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.
Letter to the Art Editor of the New York Times
June 7, 1943Mr. Edward Alden JewellArt EditorNew York Times229 West 43 StreetNew York, N.Y.Dear Mr. Jewell:To the artist, the workings of the critical mind is one of life’s mysteries. That is why, we…
Palestine Dances!
Against the setting sun, in the fields near a kevutzah in Palestine, a group of young halutzim are dancing. All day long they have worked hard on the land. The morrow brings another day of…
The Killers of the Fields
In ascetic silence, in stony skirts,God’s handmaid falls on her face—Flash of an empty night, a forlorn desert waste,Shards of sunset upon the rocks.This land. Trodden, just like this, by a wandering…
Itzik’s Midrash
The first man, Adam, lies in the grass,And spits at a passing cloud,Humbly, the cloud says, “Adam,Please, would you cut that out.”But Adam sticks out his tongueAnd says to the…
About St. P.
Spitting poison and frothing at the mouthHe spits, snorts and spluttersAnd writes that I am a butcherA yid and bolshevikJewboy, bacillusA baboon and a SkamandriteThat I sell out the FatherlandThat I…
Dirge for a Bar That Has Closed Down
The slow and green river that winds throughthe blanched street of the Jewish Quarterkept watch over your agony.From my old tableI used to see himapproach your windows withrestless eyes. And as he…
Midnight
A late crescent drips, its blood still red,
And the tranquil grasses of the night
Bend their small heads, one upon another,
Slumbering, arm beneath cheek,
In its peaceful light.
A weary wanderer…
Ruth
On these night fields of pure silence
My feet tread, light and sure, as upon
A homeland’s holy soil from the day
My star led me here.
How loving are the night’s wings! My eye
Discerns every bush here…
The Mound
After you, the killed of the Ukraine;After you, butcheredIn a mound in Gorodishche,The Dnieper town . . .KaddishNo! Heavenly tallow, don’t lick my gummy beards.Out of my mouth’s brown streams of…
Song of My Indifference
For some the now is good enough—and that is fine for them!But what shall I dowhen I alwayssee before mephosphorescent questions flashing:Where?Where to?I am ready tiredof hovering,of flickering,of…
Bar Kochba
Young Man:Tell us, Bar Kochba, the words to useWhen we return to our homesAnd tell of meeting you.Bar Kochba:For taking of the people’s land,For stealing of the people’s wealth,For towns…
Boitre
Arn-Wolf—parnes khoydesh (chairman of the kahal, the community council)Beyle—his wifeStere—his daughterRabbiFirst and Second Dayen (judges of the bes din…