The Jewish Guide to the Internet

A project of the Center for Online Judaic Studies, this site provides a collection of articles and images related to the Aleppo Codex, the earliest known Hebrew manuscript comprising the full text of the Bible. Written in the tenth century, it is considered the most authoritative and accurate text, both for the biblical text and for its vocalization and cantillation. Housed in The Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, it is available here online.

In 1934, Stalin created the Jewish Autonomous Region in the region of Birobidzhan in Siberia as a Soviet alternative to Palestine. This online version of an exhibit created for the Judah Magnes Museum uses archival photographs and multimedia to document the experiment and its failure.

Founded by the family of George S. Blumenthal, this site provides digitized collections of materials on various aspects of Jewish history.

A collection of political cartoons from Israel. Several hundred samples are available dating back to 1976.

This searchable site presents a variety of scholarly papers concerning the locations of the Beitei Hamikdash.

This site in Hungarian and English provides information about tourism, sites and historical synagogues in areas of Hungary related to famous rabbis. The site includes a digital collection of photos and documents, a Shoah names database, cemeteries and census information.

“The search engine of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim-Institut für deutsch-jüdische Geschichte aims to help you to get an overview by integrating different sources into one online database. The focus is not on harvesting web pages, but to give links on online catalogs like digitized old and rare books, manuscripts and pictures or to give bibliographical hints on printed sources on German Jewish history and Judaism. “

Created by Baruch Amsel, Kevarim of Tzadikim in North America is a project of the Institute For Judaic Culture and History. To date, it is the only source identifying kivrei Admorim and Rabbanim in the United States. The directory provides a short biography, picture, and directions to the tzion of each Rebbe or Rav. The directory is searchable and browsable by name and location.

The entire, illustrated text of this book, written by Mel Wacks, dealing with coins minted in Eretz Israel from earliest times to 1948, is available online with a hypertext table of contents and bibliography.

This site provides a large collection of links to a broad variety of resources in Jewish history.

While this site has not been updated since 2002, it provides access to a large number of full text articles on various topics in Jewish history.

This site from the Foundation for Jewish Heritage “includes an interactive survey map of more than 3,000 synagogues in 48 countries, with information on their age, type, style, current condition, and present usage.”

This site from the National Library of Israel “contains a collection of Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. We display digital versions of each paper, making it possible to view the papers in their original layout. Full-text search is also available for all content published over the course of each newspaper’s publication.”

This site offers the full text of the two volume work, written in 1903 by Michael Rodkinson, describing the history of the Talmud from 200 BCE to the early part of the twentieth century. Be aware that this is a non-Jewish site that has links to writings in other religions.

Compiled and maintained by Paul Halsall of Fordham University, this page contains links to online sourcebooks in ancient, medieval and modern Jewish history augmented by additional text and web site indicators. This is a well organized and comprehensive site arranged by major theme.

"The purpose of the Bet Tfila — Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe is to document and research the sacred and secular architecture of Jewish communities in Europe with reference to its development within the cultural, historical and typological context." The site, in English and German, plans "to establish a database containing Jewish architecture in Europe (synagogues, cemetery chapels, ritual baths and other structures)."

Jewish Cultures Mapped is an interactive timeline and map exploring Jewish cultures around the world within their historical context. The map allows you to explore the history of Jewish culture throughout history and across the globe.

This site features the articles, columns, books,and audio tapes of author Rabbi Berel Wein and lists his upcoming lectures.

Created by Samuel D. Gruber, this site "showcases the rich diversity of Jewish material culture in Europe. This site will bring together, in one place, new and existing information about museums, archives and historic sites, including Jewish quarters, synagogues, cemeteries and Holocaust sites."

Created by Eli Birnbaum of the Jewish Agency, this interactive timeline allows you to view listings about events in Jewish history by date, starting in 68 CE. The author seeks to "create an easy-to-use overview of information which would be readily available for the student and the layman; second, to provide the reader with a general picture of the world at different times and its impact on Jewish history; third, to ignite some interest or fascination with one of the characters you will meet and to encourage further study."

The database includes primary sources pertaining to Galician and Bukovinian Jewry and short historical essays about the communities in the region. The sources are divided into four categories: archival documents and newspapers articles, documentation of tombstones, documentation of Jewish communal institutions, and oral history testimonies. At present, the project focuses on four Jewish communities near Ivano-Frankivsk: Lysiec (Lysets, Łysiec), Bohorodczany (Brotchin, Bohorodchany), Solotwin (Solotvyn, Sołotwina) and Nadworna (Nadvirna, Nadwórna).

“This website presents highlights from YIVOs archival collections on Polish Jewry before the Holocaust. It includes thousands of documents, posters, and photographs from the most significant Polish Jewish collections along with detailed finding aids, online exhibitions and media galleries, and two background essays.”

Created by Stephanie Comfort, this is one of the largest Jewish postcard collections on the Internet. They are arranged by topic and geographic location, and the whole collection is searchable by keyword.

