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.
My Life as German and Jew
I was born and raised in Fuerth, a predominantly Protestant manufacturing city of Middle Franconia, with a large Jewish community consisting principally of artisans and tradesmen. The Jews formed…
Mission of Ha-Ḥerut
Without noise and commotion, without blowing the shofar like many newspapers do when they are founded, without sundry promises, we present to you, dear readers, the first issue of the newborn Ha-Ḥerut…
Philosophy and Law: Contributions to the Understanding of Maimonides and His Predecessors
In a phrase of Hermann Cohen, Maimonides is the “classic of rationalism” in Judaism. This phrase appears to us to be correct in a stricter sense than Cohen may have intended: Maimonides’…
Letter to Mendele
Dedication to My Dearly Beloved Grandfather, Reb Mendalle Mocher SephorimTo my dear grandfather, greetings!Stempenyu, my first long novel, which I inscribe to you, is yours; not only because I have…
An Argument: On Expanding Our Literature
I hear it said: On the contrary, inasmuch as the things most essential for the life of a people have been forcibly taken from our people’s soul, and we stand miraculously in midair like the mem and…
Breakdown and Bereavement
It was an afternoon in the middle of April when the accident occurred. The year was a leap year, rainy and warm, and on that summery spring day in the commune he had already been given the job of…
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…
The State of Yiddish Children’s Literature
In the past there were no children among Jews, only “little Jews without beards,” so neither was there any children’s literature. Boys in the traditional heder used to read Ḥumesh [The Pentateuch]…
The Street: A Novel
For two months, enfolded from head to foot in crusted, freezing snow, we lay in the trenches on the Polish–Bolshevik front in White Russia. We lay about sleepily, suffering from fatigue, immobility…
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…
The Zelmenyaners: A Family Saga
One day Bereh turned up in the yard. An unseasonably warm glow coated the world, glazing the storm windows with an unexpected spring sheen. He walked slowly down the…
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…