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.
The National Mission of the Working Class
The Hebrew worker did not come here as a refugee seeking shelter wherever it could be found, looking for any available means of survival. He went up into the land as an emissary of the nation, and as…
Jews Will Accept Hardship Only in the Holy Land
The fate of this idea of settling the Holy Land with Jews is like that of the fairy prince transformed by evil magic until rescued. The contemporary fairy godmothers of our people deserve our…
The Platform of Hashomer
The Goal: To develop in our land a cadre of Jewish guards fit for this task.
The Means: 1. To organize the operating guards in the colonies.
2. To become acquainted with and to prepare in the colonies…
The Invigoration of Western Jewishness
The best of the Western Jews have gradually become used to talking about the existence of a Jewish people as if it were a logical and historically proven fact.
But they have not yet arrived at the…
Address to the Jury
Gentlemen of the jury, we have been in public life for twenty-seven years. We have been hauled into court, in and out of season—we have never denied our position. Even the police know that Emma…
German Jewish Parnassus
One hundred and odd years ago, the walls that imprisoned us Jews in a mental ghetto fell, torn down by Christian advocates of human rights who are assured of our eternal gratitude. After having been…
The Advocate
In his book Ha-metsaref [The Purifier], vol. II §182, Rabbi Moses Kunitz wrote:
The term am ha-arets [lit., “People of the Land,” often meaning boors] was applied to people of various dispositions…
Springtime in the Hospital
Is it any wonder that the sick are so pure and tender,
gazing across vast distances, seeing things that no one else does,
staying up at night, and smiling in the darkness,
as they caress their beds…
Building Boom
The avenue of willows leads nowhere:
it begins at the blank wall of a new apartment house
and ends in the middle of a lot for sale.
Papers and cans are thrown about the trees.
The disorder does not…
I Am the Knight
I am the knight of yearned-for blue
On God’s rosy, holy ways.
My yearning is white like milk and dew
And sweet as the honey-rain.
My armor, my sword—my word and my blood.
My sign—the green of cedar…
The Horse and the Whip
“May an unforeseen disaster
Overtake your worthy master,
The wagoner, Reb Benjamin,
And strike at you along with him.”
The horse was saying
to the whip and neighing,
“Did you ever
Hear of such a…
Three Old Women
In the grey evening, beside the white house, three old ladies sit, gazing straight ahead. And stillness all around. As if the eagle had suddenly frozen in flight. Three old ladies sit beside the…