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 Social Preconditions of the National Awakening of the Jews in the USSR
Jews, in the past celebrated for the ability to understand all things, are now in danger of being unable to understand anything at all culturally, for they do not have self-awareness. Without such…
Israel—A Spiritual Travel Guide: A Companion for the Modern Jewish Pilgrim
Before your plane to Israel departs, recite T’fillat Haderekh, “Prayer for a Safe Journey […].” Then, during the flight, read the following.
Pinochet’s Chile: Order and Chaos
At 1:35 on the morning of May 9, 1986, a bomb exploded in Amiti Pilowsky’s bedroom window in Santiago, Chile. No one was hurt, although the bomb destroyed a car in the driveway, severely damaged a…
Maps of Europe before and after WWI
The two maps show the differences in state boundaries before and after World War I. The striking alterations resulted from the dissolution of four empires, the emergence of new states and the…
God’s Paintbrush
Written by a rabbi, God's Paintbrush carries a message that is not unique to Judaism but rather is intended to appeal to children of a variety of faiths and backgrounds. The book was popular among…
A Book of Hebrew Letters
Pages from Mark Podwal’s A Book of Hebrew Letters, an exploration of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet through drawings and words representing each letter.
Florida Family Portrait
For her book Florida Family Portrait, Gelles photographed her family in the same pose over twenty years during trips to visit her parents in Florida. A comment on family, growth, aging, death, and the…
Tefillin (Triptych)
Laurence’s Tefillin questions both western art and patriarchal aspects of Judaism. The triptych portrays parts of women’s naked bodies, bound in the leather straps of tefillin, the small black leather…
Kabbalistic Diagram and Calendar
These pages come from the same manuscript of a midrashic commentary. The first image depicts the inner processes of the divine emanations (the sefirot). Visualization plays an important part in…
Faces decorating a siddur
These are marginal illustrations found in a manuscript siddur from Italy according to the Romaniote rite, with prayers focused on marriage and birth rituals and customs, as well as the pidyon ha-ben…
Mūsā nāma (The Book of Moses)
Mūsā nāmā (The Book of Moses) is a retelling of the biblical story of Moses, composed in Judeo-Persian verse by the poet Mowlānā Shāhīn-i Shīrāzī. In this scene, Phinehas (bottom right) surprises the…
Megilat Mitsrayim (The Scroll of Egypt)
After these things, Ahmed Shaitan desired of the Jews a hundred and fifty thousand great gold pieces, and he also said, If ye bring them not quickly, I shall kill you with the sword. And when the Jews…