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.
Letter to an Arab Friend
The year was 1933: one automobile picked us up to take us both from Jerusalem to Haifa over the road which passes through Nablus. The boat which brought us to Marseilles allowed us to discover for the…
Igeret aliyat ha-neshamah (Epistle on the Ascent of the Soul)
You will assuredly regard it as wondrous, and it will gladden your heart that I too regarded as wondrous the vision vouchsafed to me by the Almighty in relation to the aliyot “ascents”—wondrous things…
A Polish Jew
This depiction of a Polish Jew first appeared in a book, Neu-eröffnete Welt-Galleria (New Gallery of the World), published in Nuremberg in 1703. Its 101 plates by Caspar Luyken included portraits of…
Self-Portrait
In a self-portrait from ca. 1721, Catherine da Costa depicts herself at work in a studio, painting a portrait of mother and child that resembles paintings of the Madonna and child.
Portrait of Simcha Vaz (1582–1643), painted by her son, Moses Belmonte
Simcha (Gimar) Belmonte (born Vaz; 1582–1643) was the wife of Jakob Israel Belmonte (a poet, writer, and trader). She and her husband were among the founders of the Jewish community in Amsterdam after…
Surgical Illustration
These pages are from a manuscript, De dificuldade de ourinar (On Difficulty in Urinating), by a Jewish physician and surgeon in Amsterdam, Samuel de Leon Benavente (1643–1722). He was known for his…
Jewish Man in Cairo
This engraving depicting a Jewish man in Cairo, Egypt is from Cornelis de Bruyn’s travelogue, Reizen van Corn. de Bruyn door de vermaardste deelen van Klein Asia, de eylanden Scio, Rhodus, Cyprus enz…
Gingi, or, a Private Tent Camp
Night ThoughtsThat night, I had the weirdest thoughts. I don’t know why, but suddenly I thought to myself how great it is for a boy to have a bed as comfortable as my own. He can lie in bed and get a…
Untitled
The iconography in Pichhadze’s paintings from the 1980s defies easy definition. This untitled work incorporates both abstract and figurative elements. The framed “nature” scene with its butterflies…
Israel Is Rejuvenated: In Praise of Prominent Synagogue Members
Israel is rejuvenated like the majestic
Eagle, in the Sapphire of faithfulness,
Flying in the goodness of observance,
Its gaze fixed on the…
Discursos predicaveis que o doctor Haham Yeoshua da Silva pregoe no Kahal Kados Saar a Samayim (Preaching Discourses That the Haham Josua da Silva Preached in the Shaar Asamayim Synagogue)
A King had many natural sons, whom he handed over to lords and princes, his vassals, to rear and feed, and he had another legitimate son whom he greatly loved, and brought him up with him in his…
The Current Situation in Jerusalem
At present there are approximately three hundred homeowners, and almost twelve hundred people, in Jerusalem, may it be rebuilt and reestablished. This about the situation you will find at any point in…