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.
The Children of the Ghetto
Not here in our London Ghetto the gates and gaberdines of the olden Ghetto of the Eternal City; yet no lack of signs external by which one may know it, and those who dwell therein. Its narrow…
A Shtetl
On a seasonable Saturday morning, Itchele decided that the time had finally come to get even with the butchers for their bloody triumph before the holiday. He got together a bunch of young toughs and…
Hill of Sand
It was most curious, Hemdat’s having agreed to give Yael Hayyut literature lessons. Yet since it struck him as being but one more insoluble psychological riddle, he took the moralist’s advice and…
Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card
Felix Nussbaum painted this self-portrait while he and his wife were in hiding in Brussels, Belgium, about a year before they were arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Every element of the picture…
Before the Law
Before the law stands a doorkeeper. To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country and prays for admittance to the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot grant admittance at the moment…
Legend of the Chalice
“Is it true, dear mother,What grandfather tells us?That a chalice stands in heavenBefore the throne of God?“And with each blow struck usAt the hands of cruel men,Does a tear fall in our chaliceFrom…
A Household of Eight
Household of eight.
Beds are two.
When it gets late,
What do they do?
Three with father,
Three with mother:
Limbs
Over each other.
When it’s night
And they go to bed,
Mother begins
To wish she…
B’nai Israel (Millburn, New Jersey)
Percival Goodman won the commission to design the building for Congregation B’nai Israel after speaking at a two-day symposium organized in 1947 by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to…
The Dark Ages Are Looming!
The Dark Ages are looming. Do you hear, feel it, person of feeling,
The whisper of the dust slowly creeping, the distant smell of Sulphur?—
And that anguish fading in the air, the heart and the…
Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem
The Hall of Remembrance is the main site for memorial ceremonies in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. Built of basalt and concrete, it offers a somber contrast with the many buildings in Israel that are made of…
Among Our Distant Brethren
(Continued from issue 76 [of Ha-Tsefira])The commandment of hospitality is well-developed in our city, and particularly in the mellah. But emissaries from the kollelim in the “Four Lands” stay with…
The People of Vojkovice and Outlying Villages
My eldest sister was getting married and the nuptials were held in our cottage courtyard. I can see the scene clearly before me. The courtyard neatly swept and the heap of manure in front of the…