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.
Once I Was Young
Once I was young, hung out
in doorways, listening to Socrates.
My closest pal, my lover
Had the finest chest in Athens.
Then came Caesar, and a world
glittering with marble—I
the last to go. For my…
The Weeping of Generations
On the white garments of my great-grandfather
the cross of the middle ages flames anew.
My great-grandfather sits at the seder,
holding a staff from a wild almond tree
to rouse the forefathers.
Not…
Alphabet Letters
In the Bronx, in Brooklyn and in New York City,
My cousins all have stores.
Seven cousins with seven stores, like commandments.
Business people with long lists of going bankrupt.
And my family-name…
Escape from Freedom
We see that the process of growing human freedom has the same dialectic character that we have noticed in the process of individual growth. On the one hand it is a process of growing strength and…
A Short History of Israel, Notes and Glosses
A hundred generations, yes, a hundred and twenty-five,
had the strength each day
not to eat this and that (unclean!)
not to say this and that,
not to do this and that (unjust!),
and with all this…
Black Flakes
Snow has fallen, with no light. A month
has gone by now or two, since autumn in its monkish cowl
brought tidings my way, a leaf from Ukrainian slopes:
“Remember it’s wintry here too, for the…
To God in Europe
God, blood has overflowed the soul; among us, the weight of his killed kindred
lies heavy on the head of every living creature.
And it is Sinai, it is Nevo now.
As for the goyim…
God No Longer Speaks
God no longer speaks
as he did in the days of the Bible,
he no longer shines in the firecloud
over our roof.
Adam and Eve have run into the depths of the garden
from God’s unveiled presence,
as we—we…
Next Year
Come next year we shall sit on the porch
Count the birds flying north.
Children on holiday will play catch
Between the house and the meadow.
You will see, you will yet see
How good it will be
In…
Applause for Anne Frank
The Satisfied One:I am gratified by the success in Vienna of The Diary of Anne Frank. It is a harrowing play. And it…
The Chatham House Version
This appraisal of the west has remained Toynbee’s considered judgment. “In my eyes,” he states in the last volume of A Study of History, published in 1961, “the west is a…
Jewish Writings
During the period between the two wars, the relations between Jews and Muslims progressively altered. One can assign several causes to this unfortunate evolution.
One is the acceleration…