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.
Authorization of Receipt of Donation by Eretz Israel Contribution Fund of Ferrara (Italy) Congregation
This receipt with ornate Hebrew calligraphy was issued to certify a donation by members of Ferrara’s Jewish community to aid Jews in Jerusalem. The funds were solicited by the rabbi of a yeshiva in…
Zekhut Yisra’el (The Merit of Israel)
A. Many great, wise, genius, and righteous men beseeched me to publish in a book that which I received from scribes and…
Paper Cut—Mizraḥ
Paper cuts have been a tradition of Jewish folk art, with the earliest record of one dating to the fourteenth century. Given the widespread availability of paper in Europe by the mid-nineteenth…
A Call for the Creation of a Sephardic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Culture
If there is one branch of study that is entirely neglected in our schools it is the history of our forefathers from the time of their dispersion across the globe until the present. . . . [True,] our…
Grand Synagogue of Lyon
The Grand Synagogue of Lyon was built shortly after the establishment of a regional consistory by Emperor Napoleon III and the appointment of a regional chief rabbi. In 1858, a new synagogue for the…
Letter to Alfred Michaux
Dear Sir,
You ask me to write extensively about my life. As far as I can, I will gladly do so, but, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do all that much. Here are the reasons: maybe for future…
Ferdinand II, 1810–1859 Bourbon King of Two Sicilies
Geskel Salomon’s portraits are striking for the way they convey the personalities of their sitters; we, as viewers, feel strongly that we are looking at real, flesh-and-blood people. Here, Salomon has…
Truth from the Land of Israel
What more can I add? Will I tell my readers about the disreputable attributes that prevail among those coming from exile, about gratuitous hatred, discord, vain squabbles over a place in the synagogue…
Letter to Herzl from Egypt’s First Zionist Society
“Bar Kokhba” Jewish SocietyCairo, EgyptFounded the 1st of Adar I 5657February 1897Central HeadquartersMr. Theodor HerzlEditor of the “Neue Freie Presse”ViennaSir, dear coreligionist in your Jewish…
Altneuland (Old-New Land)
“One question, Reschid Bey,” interrupted Kingscourt. “These gentlemen will pardon me, but you are much too modest. Were not the older inhabitants of Palestine ruined by the Jewish immigration? And…
My Life as German and Jew
I was born and raised in Fuerth, a predominantly Protestant manufacturing city of Middle Franconia, with a large Jewish community consisting principally of artisans and tradesmen. The Jews formed…
Reactions in Mosul to the Young Turk Revolution
We have not had in Mosul—unlike our unfortunate coreligionists in Baghdad much to suffer from the fanatic and reactionary movement among the Muslims in recent days. The delegates of the Committee of…