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.
On the Language of the Jews Who Lived in Ancient Russia
In our previous studies we attempted to prove that the first Jews in southern Russian were not Germanic, as is claimed by Graetz and other German scholars, but rather Bosporan and Asian, as they…
Lament of the Daughter of Judah
O Russians, you who love your fellow men! You would shudder from the bottoms of your kind hearts if you saw the effect of that terrible accusation which Jews who were eyewitnesses to the unjustified…
A Story about a Rabbi, Followed by a Letter (in Kol mevaser)
One of the most important things that the government has introduced in Russia to improve education among Jews is the decree that each community must choose a…
Kantorzysta: Polka na fortepiano, op. 68
This sheet music is for a humorous song in the style of a polka, an example of the popular music that Warsaw composer Adolf Gustaw Sonnenfeld was famous for.
The Water Sprite—Polka
Louis Gottschalk wrote “The Water Sprite—Polka de Salon” soon upon his return to the United States after spending most of his teenaged years in Europe, where he was sent by his father to study music…
Map of the Land of Israel
This map, in a manuscript copy of Be’er mayim ḥayim (A Spring of Living Water), a commentary on Rashi published in Worms or Friedberg in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century, is based on Rashi’s…
Haggadah
This page from a Haggadah produced in Amsterdam is an example of the work of Joseph Ben David Leipnik, a prominent eighteenth-century scribe and artist known particularly for his illustrated Haggadahs…
Haggadah
This Haggadah was commissioned by Nathan ben Isaac Oppenheim of Vienna, a member of a prominent family of Court Jews. Its title page features a miniature of the sacrifice of Isaac being prevented by…
Haggadah
The frontispiece of this Haggadah shows the biblical Aaron on the left, carrying the Temple incense, and Moses on the right, holding the tablets of the Law. The scene at the bottom of the page shows a…
Medal of Doña Gracia the Younger
Beatriz Mendes Beneviste (Doña Gracia the Younger) was born in 1540 in Antwerp. She was the niece of the wealthy and influential Doña Gracia Nasi. In 1544, the family, New Christians of Portuguese…
Amulet
This amulet was presented by members of the Jewish community of Prague to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. At its center sits a seven-branched menorah surrounded by a prayer on Rudolf’s behalf…
Yiddish Translation of the Bible
This manuscript page of Deuteronomy 1:1–7 is from a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Yiddish, from Italy. It is decorated with two storks and an ornate chapter heading with the opening word of the…