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.
Judaism and Yiddish
“If God grant that the earth will be full of understanding, and everyone will speak the same language, Ashkenazic, then only (the form) Brisk will be written.” That is how Meir ben Moses Hacohen, the…
What Is Jewish Secular Culture?
We take Jewish secular culture here in its modern shape, its language form, Yiddish. It is not the first expression of worldly or secular Jewish culture. In ancient times almost the entire cultural…
On Yiddish Dialects
The following descriptions of Yiddish dialects have the same goal as the work published in Volume I of the Tsaytshrift [ journal]. For the most part, the material has been collected the same way…
The Miracle of Hebrew Reborn
Hebrew reborn—but, was it ever dead? Or, if it was, how can a dead language be born again?
The millions of Jews all over the world who say their daily prayers in Hebrew, not only understanding but…
Encyclopedia of the Łódź Ghetto
A group of people living together under extreme coercive conditions without the conscious intent of forming a community of common fate created forms that were only possible on the basis of the ghetto…
The Working Problems of the Writer in Exile
I will not dwell too long on the bitter theme of the many purely external difficulties with which the writer in exile must contend. I hope that those who have not experienced these difficulties…
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language has been assembled on the basis of inclusiveness—that is to say, as a dictionary which attempts to record and include all the words of the Yiddish language…
Mapping a Culture
The very lack of a self-contained territory that has so far disqualified the study of Yiddish from NDEA [the National Defense Education Act] support endows Ashkenazic Jewry with exemplary value for a…
Toward a New Yiddish
[ . . . ] It seems to me we are ready to rethink ourselves in America now; to preserve ourselves by a new culture-making.
Now you will say that this is a vast and stupid contradiction following all I…
Tradition and Revolt in Yiddish Poetry
As Yiddish poetry grew more modern, even modernistic, as it grew freer in rhythm, subtler in tonality, more artful and sophisticated in imagery, it also grew more Jewish—I was almost going to say more…
Light for the Path
We, the entire assembly of the congregation of Israel, believe that the Torah that is in our possession today is exactly the same as was written by Moses our master, peace be on him. From then until…
An Essay on Hebrew Eloquence, Exposed in a Practical Lesson by Doctor Anania Coen, First Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Florence
To truly form a sense of good taste, one must be in full command of the metaphysics of the sacred tongue, something which is so necessary (and which…