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.
A Conversation with Gorky
On Sunday, 6 Tammuz, 5681 [July 12, 1921], I visited the author Maxim Gorky [ . . . ] and I told him the alarming news that had come to me from various cities about the horrible pogroms that had…
The Diary of a Young Girl
Dearest Kitty,
Mr. Bolkestein, the Cabinet Minister, speaking on the Dutch broadcast from London, said that after the war a collection would be made of diaries and letters…
A History of the Jews in North Africa
[ . . . ] [A]n attempt will be made to present the history of the Jews of the African Maghreb, a large, well-defined diaspora which in some respects is different from other Jewish groups generally and…
The Message of the Scrolls
In late November 1947, in what had once been a quiet suburb of Jerusalem, I first heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I was at the time Chief of Operations of Haganah, the Jewish underground self-defence…
Nine Suitcases
These nocturnal passenger trains in wartime have their own peculiar sounds. The deportation wagons have a way of screeching, like an eagle or a vulture—whereas this kind of train whines and groans as…
In the Grip of Cross-Currents
Now that the cup of poison is broken, there is no way out but to drink the cup of sorrows. . . .
My affirmation of life demanded that I should dedicate all the powers…
Givat ha-moreh [Commentary to Maimonides’ Moreh nevukhim, Guide for the Perplexed]
The telos (takhlit) of man’s activities, in the aspect (behinah) of having will and choice, is the ultimate human good (ha’hatslahah ha’enoshi’it). This excellence necessarily comes after the…
The Rigors of Jewish Historiography
The historiography of no people is so beset with the pretentious and condemnatory views of dilettantes as is that of the Israelites, which everyone fancies to know from the relevant sources. Thus, no…
Purim Charity Plate
This Purim charity plate was made in Dordrecht in the Netherlands between 1590 and 1611. It was used by Jews living in The Hague.
Circumcision for a Sephardic family in Amsterdam
The wealthy Sephardic family of Curiel d’Acosta is believed to have commissioned the artist Romeyn de Hooghe to make this large pen-and-ink drawing to commemorate the circumcision, in Amsterdam, of a…
A Jewish Woman from Thrace
This etching of a Jewish woman from Thrace (a region located in present day Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) is from Livre curieux contenant la naive représentation des habits des femmes des diverses…
The Shepherds King [side line work]
Ninio works in a variety of artistic disciplines, including photography. Here, a structure high in the clouded sky suggests the ability to view the world below.