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.
Letter to Rabbi Jacob Moses Karpas against Zionism
May he be written and sealed immediately for good, long life—the honored rabbi, the splendid gentleman, the sharp and erudite, God-fearing, distinguished, may his name be honored, our teacher, R…
Day Grows Darker
Day grows darker
And darker.
Mobs are advancing on the town,
Mobs clotted with blood,
Made remorseless by killing children,
Lustfully they advance,
To rip off heads,
Feeble, melancholy heads.
They…
Simkhe Platke, or the Universal Swindler
Now in that same shtetl there lived a youth named Shimen, but he was nicknamed Simkhe (joy, celebration) and Plakhte (coarse cloth) because he was barefoot and almost naked and that was all he wore…
A Rebuttal to Opotowski
As soon as [Opotowski] came, he and the others were told that their chances of securing employment in a region where there are few Jews will be much better if they do not have such long beards. He and…
Etiquette: Clothing, Manners, and Sexual Behavior
Clothing is an art, and it requires talent from women and men alike. This talent, however, is innate to people. It is a talent that every woman and every man can develop by observing…
Ghetto Folklore
The Führer inquires of General Franco, “Comrade, how did you solve the Jewish problem?”
Franco answers, “I instituted the yellow badge.”
“That’s nothing,” says Hitler. “I imposed tributes…
An Act of Affirmation
It is traditional to begin a new magazine with brave declarations. If we do not, we trust we shall be forgiven.
We begin at a moment heavy with a sense of human destiny. Every schoolboy who listens to…
Can Heaven Be Void?
I am in hiding in a loft over a stable, in a village, with good people. The risk of death hovers over me, as it does over all Jews these days, and the slightest lapse of vigilance on my…
The Nazarene
“‘Do you want me to release to you your King of the Jews?’ asked Pilate of the multitude.
“‘What is that? What does he say?’
“‘The Procurator asks whom shall he release to you for the festival: Bar…
A Contract
Things were looking pretty bleak, when my wife’s prewar acquaintance brought a ray of hope into our small room.
If you too were an artist, you might be able to appreciate how impatiently my wife and I…
Cain and Abel
Dost thou sleep, my brother Abel,
That thou art so wonderfully fair?
Never have I seen thee
As beautiful before.
Does the beauty lie in my ax,
Or is it, perhaps, in thee?
Before the day is done,
Spe…