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 Penal Recruit
“One morning—it was the fourth day of Hanukkah (the holiday of the Maccabees), when we were readying ourselves to celebrate the victory of our heroic ancestors, which was the capture of Antioch—the…
The Book of the Governing of My Household
The man should not purchase meat until he has taken counsel with his wife to see which type of meat she wants him to take, so that the wife cannot later say that it is dark meat…
The March 17th Decree
Laws are always tainted by the passions and the prejudices of the legislator.
—Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws
In 1807, Mordecai Blum, his wife Rebecca, and his son David were living in a…
A Story about a Rabbi, Followed by a Letter (in Kol mevaser)
One of the most important things that the government has introduced in Russia to improve education among Jews is the decree that each community must choose a…
Kantorzysta: Polka na fortepiano, op. 68
This sheet music is for a humorous song in the style of a polka, an example of the popular music that Warsaw composer Adolf Gustaw Sonnenfeld was famous for.
The Water Sprite—Polka
Louis Gottschalk wrote “The Water Sprite—Polka de Salon” soon upon his return to the United States after spending most of his teenaged years in Europe, where he was sent by his father to study music…
Map of the Land of Israel
This map, in a manuscript copy of Be’er mayim ḥayim (A Spring of Living Water), a commentary on Rashi published in Worms or Friedberg in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century, is based on Rashi’s…
House of David de Pinto
Originating from the Iberian Peninsula, the de Pinto family were wealthy merchant bankers who lived in Amsterdam from the seventeenth century on. In Spain, members of the family had converted to…
Doors to the Bimah, Rema Synagogue (Krakow)
The Rema Synagogue, named after the famous rabbi and scholar Moses Isserles (known by the Hebrew acronym “Rema”), was built in 1553 in the city of Kazimierz (today a district of Kraków). It was…
Jewish Funeral in Ouderkerk
This etching depicts a body being brought for burial in the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk, the oldest Jewish cemetery (est. 1614) in the Netherlands, located on the Amstel River.
Scuola Italiana, Venice
The Scuola Italiana is one of five synagogues in the Venetian ghetto, and its smallest. In 1575, the Italian Jewish community established the synagogue in a preexisting building because of a law…