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.
Victims
Abraham Chajkes was famous throughout the town, nay, even throughout the entire district, as a decent, “solid,” wealthy merchant. [ . . . ]
He gave his growing children the best education according to…
Moshkele the Pig
After Moshkele found his way to the Goyim’s Street, he began to be a regular and made the acquaintance of the shkotsim [“goyish” boys]. At first they mocked the little Yid who had wandered…
Sister
As a symbol of the past—all sadness and humility—my mother’s face swims up and rises before my eyes. Her eyes two black abysses, anguish peering from them; her lips moist and rosy, a smile always…
Confession
“Meanwhile months and years disappeared. At twenty-eight I was still without a husband, still an eligible virgin . . . It was spring—free, warm. My heart ached so, I thought I’d go crazy . . . the…
Utter Chaos
These last words—spoken in all seriousness—completely confused Heinz. He thought he hadn’t heard right.
“Sorry—What do you have?”
“Patrol duty—Jacob can take care of the money now; you’ve seen that…
Yitskhok Leybush Peretz
And you’re dead. And you’ve not yet been covered by the ground;
Far through a thousand streets like horses galloping round,
Young and old newsboys spread, rushing about their business,
Hawking papers…
Three Poems
This is November
Season of mills.
Wind of the black early morning services.
Cemetery
And thousandnightliness
Of the childish little candles,
And their fear.
Trudging now
Through the…
Jacob’s Ladder
One Who Is Rebellious:To obey commandments of which merely the ear is aware,Yet remain deaf to urges that shake the whole being;To regard as good the former,Which reveal the soul so as to abandon it…
Statistical Report of One Shtetl
Statisticians customarily provide detailed counts for a typical small town, from which deductions can be made regarding other small towns of the same type. Thus the statistics of a small town acquire…
Ignác Goldziher Speaking at His Bar Mitzvah, 1863
Hungarian orientalist Ignác Goldziher (1850–1921) was born in Székesfehérvár and studied in Berlin and Leiden. He traveled in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. For nearly thirty years, Goldziher was an…
Harvey Demonstrating the Circulation of the Blood to Charles I
This painting depicts the seventeenth-century physician William Harvey demonstrating his discovery of blood circulation, a seminal moment in the history of modern medicine. Harvey, personal physician…