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.
The Androgynous Human
Genesis Rabbah 8:1 imagines an androgynous first human, blending Torah and Greco-Roman ideas about creation and gender.
Bathhouses and Boundaries in Roman Jewish Life
In m. Avodah Zarah 3:4, the rabbis consider how Jews may join in Roman civic life without crossing into idol worship or losing their religious identity.
Oven of Akhnai
In the talmudic tale of the Oven of Akhnai (b. Bava Metzia 59a–b), divine voices yield to human interpretation and rabbinic authority defines Torah.
Lifelong Torah Learning
Mishnah Avot 5:21 defines a lifetime of Torah study, linking each stage of life to learning and making study the essence of Jewish living.
Self-Portrait in Hiding
View Felix Nussbaum’s haunting self-portrait painted in hiding in Brussels, reflecting fear, identity, and a fragile hope during the Holocaust.
Jewish Women’s Education in Ottoman Istanbul
Learn how Ottoman Jewish teacher Victoria Danon fought to open a Turkish-language school for Jewish girls in 1890s Istanbul, challenging local opposition.
Mizrahi Women in America: Stories of Food and Identity
An interview with American Mizrahi women authors explores how food, memory, and heritage shape 21st-century Jewish storytelling and identity.
A Syrian Jewish Thanksgiving: Ham and kibbeh
A Syrian Jewish family outside of the close-knit Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn evaluates their relationship to tradition through food.
Daniel’s Dream of the Four Beasts and the Son of Man
In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream: I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of…
The Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, Interior
This Curaçao synagogue, the oldest surviving one in the Americas, has sand-covered floors.
The Essence of Baseball Explained for Non-Sportsmen
This illustration of a baseball diamond appeared in a short primer on baseball published in a Yiddish newspaper.
Herzl Rug
The machine-woven rugs produced by the by the Torah u-mel’aḥah trade school in Jerusalem for export to France featured important Jewish figures, traditional and modern.