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.
Ziprah Nunez’s Account of the Family Escape
On page 101, reference is made to the history of the Jews in this State. Since that part of the work was printed, M. M. Noah, Esquire, of New-York, has kindly favoured us with the following additional…
On Hearing She Had Been Praised in the Journals
My soul sighs, fate brings only trouble.
My spirit was lifted, and I grew bold.
I heard a voice: ‘Your poem is gold.
Who has learned to sing like you, Rachel?’
My spirit in turn replies: I’ve lost…
The Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth
Thus there are two kinds of truths, equally ascertained, and therefore equally admissible; the one proceeding from intellect and called rational truth, the other formed in the heart, and called moral…
Map of the Land of Israel
This hand-drawn map of Hebron, Israel, is from an autograph manuscript of Melekhet Shelomoh (The Work of Solomon), Solomon Adeni’s commentary on the Mishnah.
Torah Wrapper, Rome
According to the Hebrew inscription, this silk velvet, gilt silver-thread embroidery and silk brocade Torah wrapper was donated in 1727 or 1728 to the Scola Castigliana (a synagogue founded by Jews of…
Lighting the Sabbath and Festival Candles
This woodcut depicts Jewish women and girls lighting candles to mark the beginning of the Sabbath or a holiday. The illustration appears in a Yiddish translation by Shim’on Levi Gintsburg, printed in…
Maḥzor
This maḥzor (holiday prayer book), containing the Jewish prayers according to the Italian rite, was written by the scribe Eliezer ben Abraham of Pisa, for Yema, the widow of Moses of Modena (referred…
Illustration of the (Aristotelian) Cosmos
This illustration of the (Aristotelian) cosmos appears in an eighteenth-century manuscript of Neḥmad ve-na‘im (Nice and Pleasant), David Ganz’s posthumously published book on astronomy.
Black Forest VIII
Moss’s Black Forest series is perhaps her best-known work. The seventeen acrylic and Rhoplex (a water-based acrylic emulsion) paintings feature thick vertical shapes and boldly colored stripes. They…
Alefbet—Lexicon No. 4
Bruskin explored the intersection of his Jewish and Soviet identities in art that took the Soviet Union’s obsession with iconography and slogans in a different and subversive direction. In a series of…
My heart is seeking out the Lord
My heart is seeking out the Lord, and to Almighty God I pray
That He come back unto the altar, shelter me beneath His shade,
And that He settle Israel’s throngs in a tranquil dwelling place.
In…
Love for an honored woman
Love for an honored woman illuminates my mind’s eye and my imagination,
While I praise her beauty, for she comforts me in my exile.
My soul is like a lone bird and each night she greets the face of…