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.
A Secret Letter to London
The evening of 5 Heshvan, 5642 [October 28, 1881]
Tomorrow with the second post, a pamphlet will be sent to you with a responsum entitled Isaac’s Stream (Naḥal Yitsḥak), regarding a miserable agunah…
Keep Halacha Out of the Courts
The decision of 15 February 1983 by the New York State Court of Appeals in the Case of Avitzur v. Avitzur has been hailed by religious and legal scholars alike. The decision recognized…
Responsum: On Women’s Rights to Divorce
Question: Some of the poor members of the nation in Egypt [do as follows]. When a man fights with his wife and their marriage is not working out, and the wife wants to divorce but the husband does not…
The Women Shopkeepers, or, Golde-Mine, the Abandoned Wife of Brod
In short, in addition to being affluent, our Reb Hoshea Heffler was also steeped in the holy books. He was a traditional Jew, who could not abide the maskilim, the enlightened ones. He always used to…
Medal Commemorating the Opening of the Dutch Jewish Orphanage in Amsterdam
This bronze medal by Jacques Elion commemorates the opening of a Jewish orphanage in Amsterdam. The Hebrew inscription reads: “Orphanage.” It was customary for Jewish communities to issue medals to…
Are You
Are you Avraham’s, Yitzhak’s, Yaakov’s?
Are you my mother’s god?
What’s mine of all this?
What did I take by force of hand
and why am I alone
in a city meant to be my city
on account of a mother born…
The Poverty Line
As if you could draw a line and say: below this there’s poverty.
Here’s the bread that turned black in the colorations
Of cheap makeup
And the olives in their little plate
Atop the cloth over the…
Figurine of a Young Bull
This bull figurine, 7 × 5 inches (17.5 cm × 12 cm), was cast in bronze with considerable detail. It combines highly realistic features—horns and ears, genitalia, legs and hooves—with more stylized…
Seal of Netanyahu Son of Yaush
Found in Jerusalem in the plaza of the Western Wall and possibly made of limestone, the top register of this seal contains a garland of four pomegranates, one of which was damaged when the seal was…
