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.
The Bible View of Slavery
A Civil War–era Jewish leader defends the institution of slavery in the South based on his reading of the Hebrew Bible.
Miriam’s Song
What if Miriam were remembered just as a person rescuing her brother Moses rather than as the heroine responsible for saving the man who would redeem the Jewish people from bondage?
Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood
This excerpt from Kate Simon’s Bronx Primitive: Portraits in Childhood explores the controversial and secretive decision many immigrant women made to get an abortions, and the means of obtaining one.
Oppression and Exodus
From movies to civil-rights movements, the Exodus stands at the center of Western thought and culture. You will still be surprised by what is, and what isn’t, in the account.
The Shohet (from “Had Gadya”)
The violence of the Passover song “Had Gadya” (“Who Knows One”) clearly spoke to this illustrator’s sense of horror following World War I.
Report from Lucienville Agricultural Colony
Founded in 1900 by members of Lucienville colony, the Jewish Agricultural Society was one of the first agricultural cooperatives in Argentina and is still in existence today.
Mission of Ha-Ḥerut
Without noise and commotion, without blowing the shofar like many newspapers do when they are founded, without sundry promises, we present to you, dear readers, the first issue of the newborn Ha-Ḥerut…
Response to “A Bible View of Slavery”
On the eve of the Civil War, a Southern rabbi explains why the Jewish tradition requires an antislavery position. His congregants disagree vehemently with his stance.
Out of Egypt
Egyptian Jewish American author André Aciman describes celebrating his last Seder in Egypt with his bags packed to leave his homeland for good.
Introduction to the Commentary on Numbers—Me’am Lo’ez
The introduction to the first volume of this work, which you already have, explains that one must know what mitzvot God commanded us to perform, and what he obliged us to avoid, to find…
Exodus and Revolution
The Exodus story serves as more than a religious or moral narrative. Its influence has shaped the fundamental paradigms of Western political thought to this day.
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force Recruitment Poster
This surprising 1942 Hebrew-language poster from Palestine calls for women to serve in an all-female unit within Britain’s Royal Air Force. This recruitment office was not open on Saturdays!