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.
Pakhar’ (Ploughman)
Anatoly Kaplan’s painting Pakhar’ both commemorates the lost Jewish world of his childhood and reflects accepted Soviet iconography. The Yiddish inscription that frames the central image reads,…
Leah Goldberg, Dira le-Haskir, cover
Dira le-haskir (Apartment for Rent), by the Hebrew-language poet and writer Leah Goldberg, became a bestselling children’s book in Israel soon after its publication in 1959. It tells the story of an…
In the Days of the Storm
Now the days of the pogroms came, and the hands of the masses were raised against the Jews to strike and destroy them. Socialism disgusted me. Not from the idea, which I still hold even more strongly…
Triumph des Jahres 1813 (Triumph of the Year 1813)
This caricature by the Henschel brothers celebrates the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in December 1813. This battle, the final in Napoleon’s “German Campaign,” is also known as the…
Introspectivism
With this collection, we intend to launch a particular trend in Yiddish poetry which has recently emerged in the works of a group of Yiddish poets. We have chosen to call it the Introspective…
The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of Their Faith
The fiercest of all the conflicts between Pharisee and Sadducee concerned the doctrine of the resurrection, for in it the class conflict was most…
Popular Poetry of the Russian Jews
[ . . . ] Similarly, the Russian Jews use the traditional rhyming couplet in those verses that chronicle a historical event or inculcate an ethical truth. The real folksongs, however, are set to music…
Sermon on the Melting Pot
There is no denying that under the influence of this enthusiasm for America, the disintegrating process of the Melting Pot is taking place in large measure. That it is not, fortunately, taking place…
An Exchange on the Jewish Question
Is there a Jewish people? Thousands of Jews, whose language at school and in daily discourse is Hebrew, are again living in Palestine. Neo-Hebrew literature has essayists like Ahad Ha-Am, poets like B…
The End of the Jewish People?
At last you admit that Israel, caught up in the wave of technical progress, is becoming an industrial society “like the others.” You find it acceptable that the Jews, transformed in the…
The Rise of Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism is a phenomenon of man’s restless spirit. At its best it is a dynamic faith—and its very dynamism…
La Buena Esperansa (The Good Hope)
Hamburg, July 7. (Personal communication) In Smyrna, a newspaper will now be published in the Jewish-Spanish language commonly spoken there, entitled La Buena Esperansa. We have the prospectus dated…