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.
Book of Travels
The situation of Jews in the Soviet Union may well be the greatest of all the great wonders of the world. The history of Jews in tsarist Russia has been centuries of darkness…
To My Soldier Son
My precious heart, my handsome soldier son,
I write this letter with my blood to you.
Since you’ve had to take the Kaiser’s shilling
our world has turned red of a fiery hue.
The big decisive battle…
To the Readers (of Yerushalayim)
As I was completing the first volume of this book of ours, I was on my way to Vienna, and the late scholar, Mr. [Peretz] Smolenskin of blessed memory, in his desire to complete the printing, wrote…
Toward an Explanation of Our Ideology
Jewry, and religious Jewry in particular, has always attached prime importance to the rebuilding of Eretz Israel. The Hovevei Zion regarded it as a national duty; for the religious it was a divine…
The Mission of Ha-Shiloaḥ
In establishing this monthly periodical today, we believe that we are doing that which the times demand, its absence being felt by many.
We are not establishing a study house for sages who will sit…
Di yugend Editorial Statement
With this number, Di yugend passes into new hands—the hands of its writers.
It is no secret that Yiddish writers, especially young Yiddish writers—and most of the contributors to this monthly journal…
Halachah and Aggadah
But must we conclude—as many think—that Halachah and Aggadah are two irreconcilable opposites?
Those who so conclude are confusing accident and form with substance; as who should declare the ice and…
Resolution Favoring Zionism
A convention of Orthodox Congregations met in New York, Wednesday, June 8, 1898. A resolution favoring Zionism was adopted.The principles of the convention adopted are as follows:This Conference of…
In the Golden Land
Would you, mama, believe if I told
That everything here is changed into gold,
That gold is made from iron and blood,
Day and night, from iron and blood?
—My son, from a mother you cannot hide—
A…
Aftergrowth
Behold I have not plowed nor have I planted,
I have not prayed for the rain.
And suddenly, see! My fields have grown
Sun-blessed grain instead of thistle.
Is it the aftergrowth of ancient produce,…
Fallen Leaves
Words forsaken—fallen leaves,
Let the wind scatter you,
And let me forget you.
I will remain like a wintry tree
Behind closed eyes, still
And silent.
Both the night will cradle me, ay-lu,
And the…
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…