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.
Birth Amulet, Tunisia
This is an early printed amulet from Tunis, containing texts and symbols commonly used on such talismans printed in North Africa. However, this example is somewhat unusual, as the Shir le-ma‘alot psal…
Rabbi and Priest
The guests had retired to their homes. The children had been blessed and sent to bed. The parents throughout the quarter, having discussed the one topic of the day…
My Sister Ruḥamah
In honor of Jacob’s daughter who was raped by Ben ḤamorWhy should you weep my sister Ruḥamah,Why are you downcast, why does your spirit quiver,And why have your rosy cheeks wilted?Because raiders…
At the Road
The whole day
In the roads’ realm
The whole day
Facing only wind
Just a narrow ditch between road and shoulder
Just young lids between sun and eye
What in the world
Can be more beautiful?
Translated…
Impressions of a Journey
A calm summer night. On the horizon loom, very black, the famous woods on the tree trunks of which our ancestors are said to have carved a record of the tractates of the Talmud they had…
Report Addressed to the Members of the JCA Council
Religion loses its sway over our brothers here each day. By the force of circumstances it is true, almost all of our coreligionists have already replaced Saturday with Sunday. This last day is…
Our Demands: A Ladino Socialist Manifesto
What are the demands of the organized proletariat on this day [May 1]?
Above all the eight-hour workday. With eight-hour days we would gain work for thousands of unemployed men; we would gain time to…
Assimilation or Polonization?
Assimilation, taken literally, means making things similar to each other, and in this concrete instance refers to a desire for the assimilation of Jews in terms of language, culture, and customs to…
The Hebrew Book
Literary-minded Jews have long been perplexed by a strange phenomenon. Our literature which is thousands of years old, comprises tens of thousands of volumes, and represents the many creative forces…
Intellectual Abstinence or Assimilation (Not Exactly a Letter to the Editor)
[ . . . ] I further wish to say: it is not sufficient that we worry ourselves with the young kids who will grow into goats—we must also be concerned with the mature goats who have already grown horns…
Matilda Kshesinskaia: Swan Lake
Among the figures of contemporary ballet on the Maryinsky’s stage, Mathilda Kshesinskaya constitutes a phenomenon of exceptional interest. Her name enjoys great fame, her talent—unusually brilliant…