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 Rabbi in the Attic
[…] What rabbi would come to this impoverished nowhere for the pishochs we offered, especially if he had to rent his own lodgings—the congregation had no money for an apartment when a perfectly good…
How Do You Do, Dolores?
I have to hide the secrets that I learn from the alley cats.
First. That the Creation was far quieter than we assume. Second. The opposite reversal of things. The stripes in the lens. The thoughts…
The Ladies Auxiliary
Mrs. Levy made it her business to be our eyes and ears, the supplier of all information and news. Her job would be easy this time—she had the good fortune to live directly across the street from…
Ten Thousand Lovers
When an Israeli soldier dies in the line of duty, three officers come to your house and sit in your living room and tell you about it. Imagine how many times that scene has been played out in Israeli…
Vise
Immediately I grabbed the man, gripped him, pressed him to me with all my stomach muscles, the way a carpenter, after applying the metal vise to the cupboard that suddenly collapsed, twists and…
Impaled Corpses at Lachish
Impaled corpses at Lachish, detail from Assyrian relief in the Nineveh palace of Sennacherib (reigned 705–681 BCE), depicting the conquest of Lachish in 701 BCE. For the full relief see Conquest of…
W, or The Memory of Childhood
I was born on Saturday, 7 March 1936, towards nine in the evening, in a maternity clinic located at 19 Rue de l’Atlas, in the xixth arrondissement of Paris. My father, I believe, was the one who…
Model Shrine from Khirbet Keiyafa
This limestone model of a shrine, around 8 inches wide, 10 inches long, and 14 inches high (20 cm × 25 cm × 35 cm), was painted red. The façade features a triple-recessed door frame, above which is a…
Messages from My Father
I remember the moment when it dawned on me that my father did not impress the world at large as a powerful figure. We were at a camera store on the Plaza—a faux-Andalusian shopping district that…
Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman
If I had to pick one defining moment in my Iranian life, it would be 5:00 a.m. one Friday in the fall of 1968. I was fifteen. Normally I woke to the sounds of a peddler selling green almonds and fava…