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.
Traditions and Customs of the Sephardic Jews of Salonica
Sephardic cooking in Salonica was based, until the Greek occupation of 1912, on sesame seed oil, which in the Judeo-Spanish dialect was called by the name of azeite de giungili…
Between East and West: A History of the Jews of North Africa
The French presence in North Africa completely disrupted the pattern of coexistence between the Jewish and Moslem communities that had existed for over a thousand years…
Memoir
These high officials were not accustomed to wearing European-style shirts. When they decided to dress in the European style, they asked a certain ham, Daniel Andjel, whose shop at the Women’s Market…
Tanya
Now, aside from the fact that it is altogether impossible to interpret the matter of tzimtzum literally, for that would attribute corporeal events to the…
In the Hands of the British
This day [December 29, 1778] the British troops, consisting of about 3,500 men, including two battalions of Hessians under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell of the Seventy-first…
Portrait of Adah Isaacs Menken
Adah Isaacs Menken (1835–1868) achieved celebrity first as an actress, later gaining some literary following for her poetry. Uncertainty surrounds Menken’s family history, as she claimed various…
The 1670 Expulsion of the Jews from Vienna
This illustration, from an antisemitic publication, Jüdische neue Zeitung vom Marsch aus Wien und anderen Orten der jetzigen zwölff Jüdischen Stammen (Jewish Newspaper from the March to Vienna and…
David Oppenheim
David Oppenheim (1664–1736) was the chief rabbi of Prague. Born in Worms, he was the son of a communal leader and nephew of Samuel Oppenheim (1630–1703), financier and war contractor to Habsburg…
Lighting the Sabbath and Festival Candles
This woodcut depicts Jewish women and girls lighting candles to mark the beginning of the Sabbath or a holiday. The illustration appears in a Yiddish translation by Shim’on Levi Gintsburg, printed in…
Marriage Ceremony
This illustration depicting a Jewish wedding taking place under a huppah (wedding canopy) near a synagogue appeared in the book Jüdisches Ceremoniel (Jewish Ceremonial Customs), by Paul Christian…
Sefirotic Tree
Kabbalist Elijah Menaḥem ben Abba Mari Ḥalfan constructed this diagram, now stained and torn, with the assistance of his tutor Abraham Sarfati. It depicts the sefirotic system and includes Ḥalfan’s…
A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue
A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue was the first Hebrew-language manual printed in North America. Its author Judah Monis, knowing that all undergraduates at Harvard University were required to learn…