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.
Religious Liberty Monument
Religious Liberty was commissioned by the Jewish fraternal organization B’nai B’rith in honor of the American centennial in 1876. It was Moses Ezekiel’s first major commission. Freedom and…
A Jewish Worker’s May Day Speech
Gentlemen! Although I do not for a minute doubt that the majority of those present here know of the great worldwide workers’ holiday of “May 1st,” I nevertheless do not consider it redundant to remind…
Original Assimilation: An Epilogue to the One Hundredth Anniversary of Rahel Varnhagen’s Death
Today in Germany it seems Jewish assimilation must declare its bankruptcy. The general social antisemitism and its official legitimation affects in the first instance assimilated Jews, who can no…
Speech at the First Zionist Congress
Regarding the first point of the program, I was just given the honorific task to add a few words to its discussion. Although I find it very difficult at present to justify my assessment of this matter…
Jewish Women and Zionism
When history recounts the life and fortune of the peoples who lived in various epochs, when it lets us believe in the marvelous strides that they had made, whether in the field of war, or for…
An Ottoman Jewish Activist in Cairo Proposes Settling Jews in the Sudan
Mr. Abraham Galante, editor of La Vara, has recently developed a plan for Jewish colonization in the Sudan. Although he treats the old proposal to settle Jews in Uganda as a point of departure…
Jewish Thought as Reflected in the Halakah
It was not without hesitation that I accepted the kind invitation extended to me to deliver the Zunz Lecture of this year. Greatly as I appreciated the honor conferred upon me, I did not find it an…
The Light of the Messiah
[ . . . ] That sacred foundation, which constitutes the main theme of all this great vision, contains within it a hidden ray of the light of the Messiah, the redeemer who is revealed and concealed…
Issues of the Hour
This period of time is marked by four phenomena. Three of them concern everyone, and one concerns religious youth specifically.
1. Despair…
The Rinsed Fences . . .
The rinsed fences dry themselves in the wind.
The kneaded black earth turns softer under my feet.
Soaked soil, tousled and wanton wind,
What more can I want from you today?
It seems to me that I’ve…
Outlines of Liberal Judaism
[ . . . ] God chose the Jews: they are a chosen people, though not a people (as I hold and as I shall subsequently maintain) in the sense that the English or the…
Toil
Dress me, good mother, in a glorious robe of many colours, and at dawn lead me to [my] toil.
My land is wrapped in light as in a prayer shawl. The houses stand forth like frontlets; and the roads…