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 Israelite Epic
40. When the tradition concerning the opposition of the sea and its confederates to the will of the Creator of the…
A Letter to the Readers of My Friends from Arnon Street
Often I receive letters from children who read my stories, and one question that is nearly always put to me in the letters is: “Did it really happen?” But, you see, I cannot always answer this…
Torah Curtain
This Torah curtain was donated to the Altneuschul (Staranova Synagogue) in Prague in 1602 by Natan ben Issachar (called Karpel Zaks), and Hadassi bat Moses, who commissioned it, as attested to by its…
De Pinto Etrog Container
During the holiday of Sukkot, four plant species are used in rituals in the synagogue. One of these is the etrog (citron). While containers to protect the etrog later became more common, they were…
Foldout Calendar
This foldout calendar is a beautifully illuminated feature that appears in a sefer ‘evronot. Works of this genre were Jewish calendar handbooks for calculating the dates of religious holidays and…
Livro de ascamot: A List of the Books in Yeshivat ‘Ets Ḥayim
Established in 1616 as part of a yeshiva in Amsterdam, the Ets Ḥayim library continues to function to this day, making it the oldest operational Jewish library in the world. It moved to its current…
Portrait of Joseph Solomon Delmedigo
This engraving by Willem Jacobsz Delff is based on an earlier portrait of scholar Joseph Solomon Delmedigo by Willem Cornelisz Duyster.
Tekhine (Women’s Supplication): For a Pregnant Woman
Lord of the world, my God,
I humbly beg You, with a broken heart,
And with my weak body,
To confirm my baby in Torah,
As a person of honor and riches.…
El Conciliador (The Reconciler)
Genesis 1:26. Let us make man in our image, as our likeness.
Genesis 9:6. For in the image of God made he man.
Deuteronomy 4:15. And guard ye your souls greatly, for ye saw no manner of…
Ivory or Bone Spoon
The image on the handle of this spoon from Beth Zur is of a person in a ceremonial pose with one arm raised. The lotus blossom on the left reinforces Egyptian iconographic connections. Part of the…
Silver Earrings
These silver earrings of solid lunates have fixed attachments and attachments of hollow granule clusters. They are from a tomb at Tel Ira in the northern Negev.
Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah and Elisha
Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of King Asa of Judah, and Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years. Ahab…