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.
Man Overboard
[ . . . ] And the Lieutenant-Captain was seriously tired of other people’s passports, of never-ending family names, from Ivanov to Chavchavadze, and of registration.
The barrister has been…
In the Footsteps of Literature
Our literature is like our people: most of it is planted in lands of the exile, and just a few seedlings, which have not yet developed, whose quality cannot be discussed, have begun to flourish in our…
A Discussion about Religious Questions
So, Mr. Blum?
So, Mr. Blau?
What’s with you, Mr. Blum?
What should be with me, Mr. Blau?
How should I know what’s with you, Mr. Blum? I’m asking you. May I not ask? Why are you staring so?
I’m staring…
Letter to Margaret Sanger on Birth Control
Chicago, Ill., 12/7/15 My dear Girl:The enclosed money order for $40.00 represents the forty dollars collected at my Birth Control Lecture for you. I am sure it will come very handy, as you must be…
De Vriendt Goes Home
De Vriendt shut the door, but stayed with his forehead pressed against it; the strength had gone out of him. This Englishman knew. He knew the nature of his relation to…
A Report Concerning the Art College
The People’s Art College in Vitebsk, fulfilling the needs of the whole Western Land, is a ripe necessity, especially since our Revolutionary time compels us with unusual force to undertake the…
The Five
This episode occurred on Deribasov Street, about two years after the beginning of our story.
At that time our editorial office was located at the upper end of the street, in the…
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…
Letter on Education
With the grace of God, Friday, before the Shabbat of the reading of Noah, 5672 [1911].
To our fellow Hasidim (in the city of Turov),
My stomach turned and my ears burned on hearing the terrible news…
A Bintel Brief
Dear Editor,I am one of those unfortunate girls thrown by fate into a dark and dismal shop, and I need your counsel.Along with my parents, sisters and brothers, I came from Russian Poland where I had…
Who Is Vildman the Wrestler?
Among the wrestlers competing in the current tournament in the Panorama [Building] on Karowa Street, fighting for the 1912 Polish Championship, is a Jew called Vildman.He has become quite famous, in…
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…