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.
Portrait of Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Tsemakh Tsedek)
Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1789–1866), the third rebbe of Chabad Hasidism, was a preeminent religious figure of nineteenth-century East European Jewry. The portrait is an early example of Boris…
Letter to King Artaxerxes and the King’s Reply
And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their colleagues wrote to King Artaxerxes of Persia, a letter written in Aramaic and translated.
Aramaic: Rehum the commissioner and…
English Ketubah (New York)
This staunchly Reform ketubah—it is entirely in English—reflects the changing nature of the Hebrew Publishing Company, which had long published primarily for the Yiddish- and Hebrew-using immigrant…
Yidishe Folkspartei Election Poster
The Folkspartei (Folk Party), which championed the goal of Jewish national autonomy in the diaspora, was founded in Saint Petersburg in 1906 under the leadership of the historian Simon Dubnow and…
The Four Sons
This 1934 illustration of the Passover story of the four sons features a caricature of the “wicked” son dressed as Hitler.
Temple Emanuel Sanctuary Wall (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Lucienne Bloch’s thousand-square-foot mural covers the entire rear wall of Temple Emanuel, the building of which was designed by Erich Mendelssohn. Painted on lightweight wood panels in a palette…
In the Days of the Storm
Now the days of the pogroms came, and the hands of the masses were raised against the Jews to strike and destroy them. Socialism disgusted me. Not from the idea, which I still hold even more strongly…
Topographic Map of the city of Caracas
Ángel Jacob Jesurún’s topographical map of Caracas, with its geometric grid, is the first map after Venezuela’s independence to be drawn and printed by a native of the city. After decades of war and…
Torah Curtain
This Torah curtain was made in Ankara, Turkey. The motifs of a central menorah and hands making the priestly blessing were common in other Ottoman Jewish ritual folk art. Embroidered verses from the…
Popular Poetry of the Russian Jews
[ . . . ] Similarly, the Russian Jews use the traditional rhyming couplet in those verses that chronicle a historical event or inculcate an ethical truth. The real folksongs, however, are set to music…
Sermon on the Melting Pot
There is no denying that under the influence of this enthusiasm for America, the disintegrating process of the Melting Pot is taking place in large measure. That it is not, fortunately, taking place…
An Exchange on the Jewish Question
Is there a Jewish people? Thousands of Jews, whose language at school and in daily discourse is Hebrew, are again living in Palestine. Neo-Hebrew literature has essayists like Ahad Ha-Am, poets like B…