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.
Shabos-Nakhamu
This is how things go with your average Jew. But Hershele is not your average Jew. It wasn’t by chance that he was famous in all of Ostropol, in all of Berdichev, and in all of Vilyuisk.
Hershele…
My Tiny, Ugly World
Never have I been content with my narrow, dark, gloomy world, and always am I aware of the contrast between the great, beautiful world and my tiny, ugly world. And always I say, “The place is too…
Memoirs of a Grandmother
In these years of the 1880s, as anti-Semitism raged all over Russia, there were only two ways for the Jews. Either give up all that had become essential to them, in the name of Judaism; or take the…
Thesaurus of Hebrew-Oriental Melodies: Songs of the Yemenite Jews
A systematic collection of the traditional songs of Oriental Jews is of great importance, both for the elucidation of the vocal music used in synagogues and for the study of the origins of…
Medal with the Image of Judith and Moses Montefiore
This medal by master engraver Charles Wiener honors the Jewish philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885) and his wife, Lady Judith Montefiore (1784–1862). Montefiore was an activist on behalf of…
How Should Yiddish Be Written?
Ever since the written word in Russia became a bit freer, the country has released a torrent of Yiddish publications of every sort. Various publishing houses have appeared, and every one of them is…
Letter to the Alliance Israélite Universelle
I am in the process of preparing a rather copious work on Salonica, its past, and its present. The history of the [Jewish] community has given me quite a headache. I have gone through a pile of…
Robert le diable
Robert le diable (Robert the Devil) is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831. One of the first grand operas, it caused a sensation when it debuted at the Paris…