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.
Cover for Peretz Markish’s Book of Poetry, Far folk un heymland (For People and Homeland)
The cover of Far folk un heymland features a red flag and Yiddish writing in which the letter qof has been stylized to resemble a hammer and sickle. The book was published when World War II was still…
East End, London
In 1950, when this photograph was taken, much of London’s East End was in ruins, the result of heavy bombing during World War II. Its glory days as a vibrant Jewish immigrant community were over, and…
E. O. W. Nude
E. O. W. Nude is considered one of Frank Auerbach’s masterpieces, an example of his distinctive painting style, which focused on the paint itself. The paint surface is thick enough to become almost…
La Kahena
The title of this painting, La Kahena, alludes to a seventh-century military Berber queen who opposed the Arab conquest of North Africa. Legend has it that she was Jewish and also a sorceress. The…
“Insist on yourself . . .” from the Series Great Ideas of Western Man
“Insist on yourself . . .” is from the series Great Ideas of Western Man, an innovative advertising campaign by the Container Corporation of America, which ran from 1950 to 1975. Its mission was to…
Latina, Southern Italy
Dorothy Bohm was known for her photographic still lifes, portraits, reportage, social documentary, and landscapes, such as this one, expressing her interest in capturing “poetic, mysterious…
Pages from My Life
[ . . . ] In time, I lost my shyness. I became a “big shot” in one of the Am Olam groups. In our debates it became clear to me that it was still a beautiful idea to start colonies in which we…
A History of the Jewish Labor Movement in Russia
During the nineteenth century the lives of Jews in Russia underwent enormous changes. In pre-reform times most Jews lived in villages and small towns. Most were engaged in trade and…
A Letter to Feffer
From other friends—poets, creators,
who are dear to me always,
I step away today,
Feffer,
and turn to you!
The battles still rage
on our literary planet
but it’s time to consider
the creative…
East End My Cradle
Anti-Semitism in my infancy, had its compensations, for being confined practically to children (I speak of anti-Semitism not as a subjective attitude but in its…
To My Friends
God’s grace has surely been overabundant.
Riches were mine. Hardly a day would pass
When human sympathy did not alight on me
Like manna from the sky.
I cupped my slender fingers to receive it
Ironic…
The Jewish Object: A Shopper’s Report
In the new religious revival, the theologians and philosophers have it easy; they can battle about the nature of revelation endlessly in the pages of Commentary. Parents and householders, on the other…