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.
The Year of Abundance
God relented. And the whispered prayers of the toiler returned not empty, and the tears of the sower reached to heaven.
With great, with manifold mercy the windows of heaven were flung open, flung…
Call It Sleep
Another week had passed. The two men had just gone off together. With something of an annoyed laugh, his mother went to the door and stood fingering the catch of the lock. Finally she lifted it…
Boitre
Arn-Wolf—parnes khoydesh (chairman of the kahal, the community council)Beyle—his wifeStere—his daughterRabbiFirst and Second Dayen (judges of the bes din…
The Family Mashber
The city of N. is built in three rings. First ring: the marketplace at the very center. Second: surrounding the market, the great city proper with its many houses, streets, byways, back…
History of the House of David
The sultan thought for a moment and said, “I know, Jew, that your heart is not devoid of intelligence. After all, you want to live a long life in your household with your children. So, do not…
A Jewish Oud Player Entertains for Ramadan
There will be a concert of an excellent music ensemble at the Aynalı Gazino next to Taksim Garden in Beyoğlu, from the first day of the holy Ramadan Feast and every Friday, Saturday…
Porke no? (Can a Sephardic-Ashkenazic Romance Survive? A Russian Jewish Woman in New York Seeks Advice)
To the editor of La Bos del Pueblo:
I am a Jewish girl born in Russia who came to America eight years ago. Although I am not remarkably well-educated, I have always wanted to marry a well-educated boy…
Introduction to the Projected Anthology Auschwitz
All of us—dying here in polar, ice-cold indifference of nations, forgotten by the world and its hustle and bustle—have nonetheless felt the need to leave something for posterity: if not complete…
Trip Home
It was close to Passover. In the house, Passover was already present. But Father was not in a holiday mood. He looked at nobody and even his appearance changed. A yellow cast covered his face.
He had…
Father and Son
Now in the suburbs and the falling light
I followed him, and now down sandy road
Whiter than bone-dust, through the sweet
Curdle of fields, where the plums
Dropped with their load of ripeness, one by…
Essays on the Stories of Shai Agnon
In S. Y. Agnon’s comprehensive literary project, we must also see A Guest for the Night as an epic expansion on one central subject, whose tones burst out and rise from most of…
House of Dolls
[ . . . ] There are moments when the pile of worn clothing in the center of the rag room bestirs itself suddenly like a volcano and sends a pervasive fear throughout the large room. The…