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.
Kaddish: Hymmnn
O mother
what have I left out
O mother
what have I forgotten
O mother
farewell
with a long black shoe
farewell
with Communist Party and a broken stocking
farewell
with six dark hairs on the wen of…
Solomon Maimon: An Autobiography
I was sent to school at Iwenez, about fifteen miles from our abode, and here I began to study Talmud. The study of the Talmud is the chief object of a learned education among our people. Riches…
Description of His Career as a Revolutionary Soldier, 1777–1783
Georgia
City of Savannah
Sheftall Sheftall of the said city, being duly sworn, saith:
That some time in the latter part of the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy seven, or the beginning of…
Rachel; or, The Inheritance
We had spent the summer at Enghien, in the pleasant Montmorency valley, where every year spring brings along with its fragrant greenery, the choicest Parisian society. Situated on the shore…
Aurelie Werner
The relationship between the lovers had already lost much of its intimacy when the couple was blessed with a thriving son. This event reawakened the count’s feelings of tenderness for the mother of…
License Authorizing Daniel da Costa Gomez to Be a Ritual Slaughterer
These letters of mine may be presented by the witnesses of the Lord, and they will be vindicated—to the effect that the young and delightful young man Daniel, whose utterances were genuine, appeared…
Responsa Hatam Sofer: Orah hayim 154
The reason for this is that if they see Torah scholars, and those who repair the breaches in Jewish religious practice, voiding the Torah in accordance with the exigencies of time and place, they will…
Editor’s Note in Sha‘are mizraḥ (Gates of the East)
We gratefully acknowledge the signs of munificence shown to us by His Majesty’s government which has officially licensed our periodical, Sha‘are mizraḥ. We understand that this benevolence of His…
Keter Kehunah: On the Seer’s Fall
On the night of Simhat Torah 5575 [1814], the Seer closeted himself in his room on the second story of his home. The one window overlooking the wide Jewish street was open; it was very near to the…
Drawing of Costume for Jitka in the First Production of the Opera Dalibor by Bedřich Smetana
This sketch for a costume was made for the role of Jitka in Dalibor, a Czech opera in three acts by Bedřich Smetana, first performed in 1868. The plot centers on the story of a Czech knight, Dalibor…
Songbird, or Six Folk Songs
(The songs)
It frightens us so,
With our poor wares to go
And face the wide world and its scorn.
We have lived many days,
But know only the ways.
Of the villages where we were born.
(The author)
Yo…
Tombstone of Isaac ben Hayyim
This tombstone of Isaac ben Ḥayim, who died in 1728, includes (at the top) a pair of deer and a pair of lions, animal carvings that often appeared on Jewish tombstones in Eastern Europe. They…