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 Joke
The body of a weary man is primed like an ambulance
Adrenaline charges through his hot blood.
I will go mad if we don’t end this now.
Bizarre how a man so blind with bits of coal
Can strike so…
Evening Descends
Again the herd throngs the village gateways
and dust rises up from the dirt roads.
And farther still a pair of clappers
keep pace with the lengthening shadows.
Evening descends, evening descends.
A…
The Legacy of German Jewry
German Jewry proved itself to be one of the most deeply characteristic and in every important respect fundamental representatives of the West, proving its mettle as partner in its two-thousand-year…
Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve
When breakfast was over, I had to go to the synagogue, rain or shine, for it was Saturday morning. I used to sit next to Bernard and Simon. We would wear our skull caps and whisper to each other…
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Ros:We could play at questions.Guil:What good would that do?Ros:Practice!Guil:Statement! One-love.Ros:Cheating!Guil:How?Ros:I hadn’t started yet.Guil:Statement. Two—love.Ros:Are you counting that?Guil…
Urn
This urn will be made of fired clay
Of native soil, from Poland, my country
In it are lodged the ashes of my parents
My brothers, daughter, and wife.
The urn will be simple, like a jug
With a small…
Last Letter
Dear Brother:
It is an enchanting evening. The wind has been blowing steadily the whole day. It suddenly dropped at nightfall. All is still. There is no stir in the air. The world seems fast asleep. I…
The Pillar of Salt
My name is Benillouche, Alexandre Mordekhai.
How galling the smiles of my classmates! In our alley, and at the Alliance School, I hadn’t known how ridiculous, how revealing, my name could be…
And They Told Us We Were Immortal
George:They always leave the key under the windowsill. I told you so.Bert:Ahuh.[George goes to the doors and yells in front of each one.]George:Mamma! Stephen! Mamma![No one answers. Pause.]No one’s…
The Stream of Life
There is much I cannot tell you. I am not going to be autobiographical. I want to be “bio.”
I write with the flow of the words.
Before the appearance of the mirror, the person didn’t know his own face…
Day of Atonement: Standing
My Lord, how stands it with me now
Who, standing here before you
(who, fierce as you are, are also just).
Cannot bow down. You order this.
Why, therefore, I must break
If bend I will not, yet bend I…
The New York Intellectuals
We were living directly after the Holocaust of the European Jews. We might scorn our origins; we might crush America with discoveries of ardor; we might change our names. But we knew that but for an…