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.
A Lower East Side Vacation
“Green fields, fair forests, singing streams, pine-clad mountains, verdant vista—from the monotony of the city to the monotony of nature. I wanted a complete change, and so I went to the East Side of…
Leah Goldberg, Dira le-Haskir, cover
Dira le-haskir (Apartment for Rent), by the Hebrew-language poet and writer Leah Goldberg, became a bestselling children’s book in Israel soon after its publication in 1959. It tells the story of an…
Triumph des Jahres 1813 (Triumph of the Year 1813)
This caricature by the Henschel brothers celebrates the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in December 1813. This battle, the final in Napoleon’s “German Campaign,” is also known as the…
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
The occurrence of self-criticism as a determinant may explain how it is that a number of the most apt jokes . . . have grown up on the soil of Jewish popular life. They are stories created by Jews and…
Introspectivism
With this collection, we intend to launch a particular trend in Yiddish poetry which has recently emerged in the works of a group of Yiddish poets. We have chosen to call it the Introspective…
Jewishness (Yidishkayt) and Other Problems
Our generation came to this country from lands where Jewish life had been lived within its own boundaries, and where our communal leaders had instilled in us a sense of responsibility to ensure that…
Flesh and Spirit
In the early period of Jewish history there was a considerable party which took a materialistic view of the national life, in the sense that it had no ideal beyond that of making the State supreme at…
The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of Their Faith
The fiercest of all the conflicts between Pharisee and Sadducee concerned the doctrine of the resurrection, for in it the class conflict was most…
The Wonder-Working Rabbi of Barcelona
During the weeks that Eleazar spent in pious contemplation in old Asia, the people of Barcelona took pains to persecute the Jews. It was they, once again, who made it hard for Spanish merchants to…
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…
The Stutterer’s Suicide and the Psychiatrist’s Dream
“. . . Are you Jewish?”
“Of course, I am. I went to South America to escape persecution, not to enjoy the pleasant climate.”
“Well, I’m neither a practicing Jew nor a Zionist. In fact, I dislike any…
The Jewish Revival in America, II: Its Religious Side
But any honest observer of the contemporary scene must admit that the fading of traditional Jewish piety has not meant its replacement by more “Christian” forms of religious life, even though some of…