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 Jews in Polish Culture
In every caste system the lower caste occupies a marginal position vis-à-vis the upper caste. The Jews were a marginal element to the Polish nobility. The margin was not isolated, for the Jews could…
From the Old Marketplace
Benjamin came back with the same suitcase and the same few sets of underwear he had left with for Germany. He brought back everything—his illness included. The only thing he didn’t bring back were his…
The Fifth Season
Pinkie:[Jumping up] Johnny, did you ever hear of The Marshall Plan? The Five Year Plan? The Morris Plan? Now listen to the Pincus Plan! Let’s give up the business!Johnny:[With a quiet intensity, as he…
Fiddler on the Roof
The exterior of Tevye’s house. A Fiddler is seated on the roof, playing. Tevye is outside the house.Tevye:A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But in our little village of Anatevka, you…
Kaddish: Hymmnn
O mother
what have I left out
O mother
what have I forgotten
O mother
farewell
with a long black shoe
farewell
with Communist Party and a broken stocking
farewell
with six dark hairs on the wen of…
Solomon Maimon: An Autobiography
I was sent to school at Iwenez, about fifteen miles from our abode, and here I began to study Talmud. The study of the Talmud is the chief object of a learned education among our people. Riches…
Description of His Career as a Revolutionary Soldier, 1777–1783
Georgia
City of Savannah
Sheftall Sheftall of the said city, being duly sworn, saith:
That some time in the latter part of the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy seven, or the beginning of…
Rachel; or, The Inheritance
We had spent the summer at Enghien, in the pleasant Montmorency valley, where every year spring brings along with its fragrant greenery, the choicest Parisian society. Situated on the shore…
Aurelie Werner
The relationship between the lovers had already lost much of its intimacy when the couple was blessed with a thriving son. This event reawakened the count’s feelings of tenderness for the mother of…
License Authorizing Daniel da Costa Gomez to Be a Ritual Slaughterer
These letters of mine may be presented by the witnesses of the Lord, and they will be vindicated—to the effect that the young and delightful young man Daniel, whose utterances were genuine, appeared…
Responsa Hatam Sofer: Orah hayim 154
The reason for this is that if they see Torah scholars, and those who repair the breaches in Jewish religious practice, voiding the Torah in accordance with the exigencies of time and place, they will…
Letter to the Friends of Lessing (On the Spinoza Conversations between Lessing and Jacobi)
Our friend’s devotion to Spinozism is not to be seen as a mere hypothesis (as the Patriarch in Nathan puts it), postulated simply in order to discuss its pros and cons. Herr Jacobi, a man of…