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.
Four Biblical Scenes
These four etchings were made by Rembrandt van Rijn for Menasseh Ben Israel’s book, Piedra Gloriosa (Glorious Stone), a messianic treatise. Clockwise from upper left, they illustrate the biblical…
The Wonder-Working Rabbi of Barcelona
During the weeks that Eleazar spent in pious contemplation in old Asia, the people of Barcelona took pains to persecute the Jews. It was they, once again, who made it hard for Spanish merchants to…
Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man
According to the colophon, Natan Hammerschlag’s Ilan de-adam kadmon (Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man) was copied from the writings of Ḥayim Vital, the most prominent disciple of Isaac Luria…
Monish
Life is like a river;we are fish.The water’s wholesome and freshand we would swim forever,but for a black figureon the riverbank.There Satan stands,in his handsa fishing rod,and catches fish.With a…
Todah w’simrah (Music of Thanksgiving)
For decades, my efforts have been directed at purifying the old modes [die alten Weisen]. Through [general] use and arbitrary treatment they have suffered tactless changes and distortions. I…
The Jewish Woman
The position of the Jewish woman in Germany today cannot be ascertained from understanding the present alone. A brief look at the recent and distant past—perhaps even the long-distant past—is…
How Should One Pray South of the Equator?
Rosario, Argentina, June 16, 1914Your Eminence,Permit me to bother you in the name of the Jewish collective of Rosario, because of a divergence of opinion arising between us, about which we desire…
Menorat zahav (Golden Menorah)
When Rabbi Zusya went to suffer the exile in Germany, he came to a city of Reform Jews. When they saw his ways, they mocked him and thought he was crazy. When he came into the synagogue, some of them…
From the Editor, El Jurnal israelit
From the Editor:
With God’s help, the time has come for our newspaper to appear before the community, and I am sure that at first our esteemed subscribers will not judge us for its errors, because all…
The 1670 Expulsion of the Jews from Vienna
This illustration, from an antisemitic publication, Jüdische neue Zeitung vom Marsch aus Wien und anderen Orten der jetzigen zwölff Jüdischen Stammen (Jewish Newspaper from the March to Vienna and…
Pre-Yom Kippur Customs
This woodcut from Libellus de Judaica confessione siue sabbato afflictionis (A Pamphlet Concerning the Jewish Faith or the Sabbath of Affliction), the second treatise of a zealous Christian convert…