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.
The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon: Maskilic View of Heder
I must now say something of the condition of the Jewish schools in general. The school is commonly a small smoky hut, and the children are scattered, some on benches, some on the bare earth. The…
The Hebrew Crusading Newspaper
We [of the Polish weekly journal Jutrzenka (Dawn), October 25, 1861] have already had the opportunity to mention a number of periodicals devoted entirely to Jewish affairs. We have also named three…
Recruits
Aaron:It’s all a plain lie. It’s because our Jews throughout the land in the little villages are so primitive, so stupid, they can’t even read. Anyone will tell them the most absurd things and they…
Shir hama‘alot (Song of Ascents)
“Shir ha-ma‘alot (Song of Ascents),” Psalm 126, is customarily recited or sung before the Grace After Meals on the Sabbath and festivals. There are many different tunes for the song. A Yiddish…
Baal T’fillah: Oder, Der practische Vorbeter (Prayer Leader: Or The Practical Litanist)
The first edition of Baal T’fillah was published in 1871. A compendium of over 1,500 Jewish traditional melodies, according to the traditions of German, Polish, and Portuguese (Sephardic) Jews, the…
Alms Box
This alms box was affixed to the wall in the Old Synagogue (Alte-Schul, or Stara Bóżnica) of Kraków, located in the Kazimierz district of the city. Because it was in a part of the Polish-Lithuanian…
Funeral Activities
Between 1723 and 1737, illustrator Bernard Picart partnered with the Dutch bookseller, editor, and publisher Jean-Frédéric Bernard on Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (R…
Urbino Synagogue, Italy
This Torah ark, installed in a synagogue in the Italian town of Urbino, is a fine example of Renaissance Judaica. Carved from walnut in the early sixteenth century, the ark belonged to the Sephardic…
Scuola Greca (Corfu)
Built in the seventeenth century, the Scuola Greca is a synagogue located in the area of the ghetto in which Jews were confined in 1622, in a neighborhood still known as “Evraiki” (Jews). It is the…
Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins
The children's book Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins was written by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Featuring the legendary Jewish hero Hershel of Ostropol pitted against goblins…
Untitled
Shachar began to mold and cast human body parts from life early in his career. Here, hands carry the body of a young girl wrapped in a sheet, perhaps alluding to the Virgin Mary supporting the dead…
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…