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.
History of the Jews
This Sixth Part is the last part of the “First Period” of Jewish history, which we have called “Israel in its Land.” Part Seven, which follows, will be the first part of…
The Jewish Ethnographic Program
With good reason the Jewish people have earned the highest title to which a nation can aspire, the honor of being called The People of the Book [Am ha-seyfer]. “Der Seyfer,” the book, has…
Creating God’s Presence in One’s Consciousness
“I am the Lord your God” [the first of the 10 commandments, namely, to believe in God] precedes [the second commandment] “You shall have no other Gods,” for through complete contemplation of “I am the…
A Son of the Ancient Race
A Son of the Ancient Race is one of the few paintings with Jewish themes made by Jozef Israëls. It is from a series of paintings and drawings of secondhand clothing peddlers in Amsterdam’s Jewish…
The Hand of Man
The Hand of Man appeared in the first issue of Alfred Stieglitz’s journal, Camera Work. Its title alludes both to the transformation of the natural world by humans and the capacity of humans to create…
The Traveler
The Traveler was painted soon after the Russian Revolution, around the time that Marc Chagall was appointed commissar of the arts for Vitebsk, the site of Yehudah Pen’s academy, where Chagall had…
Jewish Customs
An Addendum to the History of R. Moses Isserles
Rabbinic literature assigns to customs (minhag) an extensive and highly prominent role. In fact, the talmudic sages always looked upon customs with…
The Wars of the Lord
10. And now, with the Lord’s help, we will return to our primary question: We asked you to tell us, according to the opinion of the kabbalists, to whom do we say our prayers, and make all of our…
If I Forget Thee (Tsiyon tamati)
Zion my innocent one, Zion my desired,
To thee my soul yearns from far away;
May I forget my right hand should I forget thee, my beauty,
Until my grave is sealed upon me . . .
May my tongue cleave…
Rally in Memory of Fallen Worker Kagan
Members of the Bund (General Union of Jewish Workers in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia), Po‘ale Tsiyon, the Socialist-Zionist party, and Jewish trade unions, along with representatives of the Russian…
The Past and the Future of Yiddish Theater
The Jewish intelligentsia, the Jewish art patrons showed no sign of attention to Yiddish theater. A sickly weakling, it was born in southern Russia forty years ago, and has remained anemic and weak to…
The Day after the Pogrom (Yard in Ruins and Bereaved Family)
The Day after the Pogrom was painted shortly after the Kishinev pogrom, in which forty-nine Jews were murdered, more than 500 injured, many Jewish women raped, 700 houses ransacked and destroyed, 600…