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.
At the Yiddish Wedding Jubilee
Sheet music for “At the Yiddish Wedding Jubilee,” a song popularized by Sophie Tucker (ca. 1884–1966). Born Sophia Kalish in Tulchyn (today in Ukraine), Sophie Tucker immigrated to the United States…
Victims
Abraham Chajkes was famous throughout the town, nay, even throughout the entire district, as a decent, “solid,” wealthy merchant. [ . . . ]
He gave his growing children the best education according to…
Moshkele the Pig
After Moshkele found his way to the Goyim’s Street, he began to be a regular and made the acquaintance of the shkotsim [“goyish” boys]. At first they mocked the little Yid who had wandered…
Sister
As a symbol of the past—all sadness and humility—my mother’s face swims up and rises before my eyes. Her eyes two black abysses, anguish peering from them; her lips moist and rosy, a smile always…
Confession
“Meanwhile months and years disappeared. At twenty-eight I was still without a husband, still an eligible virgin . . . It was spring—free, warm. My heart ached so, I thought I’d go crazy . . . the…
Utter Chaos
These last words—spoken in all seriousness—completely confused Heinz. He thought he hadn’t heard right.
“Sorry—What do you have?”
“Patrol duty—Jacob can take care of the money now; you’ve seen that…
Yitskhok Leybush Peretz
And you’re dead. And you’ve not yet been covered by the ground;
Far through a thousand streets like horses galloping round,
Young and old newsboys spread, rushing about their business,
Hawking papers…
Three Poems
This is November
Season of mills.
Wind of the black early morning services.
Cemetery
And thousandnightliness
Of the childish little candles,
And their fear.
Trudging now
Through the…
Tomb of an Israeli Soldier I
Tomb of an Israeli Soldier I was one of a series of works painted by Michail Grobman at a time when any sympathetic gesture toward Israel was, for Soviet Jews, an act of defiance. Grobman’s very style…
Lunch at Ratner’s
In the 1960s, Howard Kanovitz began using photographs to develop his own distinct style of photorealism. He made drawings of the figures in photographs and abstracted them into fields of color…
Jacob’s Ladder
One Who Is Rebellious:To obey commandments of which merely the ear is aware,Yet remain deaf to urges that shake the whole being;To regard as good the former,Which reveal the soul so as to abandon it…