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 Bimah at the Wooden Synagogue, Kamionka Strumiłowa
The wooden synagogue in Kamionka Strumiłowa was built in the late seventeenth century. Its walls were covered in colorful paintings and, as in most wooden synagogues, the bimah occupied a central…
Purim Story Painting
The Book of Esther recounts the story of the rescue of the Jews of Persia from the machinations of the evil vizier Haman, who sought to annihilate them. Thanks to the bravery and cleverness of the…
The History of Borsszem Janko (Johnny Peppercorn)
Cartoon in the satirical weekly Borsszem Jankó, depicting the first generation of Borsszem Janko’s writers and illustrators at Kávéforrás (the Coffee Fountain) on Fürdő Street in Budapest, Hungary.
The Valley of Demons
Those matters discussed in an earlier issue dedicated to the practice of indolka inspired the distinguished writer to write this fine article.
Everything that I am relating here is neither eloquent…
The Haunted Tailor
He burst into laughter that immediately frightened him. Just then he passed the “Cold Synagogue”—a synagogue in which, it was said, the dead came to say their prayers on Saturday nights, wearing white…
The Cross
We were too late. The pogrom erupted that very night, suddenly, like an exploding mine, and in my own neighborhood.
The first screams came to me confused, in a hazy dream. Then it dawned on me what…
The End of Everything (When All Is Said and Done)
His sorrowful expression broke her heart. She’d always believed that her father was strong and would do whatever was necessary to retain his dignity and his self-respect. And now for the first time…
The Cares of a Family Man
Some say the word Odradek is of Slavonic origin, and try to account for it on that basis. Others again believe it to be of German origin, only influenced by Slavonic. The uncertainty of both…
City of Killings
Rise and go to the town of the killings and you’ll come to the yards
and with your eyes and your own hand feel the fence
and on the trees and on the stones and plaster of the walls
the congealed…
Tristia
I have studied the science of leaving
in night’s unbraided sorrows.
Oxen ruminate—the waiting lingers to the final
hour of the city’s vigil—and I honor rituals
from that other night—the rooster…
Jewish Women on Strike
The entire city is talking about the tumult, the uproar in the Jewish Quarter that began after the price of meat started to rise.
The prices for meat not only went up in the Jewish Quarter. The Trusts…