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.
Worker’s Song
Written down while working in the fields, patterned after the Arabic working song and sung to that tune.O I have my life and my labor!Yah ḥai li, li-hah-‘amali!Awaken, my brothers, there’s no time…
Midos
A Jewish Wedding
Deep in fields the klezmers can be heard
Driving horses foaming at the mouth,
Relatives, both poor and rich, arrive
To Reb Sane’s daughter’s wedding feast. [ . . . ]
But from a…
The Quarrel between Hebrew and Yiddish
Hebrew:Woe be to me, in my old age,That it should have to come to this:That I stand in judgment hereWith a shameless servant girlAnd her vulgar band of friends.No one knows me anymore!Yiddish:Oh…
The Essence of Baseball Explained for Non-Sportsmen
Uptown, at 9th Avenue and 155th St., stands the famous field—the Polo Grounds. Every afternoon, 20,000–35,000 people gather there. The entrance fee is from $0.50–1.50. Thousands of poor boys and older…
A Tale of a Teacher
In the province of Mollive, there is an old woman who is known for her shtetl wisdom, her old sayings, and her folktales. I met her quite by chance. Her…
My Day
My day—
Is punctured like a sieve,
And ridiculed like a whim.
May winter whiteness blossom,
May autumns turn gray,
May summers whistle—
Become nightingales.
When a rye-wind
Would have twisted my…
Jewish Youth at War: Letters from American Soldiers
These letters have been selected from thousands in a similar vein which it has been the privilege of the editor to peruse. They were forwarded to him from all sections of the country. The…
Chronicle of a Single Day
Bread, bread. The abundance of it dazzles your eyes. In the windows, on the stalls, in hands, in baskets. I won’t be able to hold out if I can’t grab a bite or bread-stuff. “Grab? You don’t look…
The Czech Transport: A Chronicle of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando
A day passed, and then a second and a third. Wednesday came, the ultimate deadline for the transport’s arrival. There were two obvious reason for the delay. First, it appeared that in addition to…
It’s Not Easy to Start Living
He was learning about the Jewish festivals from Leo. The arrival of the new year was suddenly upon him, and that’s when he decided that fasting on Yom Kippur would be a fine adventure. The…
Simple Gimpl
Once, at night, after the seven days of mourning, while I lay on the sacks dozing, someone came to me, the Evil One himself, and said to me, “Gimpl, why are you sleeping?”
“What should I be doing,” I…
The Little Smuggler
Over the wall, through holes, and past the guard,
Through the wires, ruins, and fences.
Plucky, hungry, and determined
I sneak through, dart like a cat.
At noon, at night, at dawn,
In snowstorm…