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 Archbishop
While the townsfolk knew that an archbishop was coming, no one in Skalle [Skala, today Ukraine] made a big fuss about the news. It was only when pine gates were set up at the entrance that people…
Herr Wendriner Makes a Phone Call
On the day of Walter Rathenau’s funeral in 1922, all mail and telephone service in Germany was suspended between 2:00 and 2:10 pm
“If he won’t honor our invoice, I’ll simply give him a buzz. Put the…
The Problem of Jewish Education in New York City
When we say that we want to remain Jews, and raise our children as Jews, we run the risk of being befogged by one of those meaningless phrases in which the Jews of this generation are particularly…
The Duke
A porch stage left, a little window. A tree at right. Under the tree a table on a wooden beam. Two solid old benches. In the background, a fence with an entrance in the middle. Behind the fence,…
All of the Books That Have Arrived at the Editor’s Desk
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Future [Tsukunft], first compilation. Published by Tsukunft, St. Petersburg (1913).
Ben-Ami, Big Fayvl and Little Fayvl (a short story). Published by Far undzere kinder…
Siberian Garrison
The pride of the Germans was Kinderlyn. He was taller even than Leona Lakner, and he carried a very small head on a huge body. He was a real actor; he was said to be a member of the Dresden…
In Opposite Directions
They would run into each other twice a day: early in the morning, going to work; and in the evening, coming back. They would see one another on the same sidewalk, but they were headed in opposite…
Lecture on the Elementary School
The speaker brings examples and proofs from other nations, like Switzerland, Belgium, and even different states in Germany, where the spoken language is radically different from the official state…
Newspapers
Once upon a time, in the “good old days”—some ten or twenty years ago, let’s say—the people in Shklov still did not know what newspapers really were like. Their sole source of news was a solitary…
A Family Album
Worn and torn by many fingers
It stands on the bedroom dresser,
Resting back against its single cardboard buttress,
(There were two)
The gilt clasp that bound it, loose and broken,
The beautiful…
Brivenshteler: A Letter to a Friend in Russia about America
Dear Friend,You asked me in your last letter to write about America, what kind of country it is and what life is like here. I had to smile as I read your words. [ . . . ]In order to describe America…
A Bintel Brief
Dear Editor,I am a Russian revolutionist and a freethinker. Here in America I became acquainted with a girl who is also a freethinker. We decided to marry, but the problem is that she has Orthodox…