Archive films · Photographs · Primary sources

Orthodox Jewish life through film, photographs, and historical research.

Each story begins with film, a photograph, or an archival clue, then follows the people, place, date, and records.

Latest Reels

Rabbi Yeshaya Furst watching a boy put on tefillin, 1923
Austrian Jewry · Vienna, 1923

Talmud Torah on Malzgasse

At Vienna’s Talmud Torah on Malzgasse, a bar mitzvah boy puts on tefillin while Rabbi Yeshaya Furst looks on, then the boys sit for an examination and receive rewards.

1838 cadastral map of Purschau with numbered houses
American Jewry · Lumberland, 1851

A Lonely Grave by Lebanon Lake

Near Lebanon Lake in Lumberland, a stone wall holds the grave of Nathan Freisleben of Bohemia, who died on 22 December 1851 at age fifty-nine.

Jewish Town Hall and Old-New Synagogue from the street, Josefov
Prague · 1926, 1946

Historic Jewish Quarter of Prague

From 1926 to 1937, cameras walk Prague’s old Jewish quarter past the Hebrew clock, the Old-New Synagogue, and the cemetery, then in 1946 they film a Torah ceremony inside the Old-New.

The Sochatchover Rebbe on the Polonia, 1935
Sochatchov · Polonia at sea, 1935

The Sochatchover Rebbe on the Polonia

On the Polish steamer Polonia in 1935, the Sochatchover Rebbe, Reb Dovid Bornsztain, walks the deck toward Haifa with Rabbi Yaakov Meir Biderman and Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Levin.

Greeting the Groom at Bobowa, 1931
Galician Jewry · Bobowa, March 1931

Greeting the Groom at Bobowa

At Bobowa’s railway station in March 1931, chassidim greet the groom’s train, and the Bobover Rebbe, Reb Ben Zion Halberstam, stands on the platform as his daughter Nechama Golda marries Mojżesz Stempel.

Rosh Hashanah Filming Scandal, 1922
British Jewry · London, September 1922

Rosh Hashanah Filming Scandal

On Rosh Hashanah 1922, Pathé filmed packed East End davening in a Mile End cinema: men in talleisim, machzorim open, a baal tokeia sounding the shofar.

Card Players at the Hebrew Home, 1932
American Jewry · Harlem, January 1932

Card Players at the Hebrew Home

At New York’s Hebrew Home for the Aged in January 1932, elderly residents sit at a card table: men in yarmulkes deal and argue while women in headscarves watch from behind.

Samuel Baron’s 106th Birthday: Pathé, 1934
American Jewry · Bronx, 1934

Samuel Baron’s 106th Birthday

At a Bronx Jewish nursing home in 1934, Pathé films Samuel Baron’s birthday with cake, a brachah, and “Happy Birthday,” and he tells the interviewer he is 106.

Rebbetzin Sternbuch in Prague: Pathé, 1946
She’eris Hapleitah · Prague, August 1946

Rebbetzin Sternbuch in Prague

On a Praha-Bubny platform in August 1946, Rebbetzin Recha Sternbuch hands sweets to orphans while Chief Rabbi Yitzchok HaLevi Herzog stands nearby and boys hold Torah scrolls.