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.
Seder tefilot yesharot u-varot (The Order of Upright and Pure Prayers)
Kabbalists prayed using the basic Jewish prayers, but added certain elements according to their own tradition. The prayers are often presented with kavanot (special devotional forms, meanings, and…
Confession
I admit my guilt in that Christmas past, my said husband Juan Estevan told me how his daughter Inés had ascended to the sky and saw there the deceased and the living; and how the conversos were very…
Derush boker de-Avraham (Sermon: Morning of Abraham)
I propose to set forth the faith of our ancestors—our prophets, our sages—forgotten by us these thousand years, because of the long duration of our exile. This faith was known to the Tannaim and most…
Colophon: Pentateuch with Rashi and Other Commentaries
From the day that God confused all the languages of the land [see Genesis 11:9], through the bitter and rapid exile of the expulsion from Spain, since then all good things have ended for us; our glory…
Sefer ḥerev pifiyot (The Double-Edged Sword)
Christian Priest:Good morning to the Jews.
Jew:A good morning and a good year to my lord.
Priest:Where are you going today to insult the gentiles?
Jew:I do not understand you.
Priest:Have not you Jews…
A Song on the Jews of Ashkenaz and Poland
I will raise the matter of trimming the beard
He trims it away like leaven [on the eve of Passover]
He leaves only a small goatee.
One more…
I’m in a rage, so angry that I don’t know what to do
I’m in a rage, so angry that I don’t know what to do
because of what just happened when I went out with a few
good friends to take a walk in town, this lovely Sabbath day.
We joined a crowd of rowdy…
Shāhzada va Ṣūfī (The Prince and the Sufi)
In the Name of God, May We Endeavor and Succeed.
I Behold God before my Eyes at All Times.
A Dedication to My Master, My Father, May He Live Forever.
Ragtime
Most of the immigrants came from Italy and Eastern Europe. They were taken in launches to Ellis Island. There, in a curiously ornate human warehouse of red brick and gray stone, they were tagged…
Cláper
I love the red and blue electric trains. For twenty-five cents they go from Puente Hierro all the way to Sabana Grande. I notice that some streets have high sidewalks with side rails and stairs at…
Sonechka
Almost before she was out of the cradle, Sonechka was a bookworm. As Efrem, elder brother and family satirist, never tired of repeating, “All that reading has given Sonechka a butt like a chair and a…