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.
Excerpt from a Letter to A. D. Gordon on Labor and Nature
[ . . . ] For the whole day after I received your letter, I had the same celebratory mood that one feels after a cleansing and encouraging spiritual moment. Yet I am too weak to hold on to it. In…
A Whole Loaf
I had not tasted anything all day long. I had made no preparations on Sabbath eve, so I had nothing to eat on the Sabbath. At that time I was on my own. My wife and children were abroad, and I had…
Lacking a Family Life
One of the causes of the failings in the lives of the young workers [in Palestine] is certainly the lack of family life. Here, too, there is room for observation. Here we have a phenomenon that is not…
Farewell Leicester Square
“Alec,” she said meekly, “you’re wearing out my carpet.”
He stopped. “Pardon?”
“Why the Man of Destiny act?” she asked.
He stared at her uncomprehending.
She put her hand on his arm and shook him. “Oh…
Return, Israel
A statement of reproof and a reminder and warning and a correction to our brothers, the Jews of Tunis, may the Almighty maintain it, amen, may God preserve them and sustain them, written by the dayyan…
Ten Commandments
My grandfather’s kinsman, a Jew who tamed bears,
Performed in the market towns;
By day his beast was confined in chains;
At night, they danced under the stars.
Nicknamed “Ten Commandments,” the man…
The History of Borsszem Janko (Johnny Peppercorn)
I was lying in bed sick when, on January 5th, 1868, the first issue came out. Understandably, the party line and the competition tried to alienate from me János Jankó, the illustrator of the…
Di shvue (The Oath)
Brothers and sisters—all working poor
Wherever you might be scattered on earth
This banner’s now waiting for you, together.
Waving, wrathful, this flag is blood red.
We swear! We swear by the…
Erotica et Rustica
1.
Eyner hot lib a kale mit a sakh gelt, der anderer hot lib a kale on a hemd.
Some like a bride with a lot of money, others like a bride without a stitch of clothes.
Khuts…
Grave of the Bride and Groom
In many shtetls throughout Podolye and Volhynia we often find a mound next to the synagogue. Surrounded by a traditional cemetery fence, the mound is known as the Grave for the Bride and Groom. And…
Bottoms
To be or not to be—that’s not the question.
Sense or nonsense—that’s my obsession.
For too long, Divine reckoning
has shredded human thinking.
The sum total of justice is a round number:
bright…