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.
Entrées: A Collection of Recipes
[Title Page]And You Shall Cook and Eat (Deuteronomy 16:7)Livre de Cuisines [Cookbook]This book concerns all types of foods, appropriate for rich and poor, for holidays and other days. The composer of…
Brivenshteler: A Letter to a Friend in Russia about America
Dear Friend,You asked me in your last letter to write about America, what kind of country it is and what life is like here. I had to smile as I read your words. [ . . . ]In order to describe America…
Worker’s Song
Written down while working in the fields, patterned after the Arabic working song and sung to that tune.O I have my life and my labor!Yah ḥai li, li-hah-‘amali!Awaken, my brothers, there’s no time…
How Should One Pray South of the Equator?
Rosario, Argentina, June 16, 1914Your Eminence,Permit me to bother you in the name of the Jewish collective of Rosario, because of a divergence of opinion arising between us, about which we desire…
Responsum: On Prostitutes’ Gifts to the Synagogue
Concerning the matter of prostitutes from the daughters of Israel—far be it from our straight paths—who dedicate a new ark curtain or Torah scroll cover, it is permissible from a legal point of view…
Letter to Rabbi Jacob Moses Karpas against Zionism
May he be written and sealed immediately for good, long life—the honored rabbi, the splendid gentleman, the sharp and erudite, God-fearing, distinguished, may his name be honored, our teacher, R…
Responsum: On Civil Marriage
I set the Lord before me always. Karcag [Hungary], eve of the holy Sabbath, the week of [the reading of] Koraḥ, 5659 [June, 1899]. Abundant blessings and rejoicings to my dear friend, the eminent…
The Dispersion of Israel
I have observed that on account of our many sins these days, very many Jews have…
Confirmation Manual
The compiler of this Manual, after many years of experience in the ministry, and frequent occasions of conferring the rite of Confirmation on his pupils, desires to place before his…
An Open Letter
With God’s help, may the Lord order blessing, life, and peace for the leaders and fine men, preeminent individuals, etc., and for their head, the Great Rabbi, etc.Hear, congregation of the Lord and…
This wonder, this marvel
This wonder, this marvel,
which the deceitful fantasy
Basilisk or Asp believes it to be,
is an error of understanding:
Since if one considers it carefully,
the Divine Providence
is rewarding your…
The Lover
And then I heard the singing. Chanting, prayer, live voices, not from the transistor. It wasn’t yet light, just the first flutterings of dawn. Shivering with cold, wrapped in our blankets, wet with…