
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.
The Archbishop
While the townsfolk knew that an archbishop was coming, no one in Skalle [Skala, today Ukraine] made a big fuss about the news. It was only when pine gates were set up at the entrance that people…
Herr Wendriner Makes a Phone Call
On the day of Walter Rathenau’s funeral in 1922, all mail and telephone service in Germany was suspended between 2:00 and 2:10 pm
“If he won’t honor our invoice, I’ll simply give him a buzz. Put the…
Prospectus for Moledet
A. Stories and sketches from life today and in the past; legends and poems.B. Articles about Jewish history and the Land of Israel, and the history of the achievements of…
The Duke
A porch stage left, a little window. A tree at right. Under the tree a table on a wooden beam. Two solid old benches. In the background, a fence with an entrance in the middle. Behind the fence,…
Siberian Garrison
The pride of the Germans was Kinderlyn. He was taller even than Leona Lakner, and he carried a very small head on a huge body. He was a real actor; he was said to be a member of the Dresden…
An Open Response to Dezső Szabó
Dear Sir, [ . . . ]
We can talk about a Jewish racial or religious sentiment, but this is in perfect harmony with the Jews’ Hungarian national sentiment, which is not a patriotic slogan but a very…
In Opposite Directions
They would run into each other twice a day: early in the morning, going to work; and in the evening, coming back. They would see one another on the same sidewalk, but they were headed in opposite…
The Youth of Jewish Prague
What is this Jewish Prague that is so much talked about here? We don’t know it in a way that would allow us to define it or draw its image. But we know that it is a reality that lives in us and has an…
Responsum: On Uniting European Jewry
Now, the editor [of the Maḥzike hadas journal] suggested that we keep away from the people of this generation, that is, separate from one another entirely, just as Abraham separated from Lot [see…
Newspapers
Once upon a time, in the “good old days”—some ten or twenty years ago, let’s say—the people in Shklov still did not know what newspapers really were like. Their sole source of news was a solitary…

History of the Bene Israel of India: Natal Ritual
On the morning of the twelfth day, the child is bathed and laid in a cradle with the repetition of the word Beshem Adonai that is, “in the…
A Family Album
Worn and torn by many fingers
It stands on the bedroom dresser,
Resting back against its single cardboard buttress,
(There were two)
The gilt clasp that bound it, loose and broken,
The beautiful…