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.
Lev ha-Ivri (The Heart of a Jew)
What would our ancestors have done if they had seen a Jewish community appointing a prayer-reader and a rabbi for themselves dressed in the vestments of a Christian priest, and setting up an idol in…
Kantorzysta: Polka na fortepiano, op. 68
This sheet music is for a humorous song in the style of a polka, an example of the popular music that Warsaw composer Adolf Gustaw Sonnenfeld was famous for.
Ketubah (Bordeaux)
This is the marriage contract (ketubah) that Isaac, the son of Aaron Sasportas, gave to Rebecca, the daughter of Abraham Pinto. A floral decoration stemming from a vase at the bottom of the contract…
Wedding Procession
This engraving depicting a Jewish wedding procession was an illustration in a four-volume book by Johann Jakob Schudt (1664–1722), Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (Jewish Curiosities), published in Germany…
Compilation of Folk Remedies and Amulets
Traditionally, until increased access to doctors and hospitals was available after World War I, many East European Jews relied on folk medicine, which included amulets and magical cures. Books, like…
Portrait of Tzvi Ashkenazi
Tzvi Hirsch ben Jacob Ashkenazi was a talmudist and community leader from Moravia. He was also known as the Ḥakham Tzvi, a Sephardic scholarly title he is thought to have received from the rabbinic…
Me‘on ha-sho’alim (Abode of the Supplicants)
This is the title page of Me‘on ha-sho’alim (L’abitacolo degli oranti; Abode of the Supplicants), by the poet and translator Devorà Ascarelli, a member of the Catalan community in Rome. Me‘on ha-sho…
Tikun li-kro’ laylah va-yom (A Tikkun to Read Day and Night)
The frontispiece of this book of penitential prayers published in Amsterdam, Tikun li-kro’ laylah va-yom (A Tikkun to Read Day and Night) has a three-tiered illustration. The top level depicts Moses…
O my creator!: On Entering the Synagogue
O my creator! Pay heed to the servant that knocks at your doors; open up for him the entrance to the lintel of your dwelling place.
As he lifts up his eyes to you, may his supplication, his cries…
Colophon: Elye Bokher’s Petaḥ devaray
And thus was finished the book Petah DebaraiIn the name of the living God my redeemer and rockIn the year of the creation 306On the 29th day of TishriEdited by the Hebrew grammarianElijah the Levita…
Proofreader’s Preface: Seder tefilot ke-minhag kahal kadosh Sefarad (The Order of the Prayers of the Holy Congregation of Spain)
Menasseh ben Joseph ben Israel, seeing the Bomberg types worn out, and since nothing can be imperfect for the Holy Work, arose from within the community and went out, and came to the house of an…
Ḥerem against the Karaites
We have placed in ḥerem [excommunication] David Henriq[ue]s, alias David Almansa, [and] Aron and Ishack Dias da Fonseca and the account reads, as follows:
(In Adar I). The gentlemen of the Mahamad…