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.
Benefit Lunch with Bertha Kalich
This full-page advertisement for a benefit lunch, to be held that day, December 14, 1898, at the Thalia Theater in New York City, with the famed Yiddish actress Bertha Kalich (ca. 1872–1939), includes…
Whither?
I see his melancholy profile as though through a mist, through the curtain of thick cloud that descended on him in his lifetime and darkened his bright trail with a multitude of vain fictions and will…
Behind the Fence
One Sabbath eve, as darkness fell, Noah lay hidden among the thorns and thistles growing under the fences outside the quarter and waited. He knew that Marinka would be returning this way from her…
Lévy
“You come from Poland, Monsieur David . . . ?”
“Davidovich.”
Lévy, his host, looking with desperation at the traveling salesman, supplied the name. Still sweating from fear, Lévy was now sweating for…
Motl, the Cantor’s Son
It did our hearts good to see Vaytshepl. It did Pinye too much good. “Why, it’s Berdichev!” he shouted. “Children, I swear, we’re not in London at all, we’re in Berdichev!” The next thing I know he’s…
Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida. Over Pool to Hotel. Florida, Miami Beach
The hotels designed by Morris Lapidus in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Fontainebleau, were pioneers of what came to be known as “Miami Modern” (MiMo), the signature style of resort hotels in…
My White Snow Princess
Oh white spirit—
My princess!
The spring rips,
Tears at your dress.
The air is full of spring’s fame
Crowned with florets
Carrying its perfume
Spring’s fresh scents.
Bringing your death,
My white…
Six Prayers
Six Prayers was commissioned by the Jewish Museum in New York as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The six tapestries evoke Torah scrolls or prayer shawls. The shapes in the central part of…
Bluebeard’s Castle
Judith:Ev’rything lies deep in shadow.[She feels her way forward.][She shudders.]The walls are sweating.Tell me BluebeardWhy this moisture on my fingers?Walls and rafters, all are weeping.[She covers…
My Life
You understand, my sweet confessor, that I could be even more of a sinner than not, and I hope just the same for your absolution. In the meantime, I will tell you that after…
The Mystical Autobiography of a Sephardic Woman from Salonika
One afternoon a friend from class asked me a religious question. After I answered her, she remarked that it was curious that our teacher had not been able to answer the same question. “Don’t be so…
Expedition Findings on East European Jews
Khaye-Gite came. She is a typical grandmother. She talks to God quietly, politely. She wasn’t too keen on telling us about being a grandmother. She just told us a few things. She knows lots…