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.

Printed page with Hebrew and Latin text and small illustration of book with decorative border.

List of Books

During his life, Samuel Abbas amassed an impressive library that included 1,136 books in different languages—Latin (more than four hundred works), Hebrew, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, and…

Print portrait of man with curly wig and beard in oval frame, and Latin and Hebrew text below.

Portrait of Solomon Ayllon (1660/64–1728), Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Congregations in London and Amsterdam from 1700 to 1728

Portrait of Solomon Ayllon, Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Congregations in London and Amsterdam from 1700 to 1728. This portrait was printed at the time of his death to commemorate him.

Print of two scenes: top shows a procession of men in prayer shawls holding branches through a synagogue. Bottom shows a group of people eating at a table in a tabernacle.

Sukkot Celebrations

Between 1723 and 1737, illustrator Bernard Picart partnered with the Dutch bookseller, editor, and publisher Jean-Frédéric Bernard on Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (R…

Posters of two men with Hebrew writing above their heads and paint splattered over faces.

Yitzchak Rabin / Benjamin Netanyahu

Lavie was a leader of the Tel Aviv School, or 10+ group, artists who were among the first Israeli artists to incorporate pop art, found objects, and collage into their work. In the early 1960s, Lavie…

Takkanot Fez (Regulations of Fez): On Moderating Celebrations

When we were gathered together, we the undersigned, to negotiate the repair of fissures in our city, which is the renowned Fez, with the advice and consent of…

Declarations

Good words of the society of orphan girls of Izmir. In the Name of the Holy One, regulations and new ordinances established for the good governance and with worthy dissemination, with which we must…

Her bitter soul is anguished: For Tishah be-Av

Her bitter soul is anguished, because of her ailing wound. The city one teeming with people is desolate, the Holy City that she had inherited. For the glorious, sweet land, tears descend like a…

Facing page manuscript arranged vertically with Hebrew text in the shape of a figure wielding two long objects.

Compendium of Practical Kabbalah

This remarkable manuscript of practical kabbalah was written in Eastern Europe in the mid-eighteenth century; at the end of that century it was owned by the Radvil Hasidic dynasty. In contrast to…

Midbar Yehudah (The Wilderness of Judah)

We must consider these three things: what great good we had in the past, the great distress and iniquity which we are in today, and…

Colophon: Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah

The great work called Mishneh Torah by the rabbi, our master, Moses ben Maimon of blessed memory, comprises fourteen books. Were it not that the Lord was with us (Psalms 124:1), the Torah might have…

Shir ha-ma‘alot le-David (A Song of Ascents, of David)

Seek ye out the book of the Lord (Isaiah 34:16), and read The Holy Epistle [so] called to water the flock, go and browse.

Ḥeshek Shelomoh (Solomon’s Desire)

The book’s name: This book [Song of Songs] is called a “song,” a noun bearing several meanings. First, it denotes music, as in the verse: all the daughters of song (Ecclesiastes 12:4), which means…