin left Turkey to settle in Vienna. A chronicle has preserved for us the names of the three…
Synagogue in the Park at Wörlitz, Germany
Designed in the German neoclassical style, the Wörlitz synagogue was modeled on Rome’s Temple of Vesta, featuring a circular building with a conical roof. It was commissioned by Prince Leopold…
Report Addressed to the Members of the JCA Council
Religion loses its sway over our brothers here each day. By the force of circumstances it is true, almost all of our coreligionists have already replaced Saturday with Sunday. This last day is…