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.
Mazal Tov Eliyahu Ezra Challah Cover
This beautiful, embroidered challah cover was made in Jerusalem around the year 1890 as a gift of thanks to “the gentlelady Mazal Tov Eliyah Ezra.” It is signed at the bottom by a mother and daughter…
Jehoiachin in Exile
½ (panu) to Jehoiachin, king of Ju[dah]
2 ½ qu to the five sons of the king of Judah
4 qu to 8 Judeans, ½ [qu each]
1 ½ qu to three carpenters from Arvad, ½ qu each
½ panu 1 ½ qu to eight carpenters…
Self-Portrait
Lubin was a member of what is known as the Land of Israel movement, a group of artists who, in the 1920s, drew on the ideas and practices of post-impressionism to create a new modern art of Jewish…
Portrait of Mikhoels
Solomon Mikhoels (1890–1948), a Yiddish actor, director of the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (GOSET), and later chair of the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, was an iconic figure of Soviet Jewish…
Whither?
I see his melancholy profile as though through a mist, through the curtain of thick cloud that descended on him in his lifetime and darkened his bright trail with a multitude of vain fictions and will…
Behind the Fence
One Sabbath eve, as darkness fell, Noah lay hidden among the thorns and thistles growing under the fences outside the quarter and waited. He knew that Marinka would be returning this way from her…
Lévy
“You come from Poland, Monsieur David . . . ?”
“Davidovich.”
Lévy, his host, looking with desperation at the traveling salesman, supplied the name. Still sweating from fear, Lévy was now sweating for…
Motl, the Cantor’s Son
It did our hearts good to see Vaytshepl. It did Pinye too much good. “Why, it’s Berdichev!” he shouted. “Children, I swear, we’re not in London at all, we’re in Berdichev!” The next thing I know he’s…
Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida. Over Pool to Hotel. Florida, Miami Beach
The hotels designed by Morris Lapidus in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Fontainebleau, were pioneers of what came to be known as “Miami Modern” (MiMo), the signature style of resort hotels in…
My White Snow Princess
Oh white spirit—
My princess!
The spring rips,
Tears at your dress.
The air is full of spring’s fame
Crowned with florets
Carrying its perfume
Spring’s fresh scents.
Bringing your death,
My white…