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.
Dreyfus in Kasrilevke
I doubt if the Dreyfus case made such a stir anywhere as it did in Kasrilevka.
Paris, they say, seethed like a boiling vat. The papers carried streamers, generals shot themselves, and small boys ran…
Our Common Language
Ai, the troubles of a greenhorn! A scholar in the subject of cloakmaking, as I am today, I had not yet become. And if in those days you had “unioned” me till you were blue in the face, I still would…
Swann’s Way
My father and mother were left alone and sat down for a moment; then my father said: “Well, shall we go up to bed?”
“As you wish, dear, though I don’t feel in the least like sleeping. I don’t know why…
The Girl Who Went Right
Four weeks before the completion of the new twelve-story addition the store advertised for two hundred experienced saleswomen. Rachel Wiletzky, entering the superintendent’s office after a wait of…
Until the End
From the cradle to the grave,
A heavy burden crushes us . . .
Constrains the mind, destroys our strength,
Wreathes our brow with thorns . . .
And yet, with amazing power
Our lips run along the…
The Dybbuk
Three Idlers [finish chanting]:Why, oh why,Did the soul descendFrom the highest heightTo the deepest end?The greatest fallContains the upward flight.[A long pause. All three sit motionless, lost in…
Victim Testimonies of the 1903 Kishinev Pogrom
[This testimony was] given by rape victim Rivke Shif. She is the wife of Shabse Shif, a shoemaker specializing in shoe uppers. (He lived at 11…
Henriette Herz as Hebe
Henriette de Lemos Herz (1764–1847) was a Berlin salon hostess famed for her beauty and literary engagement. She was highly educated, especially in ancient and modern languages. Following her marriage…
The Fountain of Judah (Three Stories)
Hillel the Babylonian, the important teacher of Israel, was poor and needy, and his daily income consisted of half a zuz. One half of this he used for food, the other half he…
Burial Comb and Nail Pick of the Bischitz Burial Society
The process of ritual purification of a dead body, known as taharah, involves careful cleaning of the corpse. Prior to being dressed in a white cotton shroud, the body of the deceased is washed, the…
Paper Cut—Yortsayt
This paper cut, commemorating the anniversary of a date of death, originates from Galicia.
Portrait of the Marquesa de Llano
Isabel María Parreño Arce y Valdés (1759–1822), the Marquesa de Llano, had her portrait painted by Anton Raphael Mengs, in Parma, Italy, where her husband was the ambassador from Spain. At the time…