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.
Commentary: On the Jerusalem Talmud
With a brief commentary and some Tosafot (additions) which were balanced, refined, and written by the Torah scholar, the great rabbi, R. Elijah ben Judah Loeb, who dwells in the land of Fulda, based…
Kol sakhal (Voice of a Fool)
Kol sakhal (Voice of a Fool), a polemical work attacking rabbinic Judaism, has been the subject of many scholarly debates. To this day, its composition and aims remain shrouded in mystery. The author…
Fear of Flying
When I got back to the hotel at five-thirty Bennett was waiting. He didn’t ask me where I’d been, but he put his arms around me and started undressing me. He made love to me, to Adrian’s slime, to our…
War and Remembrance
Depending on the wind, the burning time on the frame can be two to ten hours. Some Jews tend the crackling pyre with iron forks. Others, including Jastrow and Mutterperl, are down in the long narrow…
Like a Bride and Like a Mother
Every night I kneel down by the window and look at a bright star that just might be my guardian angel. Then I recite “Our Father” to God and say a “Hail Mary” for the Virgin. I hope that…
Chutzpah
My experience with discrimination—especially at the hands of the Paul, Weiss firm over my Sabbath observance—caused me an embarrassing moment during my interview for the Supreme Court clerkship I did…
Providing for the Poor
If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against…
The Religious and Moral Significance of the Redemption of Israel
Reform Judaism is the second historical distortion of the Jewish religion. For the service of God through Torah and Mitzvoth as the end of religion, the Reform movement substitutes an end the Jewish…
Today’s Ruth
In the book of Ruth we read an extraordinary expression of love between two women, spoken by a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law. The text has often been read as a reflection of Judaism’s position…
Familiar Jewish Scenes
A Suitor Calls with the Matchmaker. Illustration from Scènes familiales juives (Familiar Jewish Scenes), Alphonse Lévy’s book of caricatures of Alsatian rural Jewish life.
Religion Is an Obstacle to the Five-Year Plan
This poster, designed by an unknown artist, presents in a clear, graphic manner the goal of the Soviet campaign to eradicate religious life. The texts in Yiddish emphasize the need to bring an end to…
Captain America, no. 1, cover
Captain America, the eponymous hero of this comic series, was given a backstory similar to that of one of his creators, Jack Kirby. Like Kirby, Captain America was born on New York’s Lower East Side…