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.
About Autonomism: Decisions from the First Zionist Socialist Workers Party Congress
Recognizing, that any national political institution created on the basis of national autonomy in all its forms, is of value only to the extent that it answers a number of definite necessities—needs…
An Anti-Zionist Appeal from Istanbul
Nearly fifteen years ago, following frequent persecutions against our coreligionists in Russia and Romania, a few European Jews conceived of the project of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine and…
Why Do the Heathen Rage?
The latest attempt to salvage poor shipwrecked Judaism in America is on. The Menorah Journal summoned the doughtiest intellectuals to this heroic task. These came highly equipped with trenchant pen…
Responsa of Achiezer
[ . . . ] During the Middle Ages and the decrees of the year 5408 [1648], when our brethren the children of Israel believed with real faith in the Almighty and in His…
Will the Old Sephardim Welcome the New?
Everyone who passes among those numbered from twenty years old and upward shall give his tribute to the Lord.
. . . As we number the congregation and lament that the young do not always take the…
Speech: The Frank Tragedy, the Jews, and the Negroes
That Leo Frank was lynched primarily because he was a Jew has been asserted by the most serious, and best informed newspapers all over the country. A newspaper like the local Evening Post went so far…
Responsum: On Civil Marriage
Question: Whether in those marriages contracted under civil marriage law—without betrothal according to the rite of Moses and Israel—the woman can leave without a get [Jewish religious writ of divorce…
My Restlessness Is of a Wolf
My restlessness is of a wolf, and of a bear my rest,
Riot shouts in me, and boredom listens.
I am not what I want, I am not what I think,
I am the magician and I’m the magic-trick.
I am an ancient…
Sermon: On Freedom
Indeed, at a time when Israel was settled on their soil, in the land of Israel, the agricultural dimension of the holidays, their relation to the field, that is to say, their material aspect, was a…
Late Adar
Like the golden bangles on the arms of a Bedouin woman, the hills of Gilboa bind their bracelets about the valley of Jezreel in the golden hours of late Adar evenings. Then do the women go down to…
Secular Currents in the Synagogal Chant in America
The distinction between religious and secular music is not universally admitted. There is a considerable group of people, some of them very learned in the art and science of sound, who claim that…
Upon Your Nakedness a White Day Celebrates
Upon your nakedness a white day celebrates,
You who are [so] poor and so rich,
A wall of mountains has frozen,
Transparent like a deceptive vision,
Attached to the horizon.
Noon. The vastnesses of…