Explore Our Sources
The Posen Library’s written and image sources consist of selections curated by distinguished scholars who have spent their careers with this material. Sources available online now cover approximately half of the full collection—from ancient Israel’s beginning to 1973.
The Posen Library offers the chance to search primary sources dynamically, based on thousands of tags that help you find what you’re looking for—you can search by genre, subject, geography, date, and creator. Check out the search and navigation tools to create individualized pathways through this rich record of Jewish history and culture.
Entry Pages
On each source page, you will find helpful background information such as the source’s creator, when known. Linked details take you to other sources in the library that share the same tagged characteristics: language, place, subject, category, and more. Try the search and navigation tools to create individualized pathways through this rich record of Jewish history and culture.
Search
Where will you start? Type in a word or phrase to begin your search. You will be able to refine your search (by date, category, subject, format, place, and more) on the results page.
Our Curation
From the Library’s inception, the curation process has prioritized diversity as a key value for documenting Jewish history and civilization. Nevertheless, we recognize that there are gaps in what the Library currently includes. We are committed to broadening the representation of sources, contributors, and interpretive material on an ongoing basis, as new generations expand our conceptions of diversity in Jewish life past, present, and future.
More about Our Sources & Curation
Some of our sources describe and depict the following: racism, slavery and the slave trade, gender- and sexual-based violence, hate speech, violence, and microaggressions against a variety of populations including people of color, non-Ashkenazic and/or non-white Jews, and non-Jewish Arabs. These entries display a sensitive content label.