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.
Harlem Holocaust
But all this came to an end one night. In almost every one of his novels, Warszawski retells the scene in the winter of 1944 when he came home at three o’clock in the morning, after a night of dancing…
Happy Times, Brittle World
Leo was planning to ask his father for money to get his car fixed, perhaps as a birthday present, even though he was sure his parents already had a present for him. Since the family’s return to Vienna…
Ghost Stories
Superimposed upon my face in the mirror is my mother’s. I am about to comb my hair, but here she is, brushing hers, her thick, wavy, white hair.
We quarrelled about hair.
“D…
San Remo Drive
Would you state your name for the record? a voice intoned.
Even before our father could reply, Bartie said, “Look, it’s Daddy.”
“Sure enough,” said Arthur. “It’s Mister Norman. On the television from…
Nokh Aushvits (After Auschwitz)
the poem is ugly & they make it uglier
wherein the power resides
that duncan did—or didn’t—understand
when listening that evening to the other poet read
he said “that was pure ugliness” & oh it was
i…
Impaled Corpses at Lachish
Impaled corpses at Lachish, detail from Assyrian relief in the Nineveh palace of Sennacherib (reigned 705–681 BCE), depicting the conquest of Lachish in 701 BCE. For the full relief see Conquest of…
Departures
I wasn’t a very political adolescent. I had grown up surrounded by unexplained cautions, by ellipses, and all these silences had sealed off the public world, so that I didn’t really believe in it…
Model Shrine from Khirbet Keiyafa
This limestone model of a shrine, around 8 inches wide, 10 inches long, and 14 inches high (20 cm × 25 cm × 35 cm), was painted red. The façade features a triple-recessed door frame, above which is a…
On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language
[…] [I]f suddenly Mexico and Israel went to war, on which side would I fight? My cowardly answer was plain and simple: “I really wasn’t cut out to be a soldier. So on neither one, since I’m a pacifist…
Ivory-openwork Panel with a Battle between a Wild Bull and a Lion
The battle between a wild bull and a lion, which are among the most powerful animals, is a common theme in ancient Near Eastern art. In this panel from Samaria, the lion’s claws are embedded in the…
The Night of the Twentieth
Moshe:How? There’s no inner sanctum in my life, my life is secular, absolutely secular, from beginning to end. And what’s not in my psyche, I’ll not let you erect between us. Neither you nor anyone…