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.
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…
Harvey Demonstrating the Circulation of the Blood to Charles I
This painting depicts the seventeenth-century physician William Harvey demonstrating his discovery of blood circulation, a seminal moment in the history of modern medicine. Harvey, personal physician…
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…
Landscape with Figures
This pastoral painting is typical of the work of Charles Towne. His landscapes were not realistic depictions of actual places, but instead romantic views of idealized scenes. He cited seventeenth…
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…
Fliglman on the Left
Warsaw, October 17, 1932
Dear friend S. Niger,
When we speak about left and right, we should, first of all, enclose both words in thick quotation marks, and then we have to remember that true left…
The Hunt in Bohemia
The great controversy in Bohemia surrounding the language legislation shows Austrian Jews in a strange position. They go along loyally with those who only yesterday had been their fiercest enemies—and…
On the Tasks of the Folkspartay
We must not repeat the mistake made by western Jews . . . in denying their nationality and in assimilating completely in all areas of life except religion. . . . We eastern Jews have seen all the…
Jewish Family Names in Ukraine
The question of family names in general and of Jewish family names in particular is interesting in many ways. Unfortunately, Jewish scholarship has thus far devoted very little attention to this…
Redemption through Sin
No chapter in the history of the Jewish people during the last several hundred years has been as shrouded in mystery as that of the Sabbatian movement. On one point, at least, there is no longer any…
Letters to Sholem Aleichem
June 17, 1888 [June 29 in the Gregorian calendar]Dear Sir:Several days ago, I received an undated and terse postcard from one of my friends, a person close to me, H. Epstein, in which the following…
To the Modern Girl
It is you, modern girls, whom I address. The modern spirit has completely changed your natures. If the sages of old, who spoke so much about the wonderful strength of woman as opposed to man, found…