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.
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…
God of Mercy
O God of Mercy
Choose—
another people.
We are tired of death, tired of corpses,
We have no more prayers.
Choose—
another people.
We have run out of blood
For victims,
Our houses have been turned into…
The Bible and Mythological Polytheism
What is the place of the idolatry that is reflected in the Bible?
This idolatry is not a representation perverted for the sake of polemic; nor is it an artificial…
The Opening to the Story
After I published my son’s literary estate in a book, I still had a few scraps of writing and documents of various kinds that I didn’t know how to put together with everything that seemed clear and…
To Remember, to Forget
I don’t know what possessed me, but I decided to take the guided tour of Frankfurt. The minute I set eyes on the American tourists and heard the practiced laugh with which the…
The Song of Friendship
On the Negev an autumn night falls
Surreptitiously igniting star after star
And as the wind crosses the threshold
Clouds spread over the path.
It’s been a year already. We hardly felt
How the times…
For Years I Wallowed
For years I wallowed about in the world,Now I’m going home to wallow there.With a pair of shoes and the shirt on my back,And the stick in my hand that goes with me everywhere.I’ll not kiss your dust…
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav
Among the dreamy pines
As evening light is slowly dying
And a lonely bell still chimes
So many songs, so many stories
The stony hills recall . . .
Around her heart my city carries
A lonely ancient…