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 Jewish Character of Spinoza’s Teaching
Whoever reads Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise, his letters, and even his Hebrew grammar, will recognize and avow that Spinoza was, relative to his times in Amsterdam, if not a great scholar…
The Making of the Modern Jew
For a half-millennium the Jew, rejected by the world, had secluded himself within ghetto walls, unconcerned with what lay without. But the day came when the world…
What Paths Should Our Movement Take?
The Jewish question may be resolved through a new philosophical synthesis and a true reform of moral and religious life for Jews and Christians alike. Just as we must admit that we need reforms across…
Prophet Marx Speech
Marx was a prophet, no less so than Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. With honest conviction and courage he proclaimed the economic liberation of humanity. He appealed to the workers of the world and…
On Women’s Voting
. . . We believe that our outlook on social life in general is more refined and purer than that of contemporary civilized nations. Our family is sacred to us in a manner more profound than [is the…
Opening Address of the Jewish Women’s Congress
It is my pleasant duty, as chairman of the local committee, to extend to you all a hearty welcome to our city and to our Congress, the first Jewish Women’s Congress. It was with some misgiving that I…
Lesser Ury (and Jewish Art)
The strongest testimony to life is productivity, and the most direct form of productivity is art. That is why those of us who announce a life of the Jewish people inquire into the possibility of…
Heine and the Consequences
But Heinrich Heine—even the aesthetes who are rescuing his immortality in an island publishing house (these gloriously impractical minds whose cerebral wrinkles trail away into ornament) have nothing…
The Sanctification of the Name
A passage in chapter 22 of the third Book of Moses was destined to become the starting point for one of the most peculiar religious concepts of the Jewish people. It reads: “Observe my laws and…
Women in the Synagogue
Duality manifests itself in all things, but in nothing is this two-foldness more plainly seen than in woman’s nature.
The weaker sex physically, it is the stronger spiritually, it having been said…
Jewboy
He sings in the courtyard, clad in rags
A small, poor chap, a crazed Jew.
People drive him away, God has muddled his wits
Ages and exile have confused his tongue
He wails and he dances, weeps and…
Dirge for a Bar That Has Closed Down
The slow and green river that winds throughthe blanched street of the Jewish Quarterkept watch over your agony.From my old tableI used to see himapproach your windows withrestless eyes. And as he…