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.
Amulet for Falling Sickness
An amulet for a person with the falling sickness [epilepsy—Ed.]. He should wear it [the amulet] around his neck, and he should fast and ritually immerse, and it should be written in the first hour at…
Amulet for the Evil Eye
Amulets for the evil eye; tested. Write on either a kosher or deerskin parchment, on a day of [reading from] the Torah, before eating anything. And calculate in that hour which day it is and which…
The Tragedy of 1st and 2nd June, 1941 in the Capital of Iraq
Every Jew of our community well remembers these two sorrowful days during which cruel killings took place instead of seeing our way to enjoy them as they were the days of “visits festivals”…
Dream Question
A dream question: clean yourself from all impurity and abstain from eating meat, drinking wine, and lying with a woman. And lie in a clean bed after ritually immersing—a stringent immersion, because…
For Becoming Invisible
For becoming invisible: write the following on a deerskin parchment, wrap it in three layers of leathers, and wear it: Glospats Tsamarkhad, Kilkel, YHWH. Take a rooster in the month of March and put…
For the Voice
For the voice:
I entreat you Paskon, Atmon, Sagron: Paskon, that my voice not stop: Atmon, that my throat not be sealed; Sagron, that my throat not be closed. May it be your will, God and Lord of our…
Path Jumping
For contracting the path [magically speeding one’s travel—Ed.]: take a kosher parchment and write on it in purity and cleanliness. This requires great intention [kavanah] in the names: “In the name…
The Wanderings of the Little Blue Butterfly in Fairyland
Illustration from the children’s book The Wanderings of the Little Blue Butterfly in Fairyland, first published in Budapest, Hungary, in 1912.
The Melting Pot
The plot of Israel Zangwill’s 1908 play The Melting Pot described the love of a Jewish musician and composer for the Christian daughter of a Russian antisemite as epitomizing the promise of America…
Calendar for the Year 5665, an Intercalated Year
The Hebrew calendar uses a system of intercalation, adding an additional month to the calendar year to synchronize the regular twelve-month calendar with the moon, sun, and seasons. The Hebrew…
Astrological Calendar from Kabbalistic Manuscript
This astrological calendar contains a zodiac rota, divided into twelve astrological signs. The rota was one of the authoritative schemata that kabbalists used to map the structure of the sefirot, the…
Dedicated to Lincoln’s Birthday
Cover of Der groyser kundes: A zhurnal far humor, vitz un satire (Feb. 9, 1912), with a cartoon by Isidore Busatt, a cartoonist active in New York in the first half of the twentieth century. The…