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.
Language Insomnia
At the beginning of the Jewish labor movement in the Pale of Settlement in Russia, Jewish youth began to return from Russian to Yiddish. This started with a free choice, as later on we chose Hebrew…
The Rinsed Fences . . .
The rinsed fences dry themselves in the wind.
The kneaded black earth turns softer under my feet.
Soaked soil, tousled and wanton wind,
What more can I want from you today?
It seems to me that I’ve…
Toil
Dress me, good mother, in a glorious robe of many colours, and at dawn lead me to [my] toil.
My land is wrapped in light as in a prayer shawl. The houses stand forth like frontlets; and the roads…
Cohen on the Telephone
I rang up to tell you that I’m your tenant Cohen. I say I’m your tenant, Cohen. I ain’t goin’, I’m stoppin’ here. I’m your tenant Coh—Not lieutenant Cohen. I vant to tell you thet last night the vind…
X-Rays
Work, tradesmen, shops, the town is there
with old maids polished down by emptiness
on haberdashers’ threshold where the antique sun
brushes off jewels dusty with being looked at.
Dressed up for…
Moon
An old sight too has its moment of birth.
A birdless sky
Strange and set apart.
Facing your widow on the moonlit night stands
A city plunged in crickets’ tears.
And when you see a road still…
Toward Peace in Palestine
The purpose of this article is to warn of the danger of war between Jews and Arabs, and to offer an alternative based upon a reasonable compromise. The uncompromising who believe that this collision…
The Month of Rescue
It is for us, for all of us together,
To assist, to liberate, to rescue brothers,
From capture, from hunger and slaughter—
Rescue them from the vile Nazi oppressor.
Every man and woman whose soul…
In Polish Lands
Trees cry for rain
And mountains for air.
So cry my eyes
For you, dear Mother;
So cry my eyes
For you, dear Mother.
I turn and I ask what will become of me.
In Polish lands
I am destined to die.
…
World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang
Before the custodians of the purity of the Hebrew language begin to tear their hair out in protest of the so-called indecent acts committed herein, in full view, upon the…
Three Foundations (Sholem Aleichem and the Yiddish Literary Tradition)
[ . . . ] Why is fame accorded to this particular individual, far and beyond his own time and place and why does he continue to capture new readers both in the original and in translation? [ . . . P…
1948. A Soldier’s Tale: The Bloody Road to Jerusalem
At five o’clock in the morning our commanders stormed into the dormitories to wake us. No morning gymnastics. We are in a high state of alert. Our comrades who were on night duty report…