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.
Speech Given to the General Assembly of the Jewish Colonization Association
This speech by the president of the Jewish Colonization Association to its board in Paris praises their work in Argentina while also addressing the difficulties colonies had faced in earlier years.
In the Town of Berdichev
Vasily Grossman began his literary career with the publication of In the Town of Berdichev in 1934. This book dichotomously validates the experiences of Jewish families and Russian Revolutionaries dur
Call to Arms
Vilna ghetto partisan leader Abba Kovner publicly predicted the Final Solution weeks before the Wannsee conference finalized the Nazis’ plans to systematically murder millions of Jews.
History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving
A British Holocaust denier accused Professor Deborah Lipstadt of libel under British law. Many were surprised that Lipstadt decided to go to court. Lipstadt explains what was at stake in her decision.
Haggadah (Frankfurt)
One of Charlotte von Rothschild’s most outstanding works is the only known nineteenth-century Hebrew manuscript to have been illuminated by a woman.
Yesod ‘olam (Foundation of the World)
Terah and AbrahamTerah:Who is he and where is he [see Esther 7:6], who against the Ba‘al idolSent forth his hand like an adversary, with impudence?Who is this evil one…
Medicorum consilia in infirmitate Francisci Mariae II urbini ducis (Physicians’ Consilia Regarding the Illness of Francesco Maria II, Duke of Urbino)
Although I have judged you, most serene Duke, to be the very wisest and most learned of all princes, and have perceived you to be very skilled in all of philosophy and the mathematical disciplines, it…
A Letter to Chief Rabbi Raffael Natan Tedesco of Trieste
Most Distinguished Sir,
The undersigned, your most humble servant, is a wretched woman of twenty-three years of age. I was married for five and a half years to this Mr. Lucio Luzzatto, [but] I was…
Responsum: On an Inheritance Dispute
Question: A rabbi died, leaving all his assets in the rabbinic court’s control until his heir came to take possession, and his closest heir, who ought rightfully to inherit, is in Portugal, living as…
Omer Calendar
This omer calendar, marking the days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, is still used at Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia. The letters stand for H=Homer (Ladino for Omer); S…
The Book of Jerusalem Journeys
In 1930, Chaim Elazar Shapiro (Spira), the Hasidic rebbe of Munkacs, Czechoslovakia (today, Mukachevo, Ukraine), traveled by rail to Vienna and Trieste and by ship to Alexandria, where he and his…