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.
La Buena Esperansa (The Good Hope)
Hamburg, July 7. (Personal communication) In Smyrna, a newspaper will now be published in the Jewish-Spanish language commonly spoken there, entitled La Buena Esperansa. We have the prospectus dated…
Map of Jerusalem
In this seventeenth-century map, Jerusalem is depicted as a fairly dense city within a wall, with only a few structures outside. Men in Arab dress stand in small groups conversing with one another in…
A Polish Jew
This depiction of a Polish Jew first appeared in a book, Neu-eröffnete Welt-Galleria (New Gallery of the World), published in Nuremberg in 1703. Its 101 plates by Caspar Luyken included portraits of…
Portrait of Jud Süss
Joseph ben Issachar Süsskind Oppenheimer (1698–1738) was a financier and court Jew who served as adviser to Duke Karl Alexander. Economic reforms enacted by Karl Alexander (and informed by Oppenheimer…
Portrait of Isaac Aboab da Fonseca
This engraving portrays Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, a rabbi, kabbalist, and preacher, born in Castro Daire, Portugal, to a family of New Christians. He arrived in Amsterdam with his family at the age of…
Technical Diagram from Joseph Delmedigo’s Elim
This is a technical diagram from Joseph Delmedigo’s Sefer Elim (Book of Elim), a scientific and philosophical work published by Menasseh Ben Israel.
Polyglot Bible (Constantinople)
This is the frontispiece and first page of the Constantinople Polyglot Bible, the first of two multilingual editions of the Pentateuch printed by Eliezer Soncino in Constantinople. It contained the…
Self-Portrait of Abraham ben Shabbetai Kohen
Kehunat Avraham (The Priesthood of Abraham), published in Venice in 1719, is an interpretation and retelling of sections from the book of Psalms in verse. This portrait of its author, Abraham ben…
If One Day during Purim, Everybody by Chance Will Disguise Themselves as Orthodox Jews, Will the Messiah Come?
This photograph of two Jews reduces them to an abstraction, a single black shape, in a composition that includes the round shapes of manhole covers, the curving black lines of a street grating, and…
Takkanot (Regulations)
Every householder is required to have his son taught in school at least until he is twelve years old. He must take care of him and pay his tuition as much as he can afford. If he is unable to pay, he…
Letter to His Bride
Most magnificent and honored bride, my lady I gaze upon you:
Since I left Piacenza, I can honestly say that I am far away from my life. Oh, how can I live, and how can I hold up my limbs when I am so…
Paraḥ mateh Aharon (The Staff of Aaron Had Sprouted)
The rich and honorable Moshe haCohen, resident of the city Castoria may God protect it, says as follows: he has been given a bad wife, and that during their marital life…