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.
Why, death, do you tarry so?
Why, death, do you tarry so?
Why does your chariot come so slow?
Old age has prepared for me
Every illness and complaint.
What good are my hundred years?
If such pain I undergo—
Why, death…
Tofteh ‘arukh (Hell Arranged)
What is this sound of tumult that I hear—
Roaring of the sea, not burbling of the brook
Like the roar of a lion or a tiger?
I am in great danger and do not know
If my time approaches when I must…
Sefer ma‘aseh nisim (The Book of Miracles)
The house known today as the House of the Sun is a large stone structure next to the synagogue. But long, long ago it was called the Devil’s Head, and it was…
Refuge
From the balcony, Fuad was heard to groan, “That’s all we need today. Ya rab, that’s all we need.”
Shoshana was frightened. “What’s happened?”
“Come see.”
Her two sons hurried before her. Over their…
At 8:25 Evita Became Immortal
The funeral of the lady put Buenos Aires into suspended animation. Past and future were linked by the deterioration of some buildings and the addition of a few new ones that never went beyond the…
The Library of Moloch
Most witnesses told their stories voluntarily. These stories were equivalent to their souls yet they were willing to donate them to the Library of Moloch because they believed that to tell was to…
The Book of Intimate Grammar
“You be the man. You lead!”
So his mother commanded him, taking his reluctant hands and putting them firmly around her middle. “Go on, lead!” She smiled at him. He could feel her breath on his face…
The Last Happy Family
The rabbi Nefret Yehudá is reading the Aramaic nonstop.
I have arrived at his temple, next to the devastation, as if to a mountain of salvation.
Only here have I been able to sleep. Nefret has been…
Kaaterskill Falls
There are times Nina wants to strike Andras like a flint and make him burn. And there are times when she is patient and steels herself with more strength than he knows. But mostly Nina is lonely. She…
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
“Dearest Volodechka!” Mother shouted. “Happy birthday…! Happy new beginning…! Your father and I wish you a brilliant future…! Much success…! You’re a talented young man…! The economy’s improving…! We…
Françoise
Greetings 53 year old Tristess, you must have guessed
back then, before youth and old men in fancy cars
turned their backs on you,
how all this would vanish, only Mitterand and the Citroën remain;
yo…