Library Guides: Jewish Studies: Primary Sources

Finding Primary Sources

The Library subscribes to many online databases that contain primary sources. You can browse these databases through the links below.

Email the Subject Specialist listed on this page for suggestions.

Database Finder
You can browse by subject or content to find the resource that's right for you.
Research Guides by Subject
Browse the "Primary Sources" tab of the various Research Guides to find resources in a particular field of study.

Primary Sources at UChicago

Jewish Studies materials at UChicago
Executes a catalog search for all materials tagged with the subject "Judaism," "Jew," or "Jewish."
Hebrew language materials at UChicago Library
Executes a catalog search for materials in Hebrew. To exclude ployglott materials click the "x"s in the "Language" box in the right column.
Hebrew language materials in Special Collections
To exclude ployglott materials click the "x"s in the "Language" box in the right column.
Yiddish materials at UChicago
Arranged from oldest to most recent. To exclude polyglott materials click the "x"s in the "Language" box in the right column.
Ludwig Rosenberger Collection of Judaica Catalog
A catalog and supplement listing the titles contained in the Ludwig Rosenberger Collection of Judaica held at Special Collections
Ludwig Rosenberger Collection of Judaica
This link executes a catalog search for all the materials held in this collection
Guide to the Layle Silbert Papers 1910-2003
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Layle Silbert (1913-2003) was a photographer and writer. Noted for her portraits of authors, Silbert also wrote poetry, essays and fiction. The collection documents Layle Silbert's work in photography, writing, civil service and social work. It also contains material related to Silbert's travels, activist interests, and personal life. Materials in the collection include photographs, manuscripts, publications, correspondence, printed ephemera, and administrative records.
Guide to the Leo Strauss Papers, 1930-1977
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The papers document Strauss' career as a writer and professor of political philosophy at the Academy of Jewish Research, Berlin (1925-1932), the New School for Social Research (1941-1948), the University of Chicago (1949-1968) and other institutions in the United States and Europe.
Guide to the Morris Raphel Cohen Papers, 1898-1981
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Papers highlight Cohen's influence as an early proponent of legal philosophy; his career as a teacher of philosophy, especially at the City College of New York;
Guide to the Philip M. Klutznick Papers, 1914-1999
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Philip M. Klutznick, businessman, philanthropist, diplomat, government official and Jewish leader.
Guide to Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council Records, 1911-1993
Includes materials related to Jewish organizations in Hyde Park.
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Included are administrative records such as minutes, correspondence, budgets and directories of membership. This collection also contains general subject files covering Council projects and affiliated institutions.

Archives & Faculty Papers

The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) houses many archival collections that may be of interest to researchers in religious studies.

The University Archives was established as part of the University of Chicago Library in 1946. Included in the Archives are official records and publications; minutes of the Board of Trustees and other boards and statutory bodies; records of administrative units including academic divisions, professional schools, departments, offices, programs, and interdisciplinary committees; papers of faculty members, trustees, administrators, students, and alumni; serial publications; photographs; video and film; sound recordings; and memorabilia.

Archival collections such as the papers of Saul Bellow, Morris Raphael Cohen, Louis Gottschalk, Philip M. Klutznick, Michael Polanyi, Julius Rosenwald, Joseph Schwab and Leo Strauss document the work and career of Jewish writers and intellectuals across a broad range of fields. Search the finding aid database or Library Catalog for additional collections.

Electronic Collections of Primary Sources

Please note that some of these are licensed resources that are available online, while others are licensed resources that are installed on one of the Library's computers.

בראשית א - מאגר ספרות הקודש
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Includes Tanak, Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, Midrashim, and Mishneh Torah.
Achi Garsinan
The Hachi Garsinan project aims to display all variant-readings of any given portion of the Talmud Bavli
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Select FBP, on the left hand side of the Genizah home page.

Arab-Israeli Relations, 1917-1970 This link opens in a new window

BibleWorks 9
Installed on computer in the 4th floor Reading Room, outside room 462.
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Includes original language texts with morphology databases; Greek and Hebrew lexicons and dictionaries; Bible translations in 30 languages; reference works (maps, time lines, etc.)
The Bibliography of the Hebrew Book: 1470 to 1960

Compact Memory This link opens in a new window
Digitized page images of German-language Jewish newspaper and journals from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, searchable by publication, author, title, subject, and date.

Center for Jewish Art: Index of Jewish Art
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The Center for Jewish Art (CJA) is a research institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, devoted to the documentation and research of Jewish visual culture. Established in 1979, it documented and researched objects of Jewish art in ca. 800 museums, libraries, private collections and synagogues in 41 countries. Today, the Center's archives and collections constitute the largest and most comprehensive body of information on Jewish art in existence.
Digital Mishnah
The project provides transcripts of central Mishnaic manuscripts (Kaufman, Cambridge, Paris, and more).
Harvard University Library Visual Information Access
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Visual Information Access (VIA) system is a union catalog of visual resources at Harvard, focusing on artistic and cultural materials. Includes materials from the Judaica Collection

Jewish Digital Collections and Jewish Studies Guides This link opens in a new window
“The goal of this guide is to provide access to the vast array of digitized Jewish materials online.” Developed by Diane Romm.

