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.
My Spiritual Autobiography
With the passing of childhood and the waning of the impatient eagerness of adolescence, I was rapidly realizing that this was neither the best of all possible worlds, nor one that the optimism of late…
The Naked and the Dead
The old man Moshe Sefardnick sits in the rear of the place on a camp stool. There is never any work for him to do and indeed he is too old for it, too bewildered. The old man has never been able to…
The Loudest Voice
There is a certain place where dumb-waiters boom, doors slam, dishes crash; every window is a mother’s mouth bidding the street shut up, go skate somewhere else, come home. My voice is the loudest. […
Letter to His Parents after His Conversion
Certainly, dearest parents, I know what is commonly the result of the influence of education and of misunderstood religion, but is it possible that you could hate your son because he harbors other…
Letters and Diary
The negro movement is still a most vexatious and mischievous one, and its effects are painfully felt in every Southern household. This morning Cy came to high words with George and…
Sihah be-erets ha-hayim (A Conversation in the Afterlife)
A dialogue in the land of the living between our teacher, R. Moses Maimonides, the Spaniard, and our Teacher Moses, son of Menaḥem [Mendelssohn] of Dessau, and an anonymous third person.On the day of…
Emek refa’im (Valley of Giants)
When I was still young, nineteen years of age, it entered my mind to fool the world (as was the practice of the “holy ones” in those days), and this was the scheme I adopted: I used to travel on…
The Brazilian’s Song from the Opera La vie parisienne
Brazilian, I’m rich, I’ve got dough
There’s plenty of gold in my sack
Paree, here I am, I’ve come back
And richer than ever before!
Two times was I here in the past
My suitcases bulging with gold
A…
Seu Shearim (Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates)
The music for “Se’u She‘arim (Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates)” resembles the choral marches found in grand opera. The words are from Psalm 24: O gates, lift up your heads! Up high, you everlasting doors…
Synagogue (Bechhofen, Germany)
The Bechhofen Synagogue (built in 1685) is believed to have been the largest wooden synagogue in Germany. The interior of the synagogue was painted with lavish decorations in 1732 and 1733, in typical…
Jewish Betrothal Ceremony
This illustration depicting a Jewish betrothal ceremony appeared in the book Jüdisches Ceremoniel (Jewish Ceremonial Customs), by Paul Christian Kirchner, a Jewish convert to Christianity. The first…
Isaac Synagogue (Kraków)
The Isaac (or Izaak) Synagogue in Kraków was built in 1638–1644. Sources differ about who designed the building, but it was likely either the Italian architect Francisco Olivieri or Swiss-born…