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.
Mazal Tov Eliyahu Ezra Challah Cover
This beautiful, embroidered challah cover was made in Jerusalem around the year 1890 as a gift of thanks to “the gentlelady Mazal Tov Eliyah Ezra.” It is signed at the bottom by a mother and daughter…
Fiscal Bulla from Jerusalem
In the seventh (year). Bethlehem. For the King.
Translated by Ronny Reich.
Der arbayter fraynd (cover)
The Yiddish-language socialist weekly Der arbayter fraynd (The Worker’s Friend) was founded in London in 1885 by Morris Winchevsky (1856–1932), a political activist and poet originally from Russian…
Portrait of Madame Peretz Hirshbein
By the 1920s, the Montparnasse artist Chana Orloff was a popular portrait sculptor, inspired by cubism and classical and “primitive” art. Her flowing, smooth-surfaced sculptures in wood or bronze…
The Reformed Hasid
“Before and After the Reform.” Cartoon from Der schlemiel: Illustriertes jüdisches Blatt für Humor und Satire lampooning the transformation of a Hasidic Jew into a Reformed Jew.
Jewish Woman of Safed Whitewashing Her Home in Preparation for Pessah
Morpurgo was most interested in documenting everyday life. The photographs he took during his 1927 trip to Palestine portray Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities and focus on coexistence rather…
Roaring Lion
This Assyrian-style monument commemorates the death of Josef Trumpeldor, who was killed by Arabs in 1920 at the Jewish settlement of Tel Hai. His heroic death and the idea of “one against many” became…
Ida Rubinstein as a Nurse
Ida Rubinstein, volunteering as a nurse in France during World War I, in a uniform specially designed for her by Leon Bakst. Dancer, actress, and patron of the arts Ida Rubinstein was born into a…
Passion and Love Have No Remedy
The warm, beautiful sun let the beams of its light escape over all of France. One day in the middle of August, when the train coming from Paris to Marseille arrived at a station in the…
The Superwoman
“I am Mother of all the tribe,” she said with dignity. “These”—she indicated the women about her—“are mothers of the clans. You may speak—openly. Why is the birth of a male child cause for…
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force Recruitment Poster
This surprising 1942 Hebrew-language poster from Palestine calls for women to serve in an all-female unit within Britain’s Royal Air Force. This recruitment office was not open on Saturdays!
The Rise of David Levinsky
Sometimes, when I think of my past in a superficial, casual way, the metamorphosis I have gone through strikes me as nothing short of a miracle. I was born and…