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.
An Open Letter
With God’s help, may the Lord order blessing, life, and peace for the leaders and fine men, preeminent individuals, etc., and for their head, the Great Rabbi, etc.Hear, congregation of the Lord and…
A Man and His Parrot
It is barely six in the morning and the stars are still out, but Manuel has to get up.
It isn’t a job that wakes him. That obligation used to get him right to his feet, but now? Now just getting…
Subscription Notice
Subscription for the Year 1903 to the First Daily Zhargon (Yiddish) Newspaper in Russia, Der frayndPublished in Saint Petersburg by Sh. Ginsburg and Sh. Rapaport [S. An-ski]
Literary Science
The purpose of this work is to acquaint the Yiddish reader with the theory, structure, and various forms of belletristic literature in general and Yiddish literature in particular.The need for…
Cohen on the Telephone
I rang up to tell you that I’m your tenant Cohen. I say I’m your tenant, Cohen. I ain’t goin’, I’m stoppin’ here. I’m your tenant Coh—Not lieutenant Cohen. I vant to tell you thet last night the vind…
Letter to Jacob Dinezon
My only, best and devoted friend, as I can express myself, nonpartisan, true friend Yankev Dinezon!I really cherish the letter that I received from you last week. But unfortunately, I am so busy with…
And Thus, Perhaps, I Will Reflect . . . ?
I lived, but as for living I was shiftless in my life,
knew always I’d be buried here when all was done,
that year layers itself upon year, clod on clod, stone on stone,
that in the chill and wormy…
Palestine Dances!
Against the setting sun, in the fields near a kevutzah in Palestine, a group of young halutzim are dancing. All day long they have worked hard on the land. The morrow brings another day of…
A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto
If one looks closely at the passers-by in the streets of the Warsaw ghetto one can see that the overwhelming majority of them are not originally from Warsaw, but are from…
Letters from Westerbork
Finding something to say about Westerbork is also difficult because of its ambiguous character. On the one hand it is a stable community in the making, a forced one to be sure, yet with all the…
Blood
On the nights before Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, my mother would send me to the butcher with some birds to be slaughtered according to ritual so the meat would be kosher—that is, clean…
As You Die There in Agony, Brother
As you die there in agony, brother,
Don’t be calling your comrades in vain.
Let me warm my hands on your body,
Make good use of the blood from your veins.
Stop crying, stop groaning, don’t be a…