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.
Shtetl
The shtetl, lost here among Polish fields and groves, might be called Turek or Przasnysz, Konin or Maków, yet what one remembers is not the name but the old marketplace reeking of tar and dung where a…
Heart of a Wife: The Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman
D-Day at last. The invasion started about 1 a.m., and I have been listening to the radio since 8. My first reaction, and I’m sure everyone else’s—“Thank God, and God keep…
Suite Française
Madame Perrin told them that her son had died a hero’s death in Normandy as the Germans advanced; she had received permission to visit his grave. She complained at great length about the cost of this…
Insult
Jew, you’ve yelled at him, seething with rage.
Jew, you’ve yelled at him, seeking to shame him.
Jew, no better word can you find to defame him.
Jew, no better word to vent your disdain.
For him it…
The Martyrdom of the 93 Beit Ya‘akov Girls
We cleansed our bodies and we are pure,
We cleansed our spirits and are at peace.
Death does not frighten us,
We shall meet it calmly.
We served God with…
How?
How and with what will you fill
Your cup on the day you’re free?
Will you in your joy still
Hear the scream of the past
Where the skulls of chained days
Clot in bottomless pits?
Searching…
The Legacy of German Jewry
German Jewry proved itself to be one of the most deeply characteristic and in every important respect fundamental representatives of the West, proving its mettle as partner in its two-thousand-year…
Jewish Education in the Land of Islam
“If the majority of Jews in Berber territory speak Arabic as their native language and use Spanish when doing business, their main concern is that Hebrew be the…
Family Sayings
After the war the world seemed vast, unknowable and boundless. However, my mother went back to living in the world as best she could, happily, for she had a happy nature. Her spirit could never grow…
Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve
When breakfast was over, I had to go to the synagogue, rain or shine, for it was Saturday morning. I used to sit next to Bernard and Simon. We would wear our skull caps and whisper to each other…
Urn
This urn will be made of fired clay
Of native soil, from Poland, my country
In it are lodged the ashes of my parents
My brothers, daughter, and wife.
The urn will be simple, like a jug
With a small…
The Teaching of Torah to Women
Gentlemen! This Shabbat, with God’s help, I decided to continue in the interpretation of the article by the blessed teacher Rabbi Meir, may his merit protect us, amen, who said that “whoever is…