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.
Apology for His Language (On Yiddish and Hochdeutsch)
An apology for the fact that this is written in the language of Ashkenaz (in Hochdeutch [German]). In my opinion, there are two good reasons for this: first, I have found written in…
A Song on the Jews of Ashkenaz and Poland
I will raise the matter of trimming the beard
He trims it away like leaven [on the eve of Passover]
He leaves only a small goatee.
One more…
Where will you camp, O my ibex?
Where will you camp, O my ibex, for whom I yearn?
Where will you drip the droplets of your wine and your dew—O formidable one?
If you bring up your beauty to heaven on high,
You will dim…
I’m in a rage, so angry that I don’t know what to do
I’m in a rage, so angry that I don’t know what to do
because of what just happened when I went out with a few
good friends to take a walk in town, this lovely Sabbath day.
We joined a crowd of rowdy…
My Father’s Leaving
When I came back, he was gone.
My mother was in the bathroom
crying, my sister in her crib
restless but asleep. The sun
was shining in the bay window,
the grass had just been cut.
No one mentioned…
Lithuania
…I remember a woman
who sat on the pot where the apples cooked in the cold
basement, her face black from smoke. And here, near this brick
building with a red tile roof, is one of our family, Mausha
V…
Plaque Figurine of Pregnant Woman
In this terra-cotta plaque figurine from Tell Beit Mirsim, 6 inches (15 cm) high, the pregnant woman’s arms cradle her belly and her navel and genitalia protrude. Incisions indicate the eyes, the hair…
Bullas from Jerusalem
The backs of many bullas, like those shown here from the City of David in Jerusalem, have impressions of the strings that once tied the rolled document and marks from the papyrus fibers of the…
Seal of Hagab, with Archer
This phosphorite seal, found in the plaza of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, portrays an archer with a bow prepared to shoot. The quality of the carving is very high. The depiction of the archer is…
1948
The living room is deserted, dark and quiet. Knocking is heard. Rina comes out of her room carrying an oil lamp to see where the sounds are coming from. She walks around the living room in a…
Woman Playing Frame Drum
The drumhead of this Phoenician-style terra-cotta figurine from Shikmona (south of Haifa) is recessed, suggesting that the drum had only a single head. Figurines like this are typically found in…
Integration and Survival
Jewish identity in the preemancipation period assumed essentially one of two forms—religion or communalism. Each in its own way was a break with tradition. Each was predicated on acceptance of the…