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.
The Labyrinth of Zion
In truth Ezra is still very young, but sometimes these marriages are the ones that turn out best. I used to think it was a crime to do this to these children, but I see so many marriages for love…
Mid-Century: An Anthology of Jewish Life and Culture in Our Times
In the tercentenary year of Jewish settlement in America, this volume is offered as evidence that the past decade—a mid-century point—has seen the publication of some of the most…
Symposium on Jewish Belief
I am convinced that the problems implicit in “death of God” theology concern Judaism as much as Christianity. Technically death-of-God theology reflects the Christian tradition of the passion of the…
Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin
The Nuremberg judgment only partly relieved the world’s moral tensions. Punishing the German war criminals created the feeling that, in international life as in civil society, crime should not be…
Herzog
If am out of my mind, it’s all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.
Some people thought he was cracked and for a time he himself had doubted that he was all there. But now, though he still behaved…
Jews in Hell
The fable tells us
that the Jews bought for themselves
a private place in hell.
In the first circle,
seated on a wooden bench,
Karl Marx fans himself with his hand.
The prophet Jeremiah
fights off…
Bene ha-ne’urim (The Youth)
Jonas saw that he was successful in the study of these sciences and that he had mastered the Latin tongue; in addition, his younger brother, who would be taking over his role in the family had grown…
Letter to Judah Leib Gordon
Kovno, Thursday, 20 Heshvan 5629 [5 November 1868]
His Honor, the Great Sage and Sweet Singer of Israel,
Judah Leib Gordon, greetings!
My dear esteemed gentleman! While I was still in Suwalki…
Vivian Grey
I am not aware that the infancy of Vivian Grey was distinguished by any extraordinary incident. The solicitude of the most affectionate of mothers, and the…
Braendel
[ . . . ] Braendel dragged the poor woman into the smoky room, which stank of sweat, beer, and wine, and cried out in a loud voice, “Aren’t you ashamed, you children of honest Jews, to drink and…
Ketav yosher (Epistle of Justice)
Has he had the temerity to speak perversely against the foundations of the faith and of the Torah, and mocked the words of our sages of blessed memory recorded in the Mishnah and the Gemara, or has he…
Rational Judaism
According to the rabbinic view, as soon as a boy has completed his thirteenth year he is required to fulfill all the ceremonial laws, although previously he was excused from some, was not permitted to…