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.
What Can We Do about Fagin? The Jew-Villain in Western Tradition
The real start of the myth of the Jew with the Knife in English literature goes back to the tale, already hundreds of years old, which Chaucer puts into the mouth of his Prioress, a character faintly…
My Spiritual Autobiography
With the passing of childhood and the waning of the impatient eagerness of adolescence, I was rapidly realizing that this was neither the best of all possible worlds, nor one that the optimism of late…
The Naked and the Dead
The old man Moshe Sefardnick sits in the rear of the place on a camp stool. There is never any work for him to do and indeed he is too old for it, too bewildered. The old man has never been able to…
The Loudest Voice
There is a certain place where dumb-waiters boom, doors slam, dishes crash; every window is a mother’s mouth bidding the street shut up, go skate somewhere else, come home. My voice is the loudest. […
Letter to His Parents after His Conversion
Certainly, dearest parents, I know what is commonly the result of the influence of education and of misunderstood religion, but is it possible that you could hate your son because he harbors other…
Igrot Meshulam (Epistles of Meshulam)
Sivan, 5529 Livorno [1769]
In the name of G-d, the G-d of mercy!
In such measure as light exceeds darkness, such is the superiority of the people of this country over the people of Spain…
Emek refa’im (Valley of Giants)
When I was still young, nineteen years of age, it entered my mind to fool the world (as was the practice of the “holy ones” in those days), and this was the scheme I adopted: I used to travel on…
Letter to George Washington
Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now (with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events) behold a government erected by the Majesty…
The Journey of the Holy Man Abou Naddara Zarqa from Cairo the Victorious to Paris the Glorious
A Conversation between Abou Khalil and Abou Naddara Zarqa at Café Riche, Boulevard des Italiens, on the Night of the 14th of July 1878, Paris[ . . . ] Abou Khalil:Good Lord, I’ve missed your banter…
The Brazilian’s Song from the Opera La vie parisienne
Brazilian, I’m rich, I’ve got dough
There’s plenty of gold in my sack
Paree, here I am, I’ve come back
And richer than ever before!
Two times was I here in the past
My suitcases bulging with gold
A…
Seu Shearim (Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates)
The music for “Se’u She‘arim (Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates)” resembles the choral marches found in grand opera. The words are from Psalm 24: O gates, lift up your heads! Up high, you everlasting doors…
Synagogue (Bechhofen, Germany)
The Bechhofen Synagogue (built in 1685) is believed to have been the largest wooden synagogue in Germany. The interior of the synagogue was painted with lavish decorations in 1732 and 1733, in typical…