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.
My Little Sister
My sister sits happy
at her bridegroom’s table. She does not cry.
My sister will do no such thing:
what would people say!
My sister sits happy
at her bridegroom’s table. Her heart is awake.
The…
Solo Arak
Black ants crawl over nicotine-stained fingertips
dipping a mint leaf into the glass.
The alcohol dismantles Abd al-Wahab’s
“Cleopatra.”
Now all is clear
solo violin
solo flute
solo oud
we’re…
Night and Hope
Looking at her, the coat and everything else seemed to him to be as clear and clean as the sky.
He had to step across the old man’s mattress.
He knew he would speak to him.
“Look after Anne’s things,”…
Mor u-ketsiyah (Myrrh and Cassia)
In times of emergency, all types of kitniyot (legumes, pulses) may certainly be permitted to be eaten during Passover, for even our Master, the Ba‘al Ha-Turim [Rabbenu Jacob, son of Asher]…
Eleh divre ha-berit (These Are the Words of the Covenant)
These are the words of the covenant as a statute for Jacob, as an everlasting covenant for Israel; the Almighty spoke but once—and He will never alter His law—through the Torah and the ruling which…
Rabbinic Reports on Circumcision
Altona, 24 Ab 5603
Chief Rabbi!
Messrs. Adler and Fuld, members of your congregation, asked for my opinion, from the Jewish-religious perspective…
Leviathan
Having laid out for the reader my thoughts about religion, revelation, and faith/belief, their manifold aim and their various components, I now consider…
A Summary of Modern Jewish History
The Jews are everywhere, in the old world and in the new. They can be found in Jamaica, in New England, in Washington’s America as well as in Bolívar’s, and even in Austral lands. If this people were…
Manifesto of the Communist Party
A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals…
Psalm 92, Od yenuvun (They Shall Still Bring Forth)
This setting for Psalm 92 is one example of the innovative music composed by Louis Lewandowski, Samuel Naumbourg, and Salomon Sulzer (1804–1890) for the synagogues of the new Reform movement. Their…
Tombstone of Joel ben Ze’ev
This tombstone of Joel ben Ze’ev, who died in 1744, is topped with a carving of an eagle. Winged griffins and eagles symbolize God’s power. Only the wealthy could afford stone markers before the…
Silk Bag for Eruv Bread
An eruv (or eruv ḥatserot, merger of domains) is a symbolic expansion of an area outside a single home into a larger private domain. Within that eruv, certain activities prohibited in the public…