
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.
Farewell, You Cheerful Folk of France
Farewell, you cheerful folk of France,
My brethren’s merry throng,
A foolish nostalgia drives me hence,
I’ll be back, though, before long.
Imagine—I yearn beyond belief
For the smell of heather and…

Jude
Cherkassky’s gold Star of David with the word “Jude” in its center was displayed in Collectio Judaica at the Rosenfeld Gallery in 2003. It was the artist’s first major solo exhibition. The theme of…
Human Follies: For Sukkot
Human follies, silver and gold and possessions,
Last only shortly on earth, and like flies, they fly away.
Wealth flowers like abundant grain, or like a tree’s boughs,
It bears recognizable fruit…
Discursos predicables y avisos espirituales (Preaching Discourses and Spiritual Advice)
God created man so that man might know His majesty, which is the highest good: knowing Him, being able to love Him, and loving Him, being able to possess…
Bliss
We shall live in the shade of the graceful doe and, living there, shall be sustained. We shall walk through darkness by her light, with never-ending joy. When she laughs, we will burst into song; when…
After the Vision
How can I hew out a song when the hammer of my senses is coated with rust? How can I play the lute when my hand is ensnared in fetters of fear? For my heart has entered the gazelle’s paved [palace]…
The Innkeeper’s Love Song
O you paragon of glory and grace, listen to the call of Papos and his cry! He is bellowing like a bull, braying at you like a donkey, for you are his cow and his she-ass. His heart is already parched…
Ballad of Repentance
Dedicated to the Great Lord of Hosts.
Supreme and merciful God,
my affection to Your lofty and just compassion
dedicates to You today
the exordia of my muse.
Protect, immense Lord,
my coarse and…
Hear O Israel
When we were the persecuted
I was one of you
How can I remain one
when you become the persecutors?
Your longing was
to become like other nations
who murdered you
Now you have become like them
You…
For Ethel Rosenberg
convicted, with her husband,
of “conspiracy to commit
espionage”; killed in the
electric chair June 19, 1953

Hybrid Creatures with Six Wings
Hybrid creatures with six wings, Syria, 10th or 9th century BCE. Numerous hybrid creatures, often winged, that combined features of various animals, are known from ancient art. Another example is the…
Lamentation of the Borderguard
I do not want to be a borderguard, said the borderguard.
I don’t want to be a bodyguard.
I don’t want to be a guardian angel.
I don’t want to be a guide.
I want not to be a grinder.
I don’t want to…