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.
Raphael and Miriam
It was a winter day. The streets of Vienna were dirty and shrouded with the mud of the snows that were falling, only to be melted immediately under the feet of the passersby. A dense and heavy smoke…
Huppah
This glimpse into an eighteenth-century German Jewish marriage ceremony offers an opportunity to consider how gender roles have changed for this vital ritual.
Speech Given to the General Assembly of the Jewish Colonization Association
This speech by the president of the Jewish Colonization Association to its board in Paris praises their work in Argentina while also addressing the difficulties colonies had faced in earlier years.
In the Town of Berdichev
Vasily Grossman began his literary career with the publication of In the Town of Berdichev in 1934. This book dichotomously validates the experiences of Jewish families and Russian Revolutionaries dur
Call to Arms
Vilna ghetto partisan leader Abba Kovner publicly predicted the Final Solution weeks before the Wannsee conference finalized the Nazis’ plans to systematically murder millions of Jews.
Yesod ‘olam (Foundation of the World)
Terah and AbrahamTerah:Who is he and where is he [see Esther 7:6], who against the Ba‘al idolSent forth his hand like an adversary, with impudence?Who is this evil one…
History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving
A British Holocaust denier accused Professor Deborah Lipstadt of libel under British law. Many were surprised that Lipstadt decided to go to court. Lipstadt explains what was at stake in her decision.
Haggadah (Frankfurt)
One of Charlotte von Rothschild’s most outstanding works is the only known nineteenth-century Hebrew manuscript to have been illuminated by a woman.
In my cottage was I one day
In my cottage was I one day merrily
Despite the Fortune full of treachery.
“What are you doing?” Providence asked me.
“Why are you obsessed only with this life?
You must also know of the…
Crimes against Persons
These Exodus verses form part of the Hebrew Bible's legal framework, addressing personal status and punishments for crimes against different social classes.
The Definitive Orange on the Seder Plate Story
The creator of the popular ritual of placing an orange on the Seder plate describes exactly how this innovation arose, its intended significance, and the problematic erasure of its origins.
Portrait of Eva Frank
Despite gender restrictions, Jewish women played central roles as religious leaders in the early modern period. Meet the female leader of one of the most controversial cults in Jewish history.