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.
An Open Letter
With God’s help, may the Lord order blessing, life, and peace for the leaders and fine men, preeminent individuals, etc., and for their head, the Great Rabbi, etc.Hear, congregation of the Lord and…
The Open Grave
Crowds of people had been gathering since dawn at the morgue next to the city hospital. Drowsy, shivering, in damp gray clothes, they warmed themselves by huddling in one another’s breath. Their faces…
Day Grows Darker
Day grows darker
And darker.
Mobs are advancing on the town,
Mobs clotted with blood,
Made remorseless by killing children,
Lustfully they advance,
To rip off heads,
Feeble, melancholy heads.
They…
Subscription Notice
Subscription for the Year 1903 to the First Daily Zhargon (Yiddish) Newspaper in Russia, Der frayndPublished in Saint Petersburg by Sh. Ginsburg and Sh. Rapaport [S. An-ski]
Literary Science
The purpose of this work is to acquaint the Yiddish reader with the theory, structure, and various forms of belletristic literature in general and Yiddish literature in particular.The need for…
Cohen on the Telephone
I rang up to tell you that I’m your tenant Cohen. I say I’m your tenant, Cohen. I ain’t goin’, I’m stoppin’ here. I’m your tenant Coh—Not lieutenant Cohen. I vant to tell you thet last night the vind…
Letter to Jacob Dinezon
My only, best and devoted friend, as I can express myself, nonpartisan, true friend Yankev Dinezon!I really cherish the letter that I received from you last week. But unfortunately, I am so busy with…
Ghetto Folklore
The Führer inquires of General Franco, “Comrade, how did you solve the Jewish problem?”
Franco answers, “I instituted the yellow badge.”
“That’s nothing,” says Hitler. “I imposed tributes…
An Act of Affirmation
It is traditional to begin a new magazine with brave declarations. If we do not, we trust we shall be forgiven.
We begin at a moment heavy with a sense of human destiny. Every schoolboy who listens to…
Can Heaven Be Void?
I am in hiding in a loft over a stable, in a village, with good people. The risk of death hovers over me, as it does over all Jews these days, and the slightest lapse of vigilance on my…
The Nazarene
“‘Do you want me to release to you your King of the Jews?’ asked Pilate of the multitude.
“‘What is that? What does he say?’
“‘The Procurator asks whom shall he release to you for the festival: Bar…