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.
What Is Judaism?
What is Judaism if not an ethical monotheism? The answer is that it is not an “ism” at all, despite the last syllable in its name. It is a living soul or consciousness; it is the soul or consciousness…
God’s Gifts
My most pious songs have I written
On rising from my sinful bed.
God has given me a wealth of sins,
And God alone has saved me from my sins.
Translated by David Soeterndorp.
The Lithuanian Yeshivas
These students, who poured into the Yeshivah from near and far, what were they seeking? And what was the Yeshivah seeking to give them? Did the students undertake to complete their course work at…
First Address to the Knesset
It is with a feeling of deep reverence and consecration that I rise to open the Constituent Assembly of the State of Israel, the first Knesset Israel of our time in this eternal…
Eulogy for Roi Rotberg
Yesterday morning Roi was murdered. He was lulled by the quiet of the spring morning and did not notice those lying in wait in the furrow.
Today, let us not cast aspersions at the murderers. How can…
Women of Israel, or, Characters and Sketches from the Holy Scriptures
As the first and most beautiful relationship in which woman is undeniably necessary to man—the object of his first affections, to whom he owes all of cherishing, happiness, and health, from infancy to…
Sefer ha-midot (Book of Virtues)
Noble-mindedness is a very fine character trait in the soul of man, and it extends in many directions: primarily in three, which are, noble-mindedness in wisdom, noble-mindedness in power, and noble…
Portrait of Jacob Sasportas
Born and raised in Oran, Algeria, the talmudic scholar Jacob Sasportas served as rabbi of Tlemcen. Forced to flee Morocco due to political unrest, in 1647 he embarked on a life of wandering. In 1664…
Circumcision for a Sephardic family in Amsterdam
The wealthy Sephardic family of Curiel d’Acosta is believed to have commissioned the artist Romeyn de Hooghe to make this large pen-and-ink drawing to commemorate the circumcision, in Amsterdam, of a…
De Pinto Psalter
This decorated psalter was made for Aaron de Joseph de Pinto, a member of the prominent Portuguese Jewish family in Amsterdam. It is a manuscript, copied from a print edition done by David de Castro…
A Jewish Woman from Thrace
This etching of a Jewish woman from Thrace (a region located in present day Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) is from Livre curieux contenant la naive représentation des habits des femmes des diverses…
The Shepherds King [side line work]
Ninio works in a variety of artistic disciplines, including photography. Here, a structure high in the clouded sky suggests the ability to view the world below.