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.
Ketubah (Hamburg)
On June 7, 1690, Samuel de Isaac Senior Teixeira married Rachel Teixeira de Mattos Senior in Hamburg. Their beautiful ketubah (marriage contract) depicts the couple under the wedding canopy…
Persian Carpet
This Persian carpet, manufactured between 1600 and 1630, was later used for a reader’s desk and desk cover in the Portuguese Synagogue in The Hague, Netherlands.
Portrait of Shabbetai Tzvi
Shabbetai Tzvi was the central figure of a messianic movement that swept the Jewish world in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in Izmir (Smyrna), as an adolescent Shabbetai Tzvi embarked on the study…
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…
Purim Scroll
May this be written for a coming generation, that people yet to be created will praise Jah. For the signs and wonders that the most high God has performed for us, I am pleased to relate:
Know that in…
The Amsterdam Residence of Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mazes Curiël)
The wealthy merchant and diplomat Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mozes Curiël; 1620–1697) was born in Florence. In 1627, his family settled in Hamburg, where his father, a businessman, became an important…
Minhage Vormeiza (Customs of Worms): On Tishah be-Av
The people recite teḥinot [supplications] during the morning prayers on the eve of the Tishah be-Av (Ninth of Av). They then dine before entering into the synagogue for the…
Pesak (Decision): On a Secret Marriage
At a sitting of three judges we the undersigned sat as a court on the fourth day of the month of Adar 2 in the year 5376 [1616] here in Vercelli after permission was given to us from his excellency…
Commentary: On the Jerusalem Talmud
With a brief commentary and some Tosafot (additions) which were balanced, refined, and written by the Torah scholar, the great rabbi, R. Elijah ben Judah Loeb, who dwells in the land of Fulda, based…
Kol sakhal (Voice of a Fool)
Kol sakhal (Voice of a Fool), a polemical work attacking rabbinic Judaism, has been the subject of many scholarly debates. To this day, its composition and aims remain shrouded in mystery. The author…
Fear of Flying
When I got back to the hotel at five-thirty Bennett was waiting. He didn’t ask me where I’d been, but he put his arms around me and started undressing me. He made love to me, to Adrian’s slime, to our…