Why Primary Sources
Creating an understanding of the past is a lot like completing a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces, primary sources from the time period, fit together to reveal a portrait of the past. When you find one of these pieces, it is not always clear what the whole picture looks like. Indeed, finding a new piece might make it necessary to revise our conception of the big picture. Every primary source also reflects a bias, both of the person who created it and the person who views it from the distance of history. Bias is not a bad thing, but we must calculate it into our understanding of the artifact that remains.

Women’s Primary Sources
Primary sources relevant to women’s lives enable us both to revise and to enhance our conception of the past. They provide varied perspectives on the past and allow us to include essential voices from history. The primary sources at the Jewish Women’s Archive reveal a great deal about individual women and the groups of which they were part—Jewish and secular communities, families, political and social welfare organizations, and many more. As we begin celebrations in 2004 of the 350th anniversary of Jewish communal life in North America, these pieces of the past are our foundation and our foremothers’ legacy.