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.
Cemetery of the Fürth Jewish Community
This print depicting the Jewish cemetery of Fürth, Germany, is from the beginning of the eighteenth century, a period of prosperity for the city’s Jewish community. There were between 350 and 400…
Pinkas Synagogue (Prague)
The Pinkas Synagogue is the second-oldest extant synagogue in Prague. It is believed that a synagogue was found in that location as early as 1492. The structure now housing the synagogue was founded…
Synagogue Mejor (Bursa, Turkey)
The Synagogue Mejor is a synagogue in Bursa, Turkey, built in the late fifteenth century by Jews who settled in the Ottoman Empire after being expelled from Majorca. Its name “Mejor” commemorates the…
Glass for a Burial Society’s Annual Banquet
This beaker was used by the members of a burial society in Prague at their annual banquet, held on the day traditionally designated as the anniversary of Moses’ death. The painted scene depicts a…
Moses Narboni’s Commentary on Ibn Tufayl’s Ḥay ibn Yaqzan
Ḥay ibn Yaqẓān, composed by the Muslim philosopher Abū Bakr ibn Tufayl al-Qaysi (1110–1185), relates the story of Ḥay ibn Yaqẓān, literally “Alive, son of Awake,” as he grows up alone on a deserted…
Gerush Synagogue, Bursa, Turkey
The Gerush (Hebrew for “expulsion”) synagogue in Bursa, Turkey, dates back to the early sixteenth century and is unique in its dual-ark design; one upper section is located in the women’s gallery…
Ibn Danan Synagogue, Fez, Morocco
Built in the seventeenth century by the prominent Ibn Danan family, the Ibn Danan synagogue is located in the oldest and largest Jewish quarter of Fez, Morocco. It is one of the few remaining old…
Synagogue (Carpentras, France)
This synagogue, located in Carpentras, in Provence, was built in 1367 but went through serious repairs and was remodeled between 1741 and 1744 by a local civil engineer Antoine D’Allemand, in the…
Tombstone of David ben Solomon Gans
This is an image of the tombstone of David Ganz, Prague. Born in Lippstadt (now North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), Ganz (1541–1613) was a chronicler, mathematician, historian, astronomer, and…
Megilat ‘efah (Scroll of Terror)
The year 5480 of the creation of the earth and heaven, in the first month, which is the month of Nisan, the wailing of the oppressed increased. For then the hooligans began to cut off and harry the…
Minḥat Yehudah (The Offering of Judah): Commentary on Ma‘arekhet ha-elohut (The Divine Hierarchy)
When I Judah, the son of my master, the wise and righteous R. Jacob ḥayyat, peace be upon him, was in Spain, I tasted a little honey, and my eyes were enlightened. And I took it upon myself to seek…
Derashot (Sermons)
And now I will reveal to you why we call the Sabbath before Passover “the Great Sabbath.”
Know that the minister of Egypt is Aries [the ram], and Scorpio, which is with Aries, and its angel is Samael…