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.
Republican Citizenship and Jewish Uniqueness
Political modernity, by making the varied dimensions of existence automatic and, in particular, by separating the political from the religious, posed the problem of Jewish identity in a dramatic…
The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State
Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual, and political life. Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and…
Seeking the Jewish Tradition
Is the Jewish tradition inherently liberal or inherently conservative? The answer to this much-debated question is quite simple: yes.
Which is to say that if by “the Jewish tradition” we mean what is…
When Bad Things Happen to Good People
There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people? All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting; somewhat like…
How to Draw Guidance from a Heritage: Jewish Approaches to Mortal Choices
The progress made by medical science over the last half century has been astounding. In the area of therapeutic medicine alone, developments have been nothing short of miraculous. […] Life-support…
A Statement on the Jewish Future
Responding to the high rates of intermarriage and concerns about eroding Jewish life, the organized Jewish community has initiated a drive to ensure the Jewish future in North America. As Jewish…
It Is Up to Us
It is up to us
To hallow Creation,
To respond to Life
With the fullness of our lives.
It is up to us
To meet the World,
To embrace the Whole
Even as we wrestle
With its parts.
It is up to us
To…
Another Shipment of Wine
In the ninth year,
From Siptan, to Baalzamar:
A jar of aged wine
Translated by Anson F. Rainey from Shmuel Aḥituv’s Hebrew edition.
Mesha Inscription
I am Mesha son of Chemoshyat king of Moab, the Di-bonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years and I reigned after my father.
And I built this high place for Chemosh in the “citadel,” a high place…
The Meeting: A Jewish Youth and Two Women in an Urban Alley
The Meeting, Schulz’s only surviving oil painting, obliquely explores a theme he returned to many times in his writing and art, namely, sadomasochism, this time in the context of an encounter between…
Synagogue, Linnaeusstraat, Amsterdam
The Linnaeusstraat synagogue was built in the expressionist style of the Amsterdam School, a movement that flourished from 1910 to about 1930, which favored brick construction and copious decoration…