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 Modern Period in Jewish History: Its Distinctiveness, Essence, and Shape
The terms “recent generations” or “modern times” are commonly employed to denote the period of history which is close to us not only in time, but also in character—in its material circumstances…
Rigoletto in Yiddish: A Notable Triumph
We are becoming so accustomed to the remarkable enterprise of the authorities of the Temple, East End Jewry’s playhouse in Commercial Road, that we cease to wonder at anything they now attempt in…
Reflections on Modern Jewish Studies
In my opinion, one cannot understand the development of the Science of Judaism except by taking note of the profound contradictions or, if you will, the unique dialectical tensions present within it…
Map of the Temple in Jerusalem
This map of the Temple in Jerusalem made in Safed by a Jewish scribe comes from an example of a “pilgrimage scroll,” also known as an “itinerary,” because they included instructions for visiting holy…
Portrait of R. Aryeh Judah Leib ben David Calischer
Aryeh Judah Leib ben David (d. 1709), known as Leib Calisch, or Kalischer, was rabbi in the communities of Kremsier (now Kroměříž, Czech Republic); Łobżenica (in modern-day Poland); and Kalisz, Poland…
Jewish Wedding
In this engraving from a Dutch translation of Leone Modena’s Historia de’ riti Ebraici (History of the Jewish Rites), a Jewish wedding in Amsterdam is pictured. Groom and bride stand under the huppah…
Portrait of Tzvi Ashkenazi
Tzvi Hirsch ben Jacob Ashkenazi was a talmudist and community leader from Moravia. He was also known as the Ḥakham Tzvi, a Sephardic scholarly title he is thought to have received from the rabbinic…
Disputatio medica inauguralis, de pleuritide (Inaugural Medical Discourse: On Pleuritide)
This is the title page of Disputatio medica inauguralis, de pleuritide (Inaugural Medical Discourse: On Pleuritide), David Pina’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Leiden. Pina was a…
David’s Room
Among the inspirations for Bar Lev’s paintings were American patchwork quilts, Mexican and Native American art, stained-glass windows, Russian constructivism, and pop art. She combined patterns and…
Allenby, Rothschild
Frydlender uses digital technology to create panoramic photographs, taking as many as a hundred individual photographs and assembling them into one image. While his photographs accurately reproduce…
O my creator!: On Entering the Synagogue
O my creator! Pay heed to the servant that knocks at your doors; open up for him the entrance to the lintel of your dwelling place.
As he lifts up his eyes to you, may his supplication, his cries…
Sulam ha-‘aliyah (The Ladder of Ascension)
Concerning the explanation of the paths of hitbodedut [contemplation] and conjunction and the preparations that are proper for one who practices hitbodedut in order to arrive at his…