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.
Portrait of Wakara
Solomon Nunes Carvalho painted this portrait of Wakara (ca. 1808–1855) of the Timpanogos tribe (later chief of the Utah Indians) after returning from a trip to the territories of Kansas, Colorado, and…
Heinrich Heine
[ . . . ] The Judaism into which Heine was born and with which he had to come to terms as a maturing man was the Judaism of the German reform. This was, to be sure, no longer the reform, creative in…
Founding Program
The purpose of Agudat Israel is the solution of the respective tasks facing the Jewish collectivity, in the spirit of the Torah. In accordance with this purpose, it sets itself the following goals: (1…
The Columbus Platform
In view of the changes that have taken place in the modern world and the consequent need of stating anew the teachings of Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis makes the following…
Lamentations
In a dingy kitchen
Facing a Ghetto backyard
An old woman is chanting Jeremiah’s Lamentations,
Quaveringly,
Out of a Hebrew Bible.
The gaslight flares and falls . . .
This night,
Two thousand…
A Bintel Brief
Dear Editor,I am a Russian revolutionist and a freethinker. Here in America I became acquainted with a girl who is also a freethinker. We decided to marry, but the problem is that she has Orthodox…
Birds Are Drowsing
Birds are drowsing on the branches.
Sleep, my darling child.
At your cradle, in the field,
A stranger sits and sings.
Once you had another cradle
Woven out of joy.
And your mother, oh your mother
W…
Responsum on Orthodox Judaism in America
Question:In America there is now a notable general rise in religion. The membership of religious organizations has grown, religious gatherings attract a larger audience, etc. Likewise in Jewish life…
Letters
I often said to a younger girl friend: “If you are marrying without love, after all, do not talk to your husband. Please him as much as your nature can tolerate; do not argue with…
Her Life and Her Memories
But was it surprising, when in the midst of such social circumstances or actually disarray, an intellectual sociability was offered, despite the prejudices that prevailed against the Jews at that time…
The Panic, or, The Town of Hérres
In the year 5594 (1834) it was the Ninth of Av, the holy day commemorating the Destruction of the Temple. In the morning, when the worshipers were lamenting at the…
How Does a Newspaper Survive?
In order to survive, a newspaper needs numerous subscribers, the help of the community, paid publications, the aid of the friends of education, the generosity of the nation, and the support of the…