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.
I Am . . .
I am Mani Leyb, whose name is sung—
In Brownsville, Yehupets, and farther, they know it:
Among cobblers, a splendid cobbler; among
Poetical circles, a splendid poet.
A boy straining over the…
Chapters of My Autobiography
The story of my life is only exceptional in that it represents a great change of identity in the heart of the Jewish people. [ . . . ]
I was born a Jewish Algerian—a French citizen to boot—and during…
The Lonely Man of Faith
It is not the plan of this essay to discuss the millennium-old problem of faith and reason. I want instead to focus attention on a human-life situation in which the man of faith as an individual…
Correspondence with Moses Montefiore
To Sir Moses Montefiore, from Oro, the widow of Hayim Arieh, 1866
[Oh] one who gives light to the earth and to them that dwell thereon, who is…
Declaration Adopted by the Assembly and the Answers to the First Three Questions
Resolved, by the French deputies professing the religion of Moses, that the following Declaration shall precede the answers returned to the questions proposed by the Commissioners of His…
Note of Royalty Who Visited the Sephardic Synagogue of Amsterdam between 1642 and 1781
the voice of prayer and the voice of song given inthe house of the lord elohei yisraelthe holy congregations of the sepharadimmay the lord comfort usin this great city of amsterdamfrom the day they…
Alberti: A Play in Five Acts
As Performed at the Charleston Theatre Alberti, Commander of the Florentine Army Lorenso D’Medici, surnamed the Magnificent Ippolito, betrothed to Antonia
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…
Tombstone of Rachel Pereira
Rachel Soares Pereira, who died in 1721 at the age of twenty-four, was married to Isaac Pereira. Floral motifs decorate the top of her gravestone, while the bottom panel contains a relief of a hand…
Flyer for Redeeming Captured Jews
This flyer calls for the Jewish community to pay a ransom to rescue Jewish captives from the 1686 siege of Buda, which resulted in the capture of the Hungarian city from the Ottoman Empire by armies…
Portrait of Issachar Baer Teller
The physician and surgeon Issachar Baer Teller received his medical training by studying and practicing with other physicians in Prague. He completed his studies under the guidance of Joseph Solomon…