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.
Jewish Widow and Jewish Matron
This watercolor from the Gennadius Library’s Costume Album collection, in Athens, depicts two Jewish women—a widow (left) and a married woman (right)—in the colorful traditional attire of…
Sefer ha-kavanot (Kabbalistic Intentions in Prayer and Performance of Precepts)
This manuscript copy of Sefer ha-kavanot (The Book of [Kabbalistic] Intentions [in Prayer and Performance of Precepts]) by Ḥayim Vital was written in Meknes, Morocco. The kabbalists in Safed stressed…
Love among the Palms
Six days left. Less than a week! That means, after next Saturday I would no longer see Sayyid. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t change my clothes. I gritted my teeth, because I was afraid the shriek…
History of Matzah: The Story of the Jews, Part I
The History of Matzah: The Story of the Jews, Part I, is part of a triptych series that employs text and three-dimensional elements in relief to chronicle Jewish history from Moses to the birth of the…
Lament over the Jews of Kremzir
So since we are in the midst of writing a song,
We will write also about the destruction of the holy community of Kremzir,
Even though this happened five years before,
In the year 1643, on the 9th of…
Tseror ha-mor (Bundle of Myrrh) and Eshkol ha-kofer (Cluster of Henna)
When I was in Castile in the city of Zamora, tranquil and secure in my abode, I set my mind to inquire and explore matters of Torah and began to compose a book yielding lovely…
Letter to Ludovico Antonio Muratori
To satisfy your doubt concerning my signature, I have to tell you, in all philosophical frankness, that I was born with a burning desire and the greatest curiosity to know, more as a way to get to…
Documentos para todo estado e ydade, e em particular para abituar bem os moços desde sua moçidade â vertude (Documents for Every State and Age, and in Particular to Accustom Young Men from Their Youth to Virtue)
Turn from evil and do good. Beloved Son. The great esteem in which I hold you and my intense desire for your welfare have prompted me to draw up this list of virtues as an antidote against the…
Masa‘ot erets Yisra’el (Travels in the Land of Israel)
Safed is in the upper Galilee, in the Naftali region, with the bulk of the city atop the mountain. Surrounding the city’s mountain are some four mountains; on two of them, all the people are…
Release from Excommunication
In the presence of all the rabbis and the entire council (qri’ah) of Rome, the Scuola Catalana-Aragonese [Catalan-Aragonese Congregation] agrees to release Giuseppe Picciotto from a ban (niddui). The…
Takkanot Fiorda (Regulations of Fürth)
1. A head of household, student, or youth—be he local or a foreigner, whether he eats for free, or pays for his food—may not wear a camisol [vest] of gold cloth or brocade with…
Appointment of Jacob Abendana
In the Name of the Blessed God.In consideration of the fact that it is needful for the prosperity of this Kaal Kados [congregation—Ed.], which God bless, to have the service of a Haham who should…