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.
Lev avot (Heart of the Fathers)
Simeon ben Shetaḥ would say: You should cross-examine the witnesses extensively, and take care with your words, lest they learn how to lie from them [m. Avot 1:9].
Solomon ha-Levi explained: The…
Regimiento de la vida (Regimen of Living)
The rule of the aforementioned fifth and sixth items, which concern going to bed and rising. It is stated and summarized from what has been said in the past, that sleep being so harmful…
‘Eser she’elot (Ten Questions)
Are we who are in this exile the people of Israel, that is, the worshipers of the God of Israel . . . essentially . . . or in . . . name only? . . . For it seems to me that we are not the people of…
Hana’s Suitcase: A True Story
Ever since she had sent the letter to Toronto, Fumiko had been a bundle of nerves. Would George Brady write back? Will he help us to know Hana? Even the letter carrier who…
Republican Citizenship and Jewish Uniqueness
Political modernity, by making the varied dimensions of existence automatic and, in particular, by separating the political from the religious, posed the problem of Jewish identity in a dramatic…
The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State
Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual, and political life. Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and…
Seeking the Jewish Tradition
Is the Jewish tradition inherently liberal or inherently conservative? The answer to this much-debated question is quite simple: yes.
Which is to say that if by “the Jewish tradition” we mean what is…
When Bad Things Happen to Good People
There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people? All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting; somewhat like…
It Is Up to Us
It is up to us
To hallow Creation,
To respond to Life
With the fullness of our lives.
It is up to us
To meet the World,
To embrace the Whole
Even as we wrestle
With its parts.
It is up to us
To…
John the Baptist
The young Jewish intellectuals of Barcinski’s generation were interested in pushing boundaries, including by employing Christian imagery, as Barcinski did in this portrait of John the Baptist. The…
Self-Portrait
In the interwar period, Liebermann’s portraits were highly sought after by the wealthy. He also produced many self-portraits. This one, painted when he was in his seventies, portrays him as a self…
Evening in the City of London
Evening in the City of London was one of several charcoal drawings that David Bomberg made during World War II when he was a firewatcher in London. The city was regularly bombed by the Germans and…