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.
Zionism and the Jewish Women of America
New York January 17, 1915
Dear Mrs. Julius Rosenwald,
Let me congratulate you and Palestine upon having secured as you tell me in your telegram, a “splendid response from a local” [Chicago Jewish…
Dudka
He married Sonechka early, out of love. He loved her passionately only for the first two years. Then he lost interest but didn’t even notice it. He wasn’t thinking about love and women as a rule. He…
One Yom Kippur
For a long time, Slimsohn had been saving considerable time and money on food. He had started by limiting himself to just one meal a day, towards evening, then delaying it until that undefinable…
Brothers
At three in the morning, Rabbi Sholem Tuvim returned home from visiting his sick father. His father was in great need of comfort, and he, Reb Sholem, would have stayed by him the entire night if the…
A Jewish Mother from Berlin
Martha Jadassohn had come with her parents from a small West Poznanian town, named either Bobst or Meseritz, to Berlin where her father’s only sister, a widow, was living alone…
Letter to Bialik on Hebrew Culture
Society of “Hebrew Language Lovers” [Ḥoveve sefat ‘ever]Moscow BranchMaruseyka, 10 Kosmodimian AlleyTelephone: 180-53Moscow, 24 Adar 5677 [March 18, 1917]To Mr. Ḥ.N. Bialik in Odessa,Honored Friend!Th…
The Brothers Ashkenazi
The Lodz merchant and community head, Abraham Hersh Ashkenazi, known as Abraham Hersh Danziger for his frequent trips to Danzig, sat over a Tractate Zebahim, brooding and tugging…
A Prayer
I pray Thee O Lord
From all my heart,
O Lord! I pray to Thee.
With fervor and zeal,
For the sufferings of the humiliated,
For the uncertainty of those who wait;
For the non-return of the dead;
For…
The Education of Orthodox Girls
Together with many others we emigrated from Kraków to the great city of Vienna. It is already ten weeks since we relocated here. We withstood many troubles. For nearly two weeks we simply wandered in…
Bread
My steps are set down stiffly
on tired, empty paths.
This morning a little town of Jews
called me “Anti-Semite!”
All of them in wrinkles and in rags
out there pointing at me:
“Him! That guy! We…
The Quarrel between Hebrew and Yiddish
Hebrew:Woe be to me, in my old age,That it should have to come to this:That I stand in judgment hereWith a shameless servant girlAnd her vulgar band of friends.No one knows me anymore!Yiddish:Oh…
The Essence of Baseball Explained for Non-Sportsmen
Uptown, at 9th Avenue and 155th St., stands the famous field—the Polo Grounds. Every afternoon, 20,000–35,000 people gather there. The entrance fee is from $0.50–1.50. Thousands of poor boys and older…