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.
Coming of Age in Southern Africa
In the hot tranquillity of Sunday afternoons in Lusaka, beyond the shrill whistle of the cicadas and the drone of radio sports commentaries, we could hear the muffled thudding of tribal drums.
The…
Unfinished People: East European Jews Encounter America
My father lived to be ninety-eight, and until the end of his life he never failed to introduce my sister and me with a grand gesture as his “two disappointments.” We were, very simply put, an…
Exit from Home
A little while later, the women retired to the back room and Samuel and Ethel were the only ones still up. Ethel continued to sew silently, scarcely raising her head when the others left. Samuel…
People from Lachish Going into Exile
This section of the relief from the palace of Sennacherib, king of Assyria (reigned 705–681 BCE), in Nineveh depicting his conquest of Lachish in 701 BCE, shows Judahite inhabitants filing out of the…
World of Our Fathers
To think of the culture brought over by the immigrant Jews as a “mere” folk culture is a patronizing error, though an error often indulged in by later generations of American Jews. There was, of…
A Paper Eichmann—Anatomy of a Lie
I hesitated a long while before […] writing these pages on the so-called revisionist movement […].
When to Sound an Alarm for Jews Abroad?
When should Jews in one country start protesting about what they perceive as the peril of Jews in another country?
To answer the question, we must first analyze the specific conditions of the…
Chosen Voices: The Story of the American Cantorate
Twenty-three Jews came to America in 1654 and some five million live in the United States today. Though this seems like a long story, it is but a short chapter in the history of Judaism. Anything…
Remarks at Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Swearing-In Ceremony
Thank you, Chief Justice. Mr. President, distinguished guests, colleagues, and friends. Not yet two months ago, President Clinton announced his intention to nominate me as Associate Justice of the…
Anti-Semitism in France, 1978-1992
When Vichy agreed to collaborate with the Germans, their decision to do so shocked many Jews living in France, particularly those who had recently arrived. Despite the Dreyfus Affair at the turn of…