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.
Letters to Sholem Aleichem
June 17, 1888 [June 29 in the Gregorian calendar]Dear Sir:Several days ago, I received an undated and terse postcard from one of my friends, a person close to me, H. Epstein, in which the following…
To the Modern Girl
It is you, modern girls, whom I address. The modern spirit has completely changed your natures. If the sages of old, who spoke so much about the wonderful strength of woman as opposed to man, found…
To the Reader of Ha-Me‘orer
Look: the life and death of this organ [publication] is in your hands. If you wish, it will expand, flourish, and branch out in quality and quantity, and, if you wish, it will dry up, wither, and fade…
Adoon’s Jealousy
His strong, coal-black hands crumpling and twisting his faded old hat, the thirty-year-old Adoons said in a quiet but firm voice to his employer, Mr. Waldman, the produce dealer,
“Baas, I’m finishing…
The Affirmation of the Diaspora
We all recognize the tragic aspects of the Diaspora and we cannot hope to achieve in the Diaspora as full and complete national-cultural development as is possible for a nation living in its own…
Man Overboard
[ . . . ] And the Lieutenant-Captain was seriously tired of other people’s passports, of never-ending family names, from Ivanov to Chavchavadze, and of registration.
The barrister has been…
A Discussion about Religious Questions
So, Mr. Blum?
So, Mr. Blau?
What’s with you, Mr. Blum?
What should be with me, Mr. Blau?
How should I know what’s with you, Mr. Blum? I’m asking you. May I not ask? Why are you staring so?
I’m staring…
Manifesto
Many skeptics have denied the existence of Jewish music. Some lump it together with Oriental music; others refuse to admit its independence a priori, by virtue of the nomadic fate of the Jews, who…
Shayke
Once this was the heart of Warsaw—this labyrinth of sad narrow streets between tall tenement houses. Now this is a remote place, an ancient tumor on the body of the modern city, where its blood flows…
The Library, Center of Social and Cultural Life
In this city there are, in effect, for an approximate total of 60,000 Jews, about thirty Israelite culture groups, which are developing with relative prosperity and an excellent measure of success…
De Vriendt Goes Home
De Vriendt shut the door, but stayed with his forehead pressed against it; the strength had gone out of him. This Englishman knew. He knew the nature of his relation to…
Tendencies in Jewish Education
3.
There is no doubt that the Jewish parochial school is the easiest and most alluring method of preserving Jewish religious life in…