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.
Retribution Is Not Enough
We Jews who live in the staid serenity of America have failed to grasp the immensity of the tragedy which has befallen our people and this failure is perhaps the greatest part of the tragedy. Were the…
L’Arche, Dictionary of French Judaism, “North African”
One must hurry to grasp it; yesterday, it did not exist; tomorrow it will be no more. Yesterday there were Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans, discovered by…
My First Day in the Twentieth Century
The truth, the mathematical truth, is that a new century begins on January 1 of the year one of the new hundred-year time span. But it is the custom to celebrate a new century on January 1 of the last…
Prayer against the Hasidim
“Blessed are you, God, God of our ancestors, the great, awesome, and holy God. You have bequeathed human understanding (da‘at ha-enoshit) to humanity. You have gifted us with the knowledge of your…
Progress: The Meaning of Passover
Once again, following our custom of addressing readers [of the weekly journal Jutrzenka (Dawn), April 3, 1863] in view of the upcoming celebrations, we open the book of books, our holy Torah, in order…
Chronicle on the Death of Sultan Osman II and the Reigns of Mustafa and Murad
Sunday, 15th of the aforementioned month [Elul; 10.9.1623]. The Sipahis [feudal cavalrymen] and the Janissaries [professional infantry corps] and all the king’s slaves and ministers came to speak with…
Minhage de-kehilah ha-kedoshah Vormaiza (Customs of the Holy Community of Worms): On the Sabbath
27. On the eve of the Sabbath they light the oven in the home of the beadle, where they bake cakes and roast what is required for the Sabbath. They also boil the pots for the needs of…