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 World Convention of YIVO (Yiddish Scientific Institute) upon the Tenth Anniversary of Its Founding
Professor Fishl Shneerson (Warsaw): Out of great respect for YIVO I…
Speech on the Opening of the Hebrew University, 1925
The prophet of consolation prophesied (Isaiah 60: 4–5): “Lift up your eyes and look about; they have all gathered and come to you. Your sons shall be brought from afar, your daughters like babes on…
German Jewish Parnassus
One hundred and odd years ago, the walls that imprisoned us Jews in a mental ghetto fell, torn down by Christian advocates of human rights who are assured of our eternal gratitude. After having been…
The Advocate
In his book Ha-metsaref [The Purifier], vol. II §182, Rabbi Moses Kunitz wrote:
The term am ha-arets [lit., “People of the Land,” often meaning boors] was applied to people of various dispositions…
Sermon: On the Secularization and Degradation of Iraqi Jewry
[ . . . ] But before we come to analyze the dreadful calamity [i.e., the drought] that has befallen us, and before we come to see what is the putrid humor harbored in our midst…
Daughter of Babylon
Return to your ancient past
Aid your sister with education and culture
And people of Israel will once more be a nation.
Awake, daughter of Babylon, mother of knowledge
Take up in your hand the pen…
My Heart Is with Your Dews, Homeland
My heart is with your dews, homeland,
At night, above fields of nettles
And to the scent of cypresses and wet thistle
A hidden wing shall I spread out.
Soft sand-cradles are your roads
Spread out…
Women-Poems I, II, VI
The women of our family will come to me in dreams at night and say:
Modestly we carried a pure blood across generations,
Bringing it to you like well-guarded wine from the kosher
Cellars of our…
The National Movement
Arise, shine, for thy light is come,
Shake thyself from the dust
Unlock the lock on your neck
Be saved from your enemy.
Awaken, get out of thy exile
Rise up from your degradation
Wake up from your…
Stalinstan
Stalinstan,
Stalinstan,
Who is present and on hand
From the Party,
From the Union?
Who was on his way
Somewhere else today,
When a chain of men caught him
And then brought him
To…
A White Poet
For H. Leyvik
New York.
A white poet stood on the hundred-and-fourth floor.
The sky and an iron city
Engaged in a conversation.
A thirsty “forever” marched on
In bewildered
Disorganization.
New York…
Things
From Hoza Street and Marszalkowska
carts were moving, Jewish carts:
furniture, tables and chairs,
suitcases, bundles
and chests, boxes and bedding,
suits and portraits,
pots, linen and wall…