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.
Satan in Goray
It was Rabbi Benish’s practice to say his afternoon and evening prayers by himself in his study. When the news reached his ears he hurried to the prayer house. But it…
Sefer luḥot edut (Tablets of Testimony)
For it is not against me that these men have sinned, for what am I and what is my life? My days have passed like a transient shadow, and fly away as does a dream—like a dream upon…
Response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting. The old Inquisition had its rack and…
Don Carlos at the Turn of the Century
Karle:Who is coming? What do I hear! God Almighty![Markwitz standing in the door.]Markwitz, tall, thin appearance. Threadbare elegance of the nineties. He is, without a doubt, a…
The Bible View of Slavery
A Civil War–era Jewish leader defends the institution of slavery in the South based on his reading of the Hebrew Bible.
Oppression and Exodus
From movies to civil-rights movements, the Exodus stands at the center of Western thought and culture. You will still be surprised by what is, and what isn’t, in the account.
The Shohet (from “Had Gadya”)
The violence of the Passover song “Had Gadya” (“Who Knows One”) clearly spoke to this illustrator’s sense of horror following World War I.
Purim Eve, a One-Act Comedy
Cast [in this passage]Abraham Levi: Rich merchantAneta: Abraham Levi’s wifeMax, Yosef, and Aron: Abraham and Aneta Levi’s sonsFrida and Klerchen: Abraham and Aneta Levi’s daughtersShmuel Natan: Zionis…
Response to “A Bible View of Slavery”
On the eve of the Civil War, a Southern rabbi explains why the Jewish tradition requires an antislavery position. His congregants disagree vehemently with his stance.
Miriam’s Song
What if Miriam were remembered just as a person rescuing her brother Moses rather than as the heroine responsible for saving the man who would redeem the Jewish people from bondage?
Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood
This excerpt from Kate Simon’s Bronx Primitive: Portraits in Childhood explores the controversial and secretive decision many immigrant women made to get an abortions, and the means of obtaining one.