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.
Jewish Human Rights Group Criticizes Trump’s 2019 Order
A Jewish human rights organization warned that Trump’s 2019 antisemitism order threatened free speech and revived old tropes about Jewish power.
The Ma’abarah: Life in Israel’s Transit Camps
Iraqi Israeli author Shimon Ballas’s 1964 novel portrays the struggles and resilience of Middle Eastern and North African Jews in Israel’s early immigrant transit camps.
Jewish Identity and Tunisian Independence
Albert Memmi reflects on his support for Tunisian independence and the tensions between nationalism, Zionism, and Jewish identity.
Jewish Dancer at Chicago’s World Fair
This portrait of Jewish dancer Rahlo Jammele is an example of the photographs of diverse people who came from around the world to participate in the 1893 World’s Fair.
Sephardic Women of Tangier: A Portrait
French painter Eugène Delacroix captures two of Tangier’s Sephardic women, Saada and Préciada Benchimol, in this 1832 portrait painted on Préciada’s wedding day.
“To the Modern Girl”: A Rebuke of Modernity
A 19th-century Salonikan writer warns Jewish women about the “modern spirit,” urging virtue over vanity and faith over the empty glitter of modern life.
Letter in al-Hilal: Arguing for Women’s Equality in the Arab World
In this 1890s letter to a leading Arabic literary magazine, Beirut writer Esther Azhari Moyal defends women’s intellect and equality, shaping feminist thought.
“The Escape”: Sephardic Jews in Peril during the Inquisition
Set in 18th-century Lisbon, Grace Aguilar’s 1844 story depicts a Sephardic woman’s daring act to save her husband amid the Inquisition’s dangers.
Portrait of Emma Lazarus: The Sephardic Jewish Poet Who Redefined Freedom
Emma Lazarus was a poet whose activism drew on Jewish history and exile to shape modern ideas of identity, refuge, and renewal.
“This Isn’t Europe”: Mizrahi Music Challenges Israel’s Western Image
The Mizrahi hit “This Isn’t Europe” uses humor and bold performance to question whether Israel is truly Western or Middle Eastern at heart.
Redressing Sepharad: Moroccan Jews, Colonial Modernity, and the Afterlives of al-Andalus
In this 1953 photo taken in Spain, members of the Moreno family from Tangier dress in a way that harkens to the Jewish past in Islamic al-Andalus and links them to modern Spain.
The Idea of the Arab Jew in Israel
Yehuda Shenhav reflects on his Iraqi Jewish roots and reclaims “Arab Jewish” identity, challenging Israel’s divide between Jews and Arabs.