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.
An Anti-Zionist’s Comment to the Polish Jewish Intelligentsia
I was born a Jew, and as I attained self-awareness, I realized that almost four thousand years of human history were working to present me with questions: How was I to understand myself as a Jew, how…
Letters to Shimon Dubnow
To Mr. Sh. Dubnow, St. Petersburg
Moscow, Jan. 8, 1907
I received your letter, and thank you for everything you told me about. . . .
I have already heard about the classes you are giving on Genesis…
“Oriental,” Not Sephardi
I believe “Oriental” is the appropriate term. I feel proud to be classed with Hindus and Chinese and Japanese and other Asiatics. Besides, the name reminds us of dear Turkey, to whom we owe so much…
Speech on the Hebrew Kindergarten
The “kindergarten” as a corridor to the salon of education, as a foundation for the tower of learning, has received particular attention among all civilized peoples, and all the more so does it…
The Problems of Jewish Music
June 1, 1918
Jewish music is the face of a frozen sphinx which, after the millennium of its antiquity, is still only on the path to discovering its secret, is only now waking to life…
Responsum: On Reciting the Shema‘ in the Presence of Bareheaded Women
‘Arukh ha-shulḥan, oraḥ ḥayim § 75:7And now come and let us shout out against the licentiousness of our generation, on account of our many sins. For it has now been many years that the daughters of…
The Wars of the Lord
10. And now, with the Lord’s help, we will return to our primary question: We asked you to tell us, according to the opinion of the kabbalists, to whom do we say our prayers, and make all of our…
If I Forget Thee (Tsiyon tamati)
Zion my innocent one, Zion my desired,
To thee my soul yearns from far away;
May I forget my right hand should I forget thee, my beauty,
Until my grave is sealed upon me . . .
May my tongue cleave…
Literary Science
The purpose of this work is to acquaint the Yiddish reader with the theory, structure, and various forms of belletristic literature in general and Yiddish literature in particular.The need for…
Above Eternal Peace
Above Eternal Peace is Isaak Levitan’s most famous painting, a revered example of the “mood landscapes” popular in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. The artist painted the view from a cliff…
Cover Design for Istoria evreiskogo naroda
Rachel Bernstein-Wischnitzer’s cover design for Istoria evreiskago naroda (History of the Jewish People) features a title with dramatically stylized letters and a gold and black pattern that evokes…
Sikhes-khulin (Small Talk, or, The Legend of Prague)
Cover of Sikhes-khulin: Eyne fun di geshikhtn (Small Talk, or, The Legend of Prague) by Moyshe Broderzon, with illustrations by El Lissitzky. The book is an example of a new modernist style that…