Jewish Language Research Website
This website displays information about several Jewish languages and about some of the researchers who have written about them.
Ktiv
A project by the National Library of Israeli (NLI). The project provides access to collections of about thirty libraries, containing manuscripts from early and late Jewish literature.
MERHAV
A bibliographical system designed by the Israeli National Library. The system, which provides full bibliographical references, is also connected to large databases, such as HebrewBooks; InternetArchive, ProjectGutenberg and UB Heidelberg.
Midrashic Units in the Mishnah
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Database of every single passage of biblical interpretation found in the Mishnah.
National Library of Israel: Digital Library
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Digitized collections from the National Library of Israel. Some materials are only accessible in Israel.
Primary Textual Witnesses to Tannaitic Literature

Otzar HaHochma This link opens in a new window
Licensed for 1 user at a time. Please click "log out" on site when finished.
76,000+ digitized Judaica books encompassing all realms of Judaism from ancient times to the modern period.
Responsa Project: Database for Jewish Studies This link opens in a new window
Tips for using the online version are available under the Help tab. The CD-ROM version is installed on a computer in the 4th Floor Reading Room.
Database of the Bible and rabbinical literature with commentaries. Texts in Hebrew. Covers over 400 volumes Bible-Talmud-commentaries & Halachic Responsa.
Sfardata This link opens in a new window
Free but requires creation of password/login The Codicological Data-Base of the Hebrew Palaeography Project
The Codicological Data-Base of the Hebrew Palaeography Project The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Talmud Yerushalmi This link opens in a new window
Citation Database

Video Tutorial: Talmud Yerushalmi
Moshe Pinchuk demonstrates how to use the Citation Database.

Yiddish Book Center's Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library This link opens in a new window
Read 11,000 Yiddish titles online or download them free of charge provided by Yiddish Book Center

Liturgy and Sacred Poetry (Piyut)

Prayer in Rabbinic Literature Database
JTS Digital Collections of Special Prayers
An Invitation to Piyut
The site, operating since 2005, provides the public with access to well-known and lesser-known productions alike, and spreads them daily both in Israel and across the world in order to present a multi-cultural and diverse picture

Kabbalah and Chassidut

Electronic Resources for the Study of Kabbalah
Illanot
Database for diagrams of Kabbalistic trees (ilanot); a project of the University of Haifa.

Digital Collections of Hebrew Manuscripts

David Kaufman Digital Collection of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts / Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Friedberg Jewish manuscripts
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Portal to collections of Jewish manuscripts: Cairo Genizah, Nahum Coll. of Yemenite MS, Talmud Bavli Variants, Sussman Center for Talmudic MS, Judeo-Arabic Corpus, Judeo-Arabic Biblio.
Databases are open access but may require registration to use.

HebrewManuscripts.org This link opens in a new window
includes approx. 1,000 mss from the JTS collection

The Online Treasury of Talmudic Manuscripts
Images of major Talmudic manuscripts from libraries throughout the world.
Polonsky Digitization Project
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On ongoing project to digitize 1.5 million pages of Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and incunabula at the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Vatican Library). Freely available online to researchers and to the general public.
The Vatican Library Digital Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts
Categorized under three shelf-marks: Vat.heb, Urb.heb, and Borg.heb.
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Click the following link for a detailed description of the manuscripts: http://jnul.huji.ac.il/imhm/vaticanhebmss.pdf

History of the Modern Era

Ben Yehuda Project / Hebrew Literature

Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies This link opens in a new window
Registration with the Aviary platform is required to view testimonies. Please follow steps 1-4 on the "Search the Archive" page to register for access.
The archive’s collection consists of over 4,400 testimonies that record the experiences of over 4,000 survivors, witnesses, bystanders and liberators of the Holocaust.
Registration with the Aviary platform is required to view testimonies. Please follow steps 1-4 on the "Search the Archive" page to register for access.

Digital YiddishTheatre Project
Genealogy : Getting Started at The New York Public Library
Ruth Rubin Legacy: Archive of Yiddish Folk Songs
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Ruth Rubin's entire life's work can be found on this site: field recordings, lectures, concerts, radio interviews, videos, manuscripts and published materials.
Yizkor Book Collection New York Public Library
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Yizkor (memorial) books document the history of Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. Most often privately published and compiled through the collective efforts of former community residents, they describe daily life through essays and photographs and memorialize murdered residents. Most yizkor books are in Hebrew and/or Yiddish, although more English translations have been published in online and print format. NYPL’s yizkor book collection now includes about 730 yizkor books.

Individual Works Online

Dalāhat al-hā'irīn (Guide of the Perplexed)
Print copy available at http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/1439216.
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An online pdf of Judeo-Arabic text established by Salomon Munk and revised by Issachar Joel.

