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.
Integration and Survival
Jewish identity in the preemancipation period assumed essentially one of two forms—religion or communalism. Each in its own way was a break with tradition. Each was predicated on acceptance of the…
Scribes Writing Lists
Scribes writing lists, Nimrud, late eighth century BCE. Two Assyrian scribes, standing side by side, make lists of booty as it comes in. One writes on a clay tablet and the other writes on a scroll.
The State of the Jews, 1982: Reflections on Jewish Normality, Agony and Glory
For two hundred years, Jews have obsessively sought to achieve two goals—the collective normality of the Jewish people, and the ability to control their own destiny. Since 1782, these goals have been…
Jewish Studies as Oppositional? Or Gettin’ Mighty Lonely Out Here
The proliferation of multicultural courses—not only at the University of Delaware, but across the country—forms a central part of what has come to be termed the “new academy.” By both broadening the…
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
Captain Wolfgang Hoffmann was a zealous executioner of Jews. As the commander of one of the three companies of Police Battalion 101, he and his fellow officers led their men, who were not SS men but…
Working for the Present: Essays on Contemporary Israeli Culture
Gentile is a category of difference. It is the point of departure, something self-evident. The Jew at prayer declares this daily: “Thou hast chosen us from all the…
Shemot 8: The Elders Slipped Out One by One
The whole of chapter three and part of four are taken up with the Divine call to Moses, his preparations for undertaking the mission, the overcoming of all his hesitations, from the historic promise…
Eternity Utters a Day
The modern world never whispers. As I drive in my car, the shrill voice of the announcer, punctuated by the even more urgent voice of the commercial, demands attention. On each street corner…
Train-Shaped Besamim Box
In Jewish tradition, the end of the Sabbath (or a festival) is marked by the ceremony of Havdalah, which includes the ritual smelling of spices (besomim). Many Jewish cultures approached the box…
The Rape of Europa
The rape of Europa is a story from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus seduces the princess Europa and, taking the form of a bull, carries her on his back to the Mediterranean island of Crete. The…
Les Hitlériques, cover
Les Hitlériques was a collection of anti-Hitler verses that Knafo composed in Mogador, Morocco in September and October 1939. This courageous and biting publication was very different from his…
Remember the Horn
Quick! Help! Save a poor girl!
A Hebrew servant girl screamed:
Help me, merciful people, hurry
and save me from this racing stag
who runs with such a fury.
Free my hands from his horns!
The woman…