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.
First Will
I request my husband to dispose as follows:I would wish to be able to give my family in Berlin the capital of 10,000 gulden held for me by my husband . . . my pearls, as my favorite pieces of jewelery…
The Childhood and Youth of a Man of the Enlightenment
I was born on 19 February 1758 in Nový Bydžov [in Bohemia] of well-to-do parents who destined me at birth to be a rabbi, a common practice among the Israelites then. For at that time, when all…
The Tithe
[ . . . ] The sofer’s work is poorly compensated. There is an old proverb about how the soferim never grow wealthy in the land of Israel. I don’t know who gave birth to that pearl detached from the…
Responsa binyan tsiyon (Responsa: Building Zion)
The Holy Community of Altona, Friday, 29 Marheshvan 5621[14 November 1860]
To my dear friend, father of my son-in-law, the distinguished rabbi, our Teacher, R. Shemaryahu Zuckerman, may his…
L’educatore Israelita: A Newspaper of Readings for Jewish Families. Compiled by the Teachers Giuseppe Levi and Esdra Pontremoli
We have already offered a glimpse, in our program, into the nature of this publication. Yet the desire to open our heart, especially to those benevolent people who have looked favorably upon…
Fishke the Lame
Fishke started to narrate in his lisping, stammering way.
“You seem to know I married the blind orphan girl, and after the wedding we lived well, like a Jewish couple should. I think I kept my part of…
Song of the Railway
A whole world of railways appeared in our time
They carry their passengers—poor men and rich.
Admire the wonder, but bear this in mind:
It’s really a parable, meant just for you.
It is we who are…
The Synagogue of Gwoździec, Galicia
Wooden synagogues were a distinctive style of vernacular architecture that first developed in the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the sixteenth century and then flourished in the…
Tombstone of Sarah, Wife of Joshua Soncino
Sarah Soncino, who died in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) in 1735, was a member of the prominent Soncino family, which established a printing press there in 1530, one in a long line of…
Rabbinic Ordination Certificate
This rabbinic ordination certificate granted to Judah ben Eliezer Briel was printed as a broadside in Venice and signed by prominent Venetian rabbis. It certifies his learning and his fitness to…
Sephardic Synagogue (Pesaro, Italy)
Home to a Jewish community from at least the thirteenth century, Pesaro later became the refuge of Portuguese and Spanish Jews in the sixteenth century. In 1642, a few years after the town’s Jews were…
Private Synagogue (Unterlimpurg, Germany)
This synagogue structure contains stunning samples of wood painting and folk motifs (including verses, images of Jerusalem, animals, and flowers). The panels were decorated by Eliezer Zusman, an…