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.
Lord I Have Seen Too Much
Lord, I have seen too much for one who sat
In quiet at his window’s luminous eye
And puzzled over house and street and sky,
Safe only in the narrowest habitat;
Who studies peace as if the world were…
The Oath
By these eyes that have seen the woe and grief,
their outcries heaving to my heart’s embrace,
by this compassion which taught me: forgive
till the time did come too awful for grace—
I have taken this…
On Frustrations and Prestidigitators
For the role of scapegoat, the prestidigitators chose Jews.
Rattling around in the recesses of their memory were recollections about how prewar governments in…
Isbilia
I’m seeking you, Isbilia, my sultana, on the cloudy circle of water where I spread my glance to pierce your reflection, somewhere, between the foam and the wave, on the crest of imperceptible…
The Future of the American Jew
If we Jews had our patron saints, the priest-prophet Ezekiel would be the patron saint of those of us who are vitally concerned in the outcome of the present crisis in…
New York: February 1965
On a day transparent with light
like a landscape by Monet,
my childhood broke away
from a small Jewish town
and glided on ice
blue in the distance—
while a small cloud hovered in me
like a cloud of a…
Awake My People!
Awake, my people! How long will you slumber?
The night has passed, the sun shines bright.
Awake, lift up your eyes, look around you—
Acknowledge, I pray you, your time and your place. . . .
The…
A Society to Further Jewish Integration
The way in which the Jewish world will merge into the European follows from the above-mentioned principle. To merge does not mean to perish [aufgehen ist nicht untergehen]. Only the obstinate, self…
Notes Regarding the Characteristics of the Jews
I wish, then, to describe the four classes to which Jews today belong in order to derive therefrom the principal claim of this discussion, namely: to the extent that the Jews do not take advantage of…
Sabbath Lamp
This Sabbath lamp, cast in silver in Frankfurt am Main, was originally commissioned for a private home. It was made by Johann Valentin Schüler, a craftsman who also produced many other Jewish ritual…
Grapes and Other Promises
Averbuch uses paving stones, railroad ties, steel, glass, and other reclaimed materials in his sculptures, repurposing them but also allowing them to retain signs of their utilitarian past. His works…
Jamma’in II
In Tevet’s deconstructionist wall sculpture, Jamma’in II, painted boxes and other shapes, some of which look like tables and chairs, are arranged around a yellow ring. All the objects seem to be in…