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.
Di agune (The Chained Woman)
Rosa:Oh, is that you, my friend . . . I was beginning to wonder why I haven’t seen you for two days; I was about to accuse you . . . I was inclined to think that you didn’t want to see…
Keep Halacha Out of the Courts
The decision of 15 February 1983 by the New York State Court of Appeals in the Case of Avitzur v. Avitzur has been hailed by religious and legal scholars alike. The decision recognized…
Responsum: On Women’s Rights to Divorce
Question: Some of the poor members of the nation in Egypt [do as follows]. When a man fights with his wife and their marriage is not working out, and the wife wants to divorce but the husband does not…
The Women Shopkeepers, or, Golde-Mine, the Abandoned Wife of Brod
In short, in addition to being affluent, our Reb Hoshea Heffler was also steeped in the holy books. He was a traditional Jew, who could not abide the maskilim, the enlightened ones. He always used to…
Medal Commemorating the Opening of the Dutch Jewish Orphanage in Amsterdam
This bronze medal by Jacques Elion commemorates the opening of a Jewish orphanage in Amsterdam. The Hebrew inscription reads: “Orphanage.” It was customary for Jewish communities to issue medals to…
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…
Sefer hitavkut (Book of Struggle)
You should know and believe me, and understand, that I did not become zealous against the scoffers for my own glory, or for the glory of my father’s house, but that it was zeal for the Almighty that…
Discourse Delivered at the Consecration of the Synagogue of the Hebrew Congregation Mickve Israel, in the City of Savannah, Georgia, 21 July 1820
Assembled as we are, to re-establish by commemoration, (2) the Congregation of this remnant or small portion of the house of Israel; your expectation of a brief sketch of our History, and particularly…
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…
On the Seer of Lublin’s Court
When one comes to Lublin he should imagine to himself that Lublin is Eretz Israel, that the courtyard of the study house is Jerusalem, that the study house is the Temple Mount, that his apartment is…
An Answer to the Slav
I hesitate to sound immodest,
So I must warn you in advance,
If you will listen now in earnest,
Then please excuse my stance.
More startling than other words,
And I will use this…