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.
Of Change and Adaptation in Judaism
Midrash [ . . . ] is not mere reference to the past: it is the enlistment of the past in the service of the present. Even more specifically, it is a reinsertion into the present of the original divine…
A Child of the Century
The Readers Digest Magazine broke the American silence attending the massacre of the Jews in February, 1943. It printed my article called “Remember Us,” based on Dr. [Hayim] Greenberg’s data. Reading…
A Memorial Synagogue
The Painter had a different personality. A tiny Polish Jew, he was famous as a creator of wonderful whimsical animals. He said:
“For my part I wanted to use stained glass. But the architect says we…
Eli, the Fanatic
Inside the house they took their seats. Though it was lighter than a few evenings before, a bulb or two would have helped. Eli had to hold his briefcase towards the window for the last gleamings. He…
Sefer kise Shelomoh (Solomon’s Throne)
When our teacher Rabbi Solomon, who was a rabbi here in Aleppo, passed away without any male children, the rabbis [of the city] consulted among themselves, and with the elders of the people and the…
The Education of the Heart
Warrenton, North Carolina
U.S. of America
August 7th, 1815
A young American lady who has long felt towards Miss Edgeworth those sentiments of respect and admiration which superior talents exerted in…
Letters and Diary
The negro movement is still a most vexatious and mischievous one, and its effects are painfully felt in every Southern household. This morning Cy came to high words with George and…
Sihah be-erets ha-hayim (A Conversation in the Afterlife)
A dialogue in the land of the living between our teacher, R. Moses Maimonides, the Spaniard, and our Teacher Moses, son of Menaḥem [Mendelssohn] of Dessau, and an anonymous third person.On the day of…
The Three Brothers
“Back at home, I pulled myself together and reflected on what had happened. Given how the people had behaved when they heard the wrongheaded and hateful rabbi’s curse of excommunication, I realized…
Emek refa’im (Valley of Giants)
When I was still young, nineteen years of age, it entered my mind to fool the world (as was the practice of the “holy ones” in those days), and this was the scheme I adopted: I used to travel on…
Igerot Shadal (Letters of Samuel David Luzzatto)
I am a friend to all lovers of Torah and wisdom and my only desire and my complete salvation rest in disseminating the sources of the Torah in order that the earth will be full of the knowledge of God…
Letter to George Washington
Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now (with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events) behold a government erected by the Majesty…