Soncino Babylonian Talmud This link opens in a new window
Includes the Soncino Babylonian Talmud and other full-text Talmud resources
The Zohar: Pritzker Edition (Aramaic only) This link opens in a new window

Archival Material

American Jewish Archives This link opens in a new window
Includes materials on the history of Jews and Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere, including data of a political, economic, social, cultural, and religious nature.
American Jewish Committee Archives This link opens in a new window
Filled with more than a million documents and hundreds of movies and radio shows, the New York-based American Jewish Committee Archives house an extraordinary range of resources on the past century of American Jewish history.
Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Distributed by ProQuest and powered by Ancestry.com, delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more. It's a collection of individuals from North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and more.

Asher Library at Spertus Institute
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It is one of North America’s largest Jewish libraries. The collection includes Jewish-interest fiction and non-fiction books, plus periodicals, films, and music from all over the world and a collection of Jewish Material culture.

Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People This link opens in a new window
They hold the archives of hundreds of Jewish communities, as well as of local, national and international Jewish organizations and the private collections of many outstanding Jewish personalities. The Archives now hold the most extensive collection of documents, pinkassim (registers) and other records of Jewish history from the Middle Ages to the present day.

European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
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EHRI provides online access to information about dispersed sources relating to the Holocaust through its Online Portal, and tools and methods that enable researchers and archivists to collaboratively work with such sources.

Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies This link opens in a new window
Registration with the Aviary platform is required to view testimonies. Please follow steps 1-4 on the "Search the Archive" page to register for access.
The archive’s collection consists of over 4,400 testimonies that record the experiences of over 4,000 survivors, witnesses, bystanders and liberators of the Holocaust.
Registration with the Aviary platform is required to view testimonies. Please follow steps 1-4 on the "Search the Archive" page to register for access.

The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center

Judaica Europeana This link opens in a new window
Judaica Europeana works with libraries, archives and museums to provide integrated access to the worlds most important collections that document the Jewish presence in Europe.

The JewishGen Communities Database
The JewishGen Communities Database contains information about 6,000 Jewish communities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Jewish Women's Archive This link opens in a new window
JWA has amassed the most extensive collection of material anywhere on American Jewish women, and it can be accessed for free by anyone with an Internet connection.

Sites of Memory
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This webpage is about created sites of historical memory, places where people have constructed reminders of past events, usually tragedies.
YIVO Institute list of archives

Newspapers

Central Jewish History This link opens in a new window
"The Central Jewish Library (CJL) is a digital version of the collections of the Jewish Historical Institute. The mission of the CJL is to make all collections of the JHI available and also, by placing them in a historical context, to create working tools for historians, genealogists and people interested in the culture and history of Jews in Poland. The CJL’s collections include the Ringelblum Archive registered by UNESCO as a part of Memory of the World Program."
Compact Memory This link opens in a new window
Digitized page images of German-language Jewish newspaper and journals from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, searchable by publication, author, title, subject, and date.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Search for "Jewish" in Publications tab to see Jewish newspapers
Provides bibliographic citations and full-text articles appearing in numerous U.S. ethnic minority newspapers, consumer magazines, and some journals. The database focus is on African American, American Indian, Asian American, and U.S. Latino publications, though many other minority groups are also included.
Historical Jewish Press This link opens in a new window
This site contains a collection of Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. Full-text search is available for all content published over the course of each newspapers publication.
(From their website)
Index to Hebrew Periodicals This link opens in a new window
IHP is a bibliographic indexing project centered at the University of Haifa Library. It covers articles of Hebrew periodicals, collections, a few monographs, newspapers and articles in other languages dealing with the land of Israel.
Index to Yiddish Periodicals This link opens in a new window
The Index to Yiddish Periodicals(IYP) is a bibliographical data base using Yiddish, which aims to record the materials published in the Yiddish press in Eastern Europe, from its beginnings (1862) until 1939 (in the Soviet Union: until 1948). This ongoing bibliographical project is carried out under the auspices of the Yiddish Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in cooperation with the Jewish National and University Library.
Jerusalem Post 1988-present This link opens in a new window
Proquest Newsstand
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Jerusalem Post (1932-2008) This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Union List of Digitized Jewish Historic Newspapers, Periodicals and e-Journals
How do I find newspapers?
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A guide to finding newspapers by era and region

Genealogy

Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Distributed by ProQuest and powered by Ancestry.com, delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more. It's a collection of individuals from North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and more.

JewishGen.org
Excellent for East European genealogy as well as Jewish genealogy.
Genealogy: Core Sources
Links to a separate guide

Jewish History in Chicago and Illinois

See the information on the Yiddish Studies tab of this guide.

Jewish History in Chicago and Illinois

Subject Specialist

Anne Knafl

she/her

Send Email

Contact:

Joseph Regenstein Library, Room 462

773-702-8442

Subjects: Humanities, Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Religion