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.
La juive
The plot of La Juive (The Jewish Woman), an opera in five acts, centered around a romance between a Jewish woman and a Christian man. It was one of the most popular operas of the nineteenth century.
The Basel Program
The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:
- The promotion, on suitable…
Letter to Herzl from Zionists in Morocco
March 17, 190318 Adar, 5663Safi—May He Who is on high make its Foundation firm(Morocco)To His Honor, the Exalted President, Lover of His People, Glory of His Nation, Our Distinguished Lord, Dr. Theodo…
Wailing Wall
In these days when Jews are being killed in Palestine, I chose to go to Grenadierstrasse—not to Jerusalem. I had the feeling it was better to be with the bereaved than the dead. I paid a condolence…
Mission of Ha-Ḥerut
Without noise and commotion, without blowing the shofar like many newspapers do when they are founded, without sundry promises, we present to you, dear readers, the first issue of the newborn Ha-Ḥerut…
Letter to Mendele
Dedication to My Dearly Beloved Grandfather, Reb Mendalle Mocher SephorimTo my dear grandfather, greetings!Stempenyu, my first long novel, which I inscribe to you, is yours; not only because I have…
An Argument: On Expanding Our Literature
I hear it said: On the contrary, inasmuch as the things most essential for the life of a people have been forcibly taken from our people’s soul, and we stand miraculously in midair like the mem and…
Smugglers
Pantel the wagon driver stretches out under the covers and sits up, yawning. The house is dark but a faint light is just beginning to penetrate through the peepholes in the shutter.
“It’s…
Zoo, or Letters Not about Love
About Grzhebin on canvas, about Grzhebin in the flesh. Since the letter is written in a penitent mood, the trademark of the Grzhebin Publishing House is affixed. Here too are several…
In the Footsteps of Literature
Our literature is like our people: most of it is planted in lands of the exile, and just a few seedlings, which have not yet developed, whose quality cannot be discussed, have begun to flourish in our…
Rag Pickers
Always, by the time the humid, breathless, summer night lifted its veil and a quiet, rosy dawn emerged, when some glimmers of soft, opaque light began to filter through the dried muddy, dusty window…
The State of Yiddish Children’s Literature
In the past there were no children among Jews, only “little Jews without beards,” so neither was there any children’s literature. Boys in the traditional heder used to read Ḥumesh [The Pentateuch]…