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.
Call to Arms
Vilna ghetto partisan leader Abba Kovner publicly predicted the Final Solution weeks before the Wannsee conference finalized the Nazis’ plans to systematically murder millions of Jews.
History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving
A British Holocaust denier accused Professor Deborah Lipstadt of libel under British law. Many were surprised that Lipstadt decided to go to court. Lipstadt explains what was at stake in her decision.
Haggadah (Frankfurt)
One of Charlotte von Rothschild’s most outstanding works is the only known nineteenth-century Hebrew manuscript to have been illuminated by a woman.
Yesod ‘olam (Foundation of the World)
Terah and AbrahamTerah:Who is he and where is he [see Esther 7:6], who against the Ba‘al idolSent forth his hand like an adversary, with impudence?Who is this evil one…
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…
Testament (Jerusalem)
Behold, an agency was sent to me from the two groups of the yeshiva heads coming to judgment, in whose hand was a written deed, signed by fit and proper witnesses, that the widow, the aforesaid lady…