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.
Tikun keriyah le-kol laylah ve-yom (Supplications for Every Day and Night)
The frontispiece of this book of penitential prayers, printed in Amsterdam by David de Castro Tartas, proclaims the pro-Sabbatean beliefs that were then widespread in the Amsterdam Jewish community…
Once upon a Potty—Boy
Illustrations from Alona Frankel’s children’s book, Once Upon a Potty. First published in Hebrew in 1975, Frankel wrote the book for her son to learn to use the potty. An English version featuring a…
Feast in Paradise, No. 2
In the early 1980s, Eshel-Gershuni began making what she called “fetishes” or “impossible jewelry,” transferring her skills as a jewelry-maker to sculpture. She combined expensive materials like gold…
A Time to Plant, a Time to Cast Away Stones
Rabinovitz’s sculptures are characterized by the use of minimal elements that are granted symbolic meaning through the text or title that accompanies them, commonly taken from the Bible or other…
The Eruv
An eruv is a symbolic boundary around a certain area, which extends the boundaries of the home on the Sabbath, when carrying objects in public spaces is forbidden by Jewish law. Calle used the concept…
Magid mesharim (Speaker of Truth): Lessons from the Magid
Is your excessive talk beneficial to you? [ . . . ] And do you consider it proper that you peruse the [weekly Pentateuchal] portion twice in Hebrew and…
The Amsterdam Residence of Manuel (Isaac Nunes) de Belmonte
Statesman, merchant, and communal leader Baron Manuel (Isaac Nunes) de Belmonte (d. 1704) was the Spanish agent general in the Netherlands from 1664 and resident (consul) of the King of Spain from…
Letter from Jerusalem
How goodly are the tents of Jacob, the dwelling-places of Israel (Numbers 24:5), the synagogues and study houses in Jerusalem, that from morning to evening and from midnight to morning are never…
Tsiltsele shama‘ (Resounding Cymbals)
And therefore, with that, I, the young man, said that I will make a little book of my “Hymns for the Cantor with My Tunes” for the public benefit. Perhaps the one who makes use of them will do so for…
Gevurot ha-shem (Mighty Acts of the Lord): On Passover
And we may remove the [Seder] table, so that the young child should express wonder at why we are removing the table; for surely it would be appropriate to eat now that we are already leaning…
Bine’ot deshe’ (In Green Pastures): On Passover
On the eve of the fourteenth [of Nisan], after reciting the evening prayer, you must light a wax candle and recite the blessing on removing your leavened foods. Then you must search in your room and…
Der brantshpigl (The Burning Mirror)
[ . . . ] And when a woman must go out, she should not push through the men and should keep her distance from large groups of men, since this is a great lewdness, and she should not go out…