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 Ninth of Ab
August is flat and still, with ever-thickening green
Leaves, clipped in their richness; hoarse sighs in
the grass,
Moments of mowing, mark out the
lengthening summer. The ground
We children…
Travail in an Arab Land
Free of any preoccupations, I allowed myself to seek out and investigate the Jews, their manners and customs. They are good-hearted folk, charitable and hospitable to strangers. They honor the Torah…
The Symptoms of the Time
By emphasizing religious activity, Judaism is completely tied to life and becomes the property of every individual Jew. A religion of pure ideas belongs primarily to the theologians; the masses who…
The Fake Doctor
A Play by Molière in One Act of Sixteen Scenes[Carlo, Esterina]Carlo:Is there any news, Esterina? Do you have any advice for me?Esterina:Why do you want advice? I have a lot of news for you…
Portuguese and Ashkenazic Synagogues in Amsterdam
In 1670, Amsterdam’s Portuguese Jewish community commissioned a new synagogue, which, when finished, was the largest in the world. The master mason Elias Bouman, a non-Jew who had helped design the…
Ketubah (Hamburg)
On June 7, 1690, Samuel de Isaac Senior Teixeira married Rachel Teixeira de Mattos Senior in Hamburg. Their beautiful ketubah (marriage contract) depicts the couple under the wedding canopy…
Persian Carpet
This Persian carpet, manufactured between 1600 and 1630, was later used for a reader’s desk and desk cover in the Portuguese Synagogue in The Hague, Netherlands.
Portrait of Shabbetai Tzvi
Shabbetai Tzvi was the central figure of a messianic movement that swept the Jewish world in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in Izmir (Smyrna), as an adolescent Shabbetai Tzvi embarked on the study…
De Pinto Psalter
This decorated psalter was made for Aaron de Joseph de Pinto, a member of the prominent Portuguese Jewish family in Amsterdam. It is a manuscript, copied from a print edition done by David de Castro…
Purim Scroll
May this be written for a coming generation, that people yet to be created will praise Jah. For the signs and wonders that the most high God has performed for us, I am pleased to relate:
Know that in…
The Amsterdam Residence of Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mazes Curiël)
The wealthy merchant and diplomat Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mozes Curiël; 1620–1697) was born in Florence. In 1627, his family settled in Hamburg, where his father, a businessman, became an important…