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.
Editor’s Apology: She’elot u-teshuvot Maharil
Thus said the editor [megihah], who bursts forth [megi’aḥ] in prostration from his place, and offers his greeting of peace with a bow and while kneeling. His labor is for all those who are wise of…
Introduction: Ladino Translation of the Bible
The Master of the Universe gave us the holy and blessed law so that we would enjoy l’olam haba [the world to come], so that we would know and see the light of eternal life. Study and a good…
Dod Mordekhay (Uncle of Mordechai)
Before we write the answers to the wise man’s questions we will cite the questions he posed in his writings, so that the answers can be positioned opposite the…
The Portrait of Susannah
Although a beautiful shock of golden hair swings across her forehead
And love finds nourishment in her eyes
The chaste Susannah never strays from the right path
And harbors not one thought without…
Sreyfe-lid (The Song about the Burning)
Nothing else makes me really rage
as when a poor man does something [wrong]
he is lost here and there
everyone would happily drink his blood.
But what the rich do here
is always all right
people let…
The Ass’s Complaint
Why is my back loaded with fine flour, while in my mouth there is no bread at all, but only straw? I drink well-water, though I carry wine. And the stick goes on fracturing my skull!
I live in rubble…
The Story of Amīnā and His Wife
Listen, my friends, pay attention!
Be silent, do not restrain me,
Nor say, “That fellow Amīānā’s been unfaithful,
His heart and tongue in two directions pull;
If not, why did he leave his native…
Europe
I have always backed off from the word.
In the Thirties Europe meant French. But was it only then? Not in earlier centuries? A bloody lesson learned that Europe was Balmazújváros as well as Notre…
IFF
Hate Hitler? No, I spared him hardly a thought.
But Corporal Irmin, first, and later on
The O.C.(Flying), Wing Commander Briggs,
And the station C.O. Group Captain Ormery—
Now there were men were…
The Vessel
I’m trying to pray; one of the voices of my mind says, “God, please help me do this,”
but another voice intervenes: “How conceive God’s interest would be to help you believe?”
Is this prayer? Might…
Washing the Streets of Holland
When I was twelve, I read The Diary of Anne Frank.
I identified with her having to live
stories above a busy street
over a business, and having to keep quiet
for hours at a time.
I’d pad about on…
Cake in Shape of Nude Female (Replica)
Cake mold in shape of nude female (replica), Cyprus, ca. 980–500 BCE. The mold, probably dating to the Iron Age II or a century later, emphasizes the nose, breasts, and genital region and likely would…