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.
A Dictionary of Political Terms
Politishes verter-bukh (A Dictionary of Political Terms) is an anonymous work billed as “an interpretation of the strange words that are used in Yiddish newspapers, journals, and political and…
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature
[ . . . ] A few remarks on foreign words in the literature which for the sake of brevity is here called Talmudic, may not be out of place in this preface.The intercourse between the Jews of the…
How Should Yiddish Be Written?
Ever since the written word in Russia became a bit freer, the country has released a torrent of Yiddish publications of every sort. Various publishing houses have appeared, and every one of them is…
Tasks of Yiddish Philology
Understanding the positive and negative aspects of the language elements introduced by the intelligentsia is particularly important for Yiddish philology, since the task of philology does not end with…
The Trial of Shomer
The secretary rises and begins to read out the indictment:“It has been nearly twenty years since Yiddish began to show signs of becoming a language, to stretch its limbs and demonstrate some forward…
Our Status in the Country, or the Question of Learning Arabic
A.
Mr. Ya‘acov Rabinovitch expressed bitterness about my work in Ha-Poel Ha-Tsa‘ir. I proposed: (1) the formation of one union for all Jewish Arabic teacher…
Intellectual Abstinence or Assimilation (Not Exactly a Letter to the Editor)
[ . . . ] I further wish to say: it is not sufficient that we worry ourselves with the young kids who will grow into goats—we must also be concerned with the mature goats who have already grown horns…
The System of Translations
The problem of creating a body of translated literature in Yiddish is very important and must be solved systematically. This serves the interests of our original [Yiddish] literature best.
[I will…
A New Letter-Writing Guide
A new letter-writing guide containing many examples of various kinds of important letters written with great diligence, great sensitivity, and in the best style; these letters also include very nice…
A Dictionary of Political Terms
Demagogue:A leader and rabble rouser for the masses, who rouses the simple benighted people, provoking their most base desires, their feelings of jealousy and hate, and has therefore a great sway over…
Yemenite Aliyah to the Land of Israel
I, Shalom, the humble son of the honorable R. Joseph Alsheikh, God keep him and save him, wish to elucidate here the beginning of Yemenite settlement in Jerusalem, may it be built and established…