Jewish Warsaw is a fascinating account of the long history of the Jewish community in the Polish capital. It examines the city through the eyes of some of Warsaw's most influential Jewish citizens and examines some of the important, often turbulent, historical events that have effected Jewish citizens in Warsaw. The Janusz Korczak section of Jewish Warsaw presents two interactive mapped journeys exploring the life of the famous Jewish educator and children's author. One of the maps takes you on a journey through Korczak's life in pre-war Warsaw. The other map recounts Korczak's bravery in World War II and his deportation and death at Treblinka extermination camp In the Past and Present section you can lean more about the history of the Jewish community in Warsaw through a series of interactive vintage maps of the city. This section includes an account of the long history of Jews in Warsaw, a mapped account of the Jewish ghetto and Holocaust in World War II and a number of walking tours through the Warsaw of today.

“Judaica Europeana will work with European cultural institutions to identify content documenting the Jewish contribution to the cities of Europe. It will digitise 10,500 photos, 1,500 postcards and 7,150 recordings as well as several million pages from books, newspapers, archives and press clippings. The digitised content will be available at Europeana.eu.”

"The site offers a brief history of the former Jewish Ghetto, the Judengasse (literally Jews Lane), its inhabitants, the houses, and life in the ghetto down through the centuries." Of particular note for those interested in genealogy is the detailed information on houses, people, families and occupations.

This site provides “bilingual, digital versions of the edited sources accompanied by introductions written by well-known scholars in the field online,” It also has a chronology of Jewish life in Germany. You can browse by topic or search by people, places, and organizations. There is a bibliography, glossary and articles.

Scanned text of a 1929 publication in Hungarian about the Jews of Hungary.

The aim of the project is to map the Jewish presence in the Byzantine empire using GIS (Geographical Information Systems). Chronologically, the project will begin in 650. This is soon after the Arab conquest of Egypt, Palestine and Syria when these regions, with their substantial Jewish populations, were permanently separated from the Byzantine empire. The end-date is fixed by the arrival in the region of large numbers of Jewish immigrants from Spain in 1492. Geographically, the core areas of Asia Minor, the southern Balkans and the adjacent islands including Crete and Cyprus will be included for the entirety of the period,

Created by Steven Lasky, “The Museum of Family History is a virtual (Internet-only), multimedia, and interactive creation that was designed for those of us who are interested in learning more about modern Jewish history.” Most of the special and permanent exhibitions, audio and vido clips that are searchable and browsable alphabetically, cemetery projects, and other resources relate to American Jewish history.

This site, which is browsable by country, contains postcards of Jewish life and synagogues in Europe from 1883 to 1933.

An online exhibition of photographs taken by Roman Vishniac in Poland before World War II.

Created by Donald D. Binder of Southern Methodist University, this site has images of synagogues from the time of Bayit Sheni, along with an archive of literary references to how the synagogues functioned. In addition, there are numerous links to resources about Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greek and Roman periods.

This Hebrew language site provides background information about messianic movements, including the one headed by Shabbetai Zvi in the Middle Ages. The site includes a glossary, maps, and articles.

This site seeks to explore and preserve the Jewish towns of Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, and share their heritage with tourists.

Arranged by country, this site provides a collection of picture postcards and other philatelic materials depicting synagogues from around the world. Most of these cards date from the early 20th Century and depict synagogues which were destroyed during World War II.

A database of information on artifacts and documents related to Jewish culture, scattered across Poland and the world. The database, operated by POLIN Museum, currently contains descriptions and photographs of over 5200 Judaica from the collections of 11 institutions.

Surveys and mapping of 1,500 Jewish cemeteries in five countries: Greece, Lithuania, Moldova, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Information for each cemetery — including aerial photo, historical data, geographical data, and cemetery threat assessment — is being uploaded to the web site as the research and mapping of each cemetery is completed and processed.

Housed at the University of Florida, “The Jewish Diaspora Collection (JDoC) is a collaborative and cooperative digital library designed to preserve and provide wide access to Jewish heritage materials from Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean. JDoC also preserves digital copies of materials held in the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.”

Created by Cathie Hewitt, the goal of this site is to create a database of Jews who died serving in the British Bomber Command during the Second World War. You can search the database by the name of the airman.

Called a Walk among Memories, this site provides a virtual tour of the Riga Ghetto by the Riga Ghetto and Holocaust in Latvia Museum. It combines Google Map Views with information on particular sites during the Shoah.

Full text of this book by Elias Messinas of the synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace. This book traces the history of the synagogues, the Jewish quarters and Jewish communities in Greece, from antiquity, through Byzantine and Ottoman times, contemporary history and the Holocaust,

This traditional site provides information about the Temple in Jerusalem including study tools, virtual tours, the priestly garments and daily routine, the Tabernacle and information about the Temple Mount in modern times.

Created by the Jewish Agency, this site provides a timeline of Jewish history up to 2002.

This Hebrew language library of resources on the history of Israel is searchable by keyword and browsable by topic.

“At the centre of the project is this digital archive and interactive website, which will become a permanent record of the lives of English Jewish men, women and families, 1914-1919, with details of their military and Home Front activities, ensuring that their stories are not lost for future generations.”