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.
Fall in Vilna
Yom Kippur, when the narrow alleys of the shulhoyf
cradle the small shtibls, pious and scared,
householders hurry with their taleisim
and old men shuffle along in their socks—
I feel the narrow…
A Joyful Mother of Children
I entitled this volume Em Habanim Semeḥah [Psalms 113:9], based on the Jerusalem tractate of Berakhot (toward the close of the second chapter) which portrays Erets Yisrael as the mother of Israel and…
In the Army
With evening a whistle. Again the sweating store room
opens its throat wide, and we march out in formation
worn down by the heat wave and a day so long:
hard working soldier-women.
And why should…
Half of Nothing
Antisemitism is not an Argentine disgrace; we did not invent it. Other countries preceded us. Not even the far-right Tacuara Nationalist Movement of the 1960s invented it. Before that, there was the…
Second Generation
Child of a lonely traveller
in a strange country
I live towards my doom
closed in a small tight room.
Closed in a small tight room
where whitehaired quiet ladies
claw the walls conspire in lies
and…
Like a Rolling Stone
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to…
Sheltered by a Crimson Awning . . .
Sheltered by a crimson awning,
All alone, his slaves dismissed,
A lord is bidding farewell fondly
To a black-browed odalisque.
“Sarah, houri of the prophet,
My sunshine, comfort, strength, delight…
Eleh divre ha-berit (These Are the Words of the Covenant)
These are the words of the covenant as a statute for Jacob, as an everlasting covenant for Israel; the Almighty spoke but once—and He will never alter His law—through the Torah and the ruling which…
Feast in Paradise, No. 2
In the early 1980s, Eshel-Gershuni began making what she called “fetishes” or “impossible jewelry,” transferring her skills as a jewelry-maker to sculpture. She combined expensive materials like gold…
A Time to Plant, a Time to Cast Away Stones
Rabinovitz’s sculptures are characterized by the use of minimal elements that are granted symbolic meaning through the text or title that accompanies them, commonly taken from the Bible or other…
Hanukkah Lamp. Unorthodox Menorah II
Otterson was first inspired to explore the multiple symbolic meanings of the menorah after a trip to Israel in the early 1990s. He made the branches of his reimagined Hanukkah menorah out of copper…
Gevurot ha-shem (Mighty Acts of the Lord): On Passover
And we may remove the [Seder] table, so that the young child should express wonder at why we are removing the table; for surely it would be appropriate to eat now that we are already leaning…