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 Anti-Zionist’s Comment to the Polish Jewish Intelligentsia
I was born a Jew, and as I attained self-awareness, I realized that almost four thousand years of human history were working to present me with questions: How was I to understand myself as a Jew, how…
From Lack of Concern and from Lack of Feeling
Well done! Hatsofeh was the first newspaper in Erets Yisrael to react to the indifference of the public in the Yishuv in general and the administration of the Jewish Agency in particular with regard…
An Open Letter about Literature
To the editorial board of Ha-Nir, greetings.For some time, I have wanted to tell our honorable writers what a simple householder [ba‘al ha-bayit] like me wants from our literature.By using the term si…
An Introductory Talk on the Yiddish Language
Ahead of the first verses of the Eastern European Jewish poets, I would like to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, how much more Jargon [Yiddish] you understand than you believe you do.
I am not actually…
Notes in Response to the Zionist Cause
3 Shevat 5663 [January 31, 1903]
From all the Zionist essays emerge that which we see with our very eyes: their entire purpose and effort is to instill the supposition among Jews that the Torah and…
Before Your Shining, Full Eyes
Before your shining, full eyes
How good it is to live;
Before their light every limb is taut
Like a eucalyptus after a storm are you:
Tired, strong and still moving in the wind
My head will reach to…
When Night Draws Near
When night draws near your window, come to him naked.
Softly will he ripple and darken round your still beauty, touching the tips of your breasts.
I shall stand with him there, a stray wanderer…
You, My Master
You, my master, my hidden enemy! I see you hidden
In the wind that is around all, in all, everywhere:
In my uneasy sleep, in my dark fear at morning,
In my labors by day, in my bread and my salt.
C…
Sanatorium
Gate, open
doorsill, creep near.
Room, I’m here;
back to the cell.
Fire in my flesh.
snow on my skull.
My shoulder heaves
a sack of grief.
Good-bye. Good-bye.
Hand. Eye.
Burning lip
charred by…
Red Riding-Hood
When our wild day is wiped like a tear
From cities and forest, from month and year,
Red Ridinghood walks on the road,
To pick a wild flower in the wood.
And following her is a duck and a cow,
Hobbl…