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.
Yiddish Folk Songs with Their Original Airs
III.
She: I can’t hide it anymore
I’ll reveal my bitter, heavy heart
I can’t even wait till tomorrow
Because oh does it smart!
He…
Poem No. 228
A Jewish musiker,
Alex Herzovitch,
wound his Schubert around and around
like diamonds.
Morning to night, happy, oh happy,
he ground out that same old
sonata, ground it by rote, ground it
to a…
My Way to Palestine
Whatever happened to me on that day seemed to urge me to muster up all my courage and hope. When the ship approached the harbor of Jaffa, many people were there to meet us…
The Sermon
For a while there was quiet—a total, final quiet in the room. Then the chairman stirred, beetling his heavy eyebrows, and spoke with gruff, ironical severity: “Comrade Yudka, I call you to order! If…
In Sand and Water
In sand and in water
You will yet raise expectant eyes,
Or eyes
As indifferent as death to machine-gun bullets and borders on maps.
Together with you
Yet another sought to escape
(At long last to…
One of a City and Two of a Family
The book being presented to the reader represents a selection of a thousand autobiographies composed by Jewish children, survivors of the conflagration, tender children who lived for months and even…
Religious Praxis: The Meaning of Halakhah
Living in accordance with the Halakhah, demarcating a sphere of the sacred through halakhic practice—is this the ultimate end of the religious life? The answer is both yes and no. On the one hand…
The Difference
Yitzhak Klein gave such an angry kick to the garbage can that it flew straight into the middle of the sidewalk, scattering its stinking contents in all directions. Klein nearly exploded in his boiling…
Shira
The woman in charge came out of the children’s house and stationed herself on the grass, holding an infant in each arm. Children stood behind and in front of her, waiting for their parents, who were…
Portrait of a Jew
I was born in Tunisia, in Tunis, a few steps from that city’s large ghetto. My father, a harness maker, was somewhat pious, naturally somewhat so, as were all men of his trade and his station in life…
Ascension
He did not object to their unending walk, on and on until they reached a quiet spot. He did not complain of feeling tired. He did not insist that the blanket should be spread somewhere nearer to other…
The Investigation: A Play
Witness 4:When we had crossed the tracksand were waitingat the entrance to the campI hearda prisoner say to a womanThe Red Cross van is only usedto carry gas to the crematoriaYour…