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 Bar Mitzvah Speech
Bernardo Tzalkin stood there as though he had just been drenched with a bucket of cold water. Perplexed, at a loss for words, he tried to ask the doctor whether the boy could possibly get out of bed…
On the Cutting Edge of Life
The men, women, and children who arrived, physically destroyed, at the death camp, had only one fixed idea: to survive. The average person, living in a bustling metropolis and enjoying freedom to a…
The Jews, Their History, Culture, and Religion
The purpose of this book is to bring into focus the vast number and wide variety of data concerning Judaism and the Jews, so that they can be seen in relation to one another and to the…
Isaac Babel, Introduction to Collected Stories
A good many years ago, in 1929, I chanced to read a book which disturbed me in a way I can still remember. The book was called Red Cavalry; it was a collection of stories about Soviet regiments of…
The Jew Who Wasn’t There
It is not unusual for committed Jewish women to be uneasy about their position as Jews. It was to cry down our doubts that rabbis developed their pre-packaged orations on the nobility of motherhood…
At Goodman and Levine’s
There were two reasons why Di Yunge chose to carry on by themselves in a separate cafe. One was purely financial. The coffeehouse on Division Street was too dear for young writers, most of whom either…
Death of a Salesman
Biff:People are worse off than Willy Loman. Believe me. I’ve seen them!Linda:Then make Charley your father, Biff. You can’t do that, can you? I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never…
Toldot rabenu he-hakham Mosheh ben Menahem (Biography of Our Wise Teacher, Moses, Son of Menachem)
On the twelfth of the month of Elul in the year five thousand four hundred and eighty-nine, Menaḥem the scribe and teacher of young children in the community of Dessau, became the father of Moses,…
Account of His Visit to Lublin
I was privileged to visit Lublin with my late father when I was a boy of nine, and I saw his [the Seer’s] face illuminated like torches. And when he opened the door to recite Ke-gavnah [An Aramaic…
Correspondence with Moses Montefiore
To Sir Moses Montefiore, from Oro, the widow of Hayim Arieh, 1866
[Oh] one who gives light to the earth and to them that dwell thereon, who is…
In Praise of the Ba‘al Shem Tov
While he was on his journey, Elijah the Prophet revealed himself to him and said: “Because of the merit of your behavior a son will be born to you who will bring light to Israel…