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 Flight of the Dove
The light passes through the curtain and brightens it, spreading a dull glow over the night-table and drawing a single shining line over the edge of the ashtray. The woman’s one eye follows it until…
Call Me Magdalena
What I like about Catholic Heaven (I’d say Christian Heaven, but I’m afraid of making a mistake; I know very little about Evangelicals and Seventh Day Adventists) is that it has well-defined limits…
The Tale of a Kite
It’s safe to say that we Jews of North Main Street are a progressive people. I don’t mean to suggest we have any patience with freethinkers, like that crowd down at Thompson’s Café; tolerant within…
Barney’s Version
Once Clara asked me, “How come your family emigrated to Canada, of all places? I thought the Jews went to New York.”
I was born Canadian, I explained, because my grandfather, a ritual slaughterer, was…
Minyan
Three Russians who didn’t understand Hebrew sat in the back of the synagogue. One was missing an arm. Two Polish Jews sat in front of them. One had his place by the partition so that he could stretch…
Lampstand (Menorah) Depiction from Roman Period Jerusalem
Lampstand (menorah) depiction from Jerusalem in a plaster engraving (1st century BCE–1st century CE). It is difficult to reconstruct what the lampstands of Exodus 25:31–35 and 1 Kings 7:49 looked like…
Ishtar Gate and Processional Avenue
Ishtar Gate and processional avenue, Babylon. This scale model in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin shows the splendor of the city in the days of the prophet—or prophets—whose words are preserved in…
Widows
I was going to publish this novel under another name.
If I sought to hide its true father, it was not because I was ashamed of the son, but because books with my name on them…
Memoirs of a Bootlegger’s Son
“I have a partner for the Point St Charles business,” said Pa.
“A partner! Why a partner?” said Aunt Julia. “Why are you afraid to do anything by yourself? And who is this partner?”
“Henoch,” he told…
Double Burial Chamber in St. Étienne Cemetery
Steps at the rear of this burial chamber in the St. Étienne cemetery lead up to a second, inner one, with rock-cut, tub-shaped burial places, perhaps intended for important members of the families who…
Truth Comes in Blows
I’d known right away that I’d dressed all wrong for the interview, and I sensed even this early that it was becoming a formality. I’d prepared myself to play it in Jack Carter’s cool way. But the imp…