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.
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…
The Five
This episode occurred on Deribasov Street, about two years after the beginning of our story.
At that time our editorial office was located at the upper end of the street, in the…
A Man and His Parrot
It is barely six in the morning and the stars are still out, but Manuel has to get up.
It isn’t a job that wakes him. That obligation used to get him right to his feet, but now? Now just getting…
Letter to Rabbi Jacob Moses Karpas against Zionism
May he be written and sealed immediately for good, long life—the honored rabbi, the splendid gentleman, the sharp and erudite, God-fearing, distinguished, may his name be honored, our teacher, R…
Simkhe Platke, or the Universal Swindler
Now in that same shtetl there lived a youth named Shimen, but he was nicknamed Simkhe (joy, celebration) and Plakhte (coarse cloth) because he was barefoot and almost naked and that was all he wore…
A Rebuttal to Opotowski
As soon as [Opotowski] came, he and the others were told that their chances of securing employment in a region where there are few Jews will be much better if they do not have such long beards. He and…