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.
This Matter of Abortion
This essay, written after Roe v. Wade, during a time of rising abortion polarization, offers a Jewish legal perspective that shaped national discussions.
Torah Binder (Munich)
This Torah binder, made for boys at birth and later brought by young men as a symbol of participation in the synagogue, illustrates the fixed nature of traditional gender expectations.
Justyna’s Diary
While imprisoned by the Nazis and awaiting her death, Gusta Dawidsohn-Draenger recalls her last supper with other resistance leaders in the Vilna ghetto.
Così Fan Tutte
[A coffee-houseFerrando, Don Alfonso and Guglielmo]No. i TrioFerrando My Dorabella couldn’tDo such a thing:Heaven made herAs faithful as she’s fair.GuglielmoFiordiligi simplyCouldn…
Comedia de Amán y Mordochay (Comedy of Haman and Mordechai)
Enter David, Moses, and Samson, all singing:Blessed Adonai,may Haman always die,viva Mordechai,Esther my lady.Viva my lady,blessed Adonai,may Haman always die,viva Mordechai.David:It is well that all…
Medicorum consilia in infirmitate Francisci Mariae II urbini ducis (Physicians’ Consilia Regarding the Illness of Francesco Maria II, Duke of Urbino)
Although I have judged you, most serene Duke, to be the very wisest and most learned of all princes, and have perceived you to be very skilled in all of philosophy and the mathematical disciplines, it…
A Letter to Chief Rabbi Raffael Natan Tedesco of Trieste
Most Distinguished Sir,
The undersigned, your most humble servant, is a wretched woman of twenty-three years of age. I was married for five and a half years to this Mr. Lucio Luzzatto, [but] I was…
Rejoice with Jerusalem
Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
All you who love her!
Join in her jubilation,
All you who mourned over her—
That you may suck from her breast
Consolation to the full,
That you may…
Responsum: On an Inheritance Dispute
Question: A rabbi died, leaving all his assets in the rabbinic court’s control until his heir came to take possession, and his closest heir, who ought rightfully to inherit, is in Portugal, living as…
Omer Calendar
This omer calendar, marking the days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, is still used at Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia. The letters stand for H=Homer (Ladino for Omer); S…
The Book of Jerusalem Journeys
In 1930, Chaim Elazar Shapiro (Spira), the Hasidic rebbe of Munkacs, Czechoslovakia (today, Mukachevo, Ukraine), traveled by rail to Vienna and Trieste and by ship to Alexandria, where he and his…