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.
Hester Street
Sol Libsohn co-founded The Photo League, a socially conscious photographers’ collective, around the time he took this photograph. It captures a moment in the daily life of the people of a tenement…
At the Restaurant
Though Benjamin-Eugène Fichel is better known for his historical paintings set in the eighteenth century, in this painting he documents modernity itself. Here a wealthy couple orders a meal in a…
Yellow Star and Swastika: A Story of Servitude
We learn upon waking that Admiral Esteva was brutally kidnapped during the night by some Germans who apparently forced him onto his plane.
A friend attached to Civil Defense, who was…
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…
Organic Thinking: A Study in Rabbinic Thought
Chapter I. IntroductoryI. The Problem of Coherence“There is (thus) a zone of insecurity in human affairs,” remarks William James in his essay on The Importance of Individuals, “in which all the…
The Opinion of the Torah: Illuminating the Present Jewish Condition According to the Light of the Torah
Written on the Occasion of the Ritual Slaughter Decree in Poland, 1936 [Parliament considered a bill to have animals killed by electricity, rather than by a knife, as required by Jewish law. The bill…
The Ban Pronounced against Greek Wisdom
Maimonides, the greatest Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages, was of the opinion that the principles and methods of metaphysics formed part of the traditional lore of the sages of the Mishnah and…
The Columbus Platform
In view of the changes that have taken place in the modern world and the consequent need of stating anew the teachings of Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis makes the following…
Excerpts from His Sacred Writings
54. There are two paths toward faith; one is the absolutely true one, and the other is the rational one. The latter changes in accordance with the times. There are occasions when, if there is some…
Jewish Badkhonim-Actors
Some decades ago Jewish badkhonim-actors [jesters] were still a very common phenomenon. Most of the time the badkhn was not only an entertainer improvising rhymes and funny sayings, but also an actor…
World History of the Jewish People
1. The Sociological Method of Jewish HistoriographyThis is a universal history of the Jewish people in that it fully corresponds to the contents and the scope of this extraordinary…
The Source of Our Belief
A Good Catholic must believe that the Pope is infallible. A good communist must believe that Stalin is never mistaken. A good Bundist can and ought to ask himself at all times whether his party…