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.
Ayn naye kornayk (A New Chronicle)
[1742] In the week when we read the portion Toledoth of the Pentateuch a proclamation was issued by the…
Dofi ha-zeman (Chastisements of the Times)
May the Almighty make His vaporous dew fall, for the benefit of His people and His servants, and may He, in His mercy, restore the souls to the deceased. Let him who understands hear, and let him who…
Narraçāo da vinda dos Judeos espanhões a Amsterdam (Account of the Coming of the Spanish Jews to Amsterdam)
The illustrious gentlemen, ḥakham R. Mosseh Ury ha-Levi (of blessed memory) and his son, R. Aaron Ury ha-Levi, my father and master: both were residents of Emden, in the province of Oost-Friesland…
Tit ha-yaven (The Miry Clay)
Now we shall begin to describe the confrontation of the King of Sweden with the King of Poland. First, the aforementioned King of Sweden came to the holy community of Posen [Poznań], a major Jewish…
Lament on the Ukrainian Massacre
[To the tune of “Adir ayom ve-nora.”]Come, dear friends, let us cry and lamentThe horrible things that have happened in these times.In the year that Messiah was expected amid tribulation [1648],Cossa…
Shemen ha-tov u-zekan Aharon (The Goodly Oil and the Beard of Aaron)
There was once a little city with few Jewish inhabitants, roughly twenty households, the name [of the city] being Ragusa; and it was self-governing. Now it transpired that in the year 5383 [1622], on…
Dancing Musician
On this clay plaque from Dan, from the Late Bronze (Canaanite) period, a man is playing a lute while dancing. The position of the performer’s legs shows that he is doing a lively dance.
Shevaḥ nashim (In Praise of Women)
I have realized, and my attention has been drawn to the fact that many people say that the salvation of women is not on the same level as that of men, for their [women’s] knowledge is limited. They…
The Farmer and the Cowman
Carnes:The farmer and the cowman should be friends,Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends.One man likes to push a plough,The other likes to chase a cow,But that’s no reason why they cain’t be…
Ma’agal tov ha-shalem (The Good Journey)
And in the City of London we went to the Fort which is called the Tower, and there I saw lions and an eagle one hundred years old and a great snake from India and another snake and other wild beasts…
Phat’hi’s Treasure
A Meeting at the StationI stood outside the grocery, holding a shopping bag in one hand, and Phat’hi’s strange “letter” in the other. I looked at the drawings of the car, the clock, and the sign over…