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.
Scribes Writing Lists
Scribes writing lists, Nimrud, late eighth century BCE. Two Assyrian scribes, standing side by side, make lists of booty as it comes in. One writes on a clay tablet and the other writes on a scroll.
Who Shall Bear Guilt for the Holocaust?
A simple searing truth emerges from the vast body of research and writing on the Holocaust. It is that European Jewry was ground to dust between the twin millstones of a murderous Nazi intent and a…
The State of the Jews, 1982: Reflections on Jewish Normality, Agony and Glory
For two hundred years, Jews have obsessively sought to achieve two goals—the collective normality of the Jewish people, and the ability to control their own destiny. Since 1782, these goals have been…
Commandments and Concerns: Jewish Religious Education in Secular Society
This book deals with the problem of religion in contemporary Jewish education. It grew out of my thinking and teaching about Jewish education, which made me realize that religion is always on the…
Anti-Semitism on the Left
Like many of their Jewish assimilationist parents, many Jews who became active in the Left felt that the best way to deal with anti-Semitism was to convince themselves that if they showed they were…
Jewish Studies as Oppositional? Or Gettin’ Mighty Lonely Out Here
The proliferation of multicultural courses—not only at the University of Delaware, but across the country—forms a central part of what has come to be termed the “new academy.” By both broadening the…
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
Captain Wolfgang Hoffmann was a zealous executioner of Jews. As the commander of one of the three companies of Police Battalion 101, he and his fellow officers led their men, who were not SS men but…
Talking to Little Children about God
The main point is that, since we are all irremediably inadequate to know the essence of God’s nature, all names (attempts to capture the Divine essence) are metaphors.
We can encourage children to “do…
After Entebbe: Peace Remains to Be Rescued
To assess as commendable the courageous and spectacular life-saving mission implemented recently by Israeli commandos in Uganda would be to understate the case badly. The matchless daring and…
Eternity Utters a Day
The modern world never whispers. As I drive in my car, the shrill voice of the announcer, punctuated by the even more urgent voice of the commercial, demands attention. On each street corner…
Judean Spearman Depicted on Relief of Sennacherib
This panel, from a relief in Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh, complements Sennacherib’s statement, in the account of his campaign to Judah, that Hezekiah sent him “his elite troops (and) his best…