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.
Fool’s Paradise: Germany Jewry, 1933–38
Looking back, we readily recognize how many illusions were inherent in Jewish ideologies.
The Assimilationists idealized emancipation. Some of them became German…
The Case of Boris Kochubiyevsky
On May 13–16th, 1969, the Kiev Regional Court examined the case of Boris Kochubiyevsky, accused under article 187-1 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, which corresponds to article 190-1 of the Russian…
Isbilia
I’m seeking you, Isbilia, my sultana, on the cloudy circle of water where I spread my glance to pierce your reflection, somewhere, between the foam and the wave, on the crest of imperceptible…
The Future of the American Jew
If we Jews had our patron saints, the priest-prophet Ezekiel would be the patron saint of those of us who are vitally concerned in the outcome of the present crisis in…
Exodus
The Exodus was declared fit and ready for the run to Palestine.
Ari set the sailing time as the morning after the Chanukah party which the management of the Dome Hotel had arranged on…
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
Mel:I’m not having an anxiety attack. I’m a little tense.Edna:Why don’t you take a Valium?Mel:I took one.Edna:Then take another one.Mel:I took another one. They don’t work any more. [He sits down…
The Golden Garden
[The lessons a mother should give her son]: My son, you should know that before your body looked the way it does now, it was nothing. You were formed in my belly from the drops of fertility that came…
Autobiography
When the Seven Years War broke out in 1756, I was the father of four children, and the cost of living was high. I had tried to make my way in the world like an honourable man. When the enemy Prussians…
Letter on His Conversion
A few days after receiving your precious letter of 5 November 1854, I began collating [the pages of my book], which took me until New Year’s eve to finish. But what a chasm in between! I began the…
The Death of the Tavern Keeper’s Wife
With every stone that was set in the new barn, another drop of life seemed to ebb from the wife of the randar or tavern keeper. When she looked out at the building, she often said that she would not…
Seething Times
This morning I met Vaclav on the street.
“God himself has arranged our meeting,” he continued after the usual greetings and inquiries about health. “Walking here, I thought of you.”
“Might I be able…