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.
Figurine of Male Deity
Figurine of Male Deity, Ugarit, Late Bronze Age, 1550 to 1200 BCE. Seven and a half inches tall (19 cm), this figurine probably once brandished a weapon in its raised hand. It is identifiable as a…
Hybrid Creature with Wings on Stone Relief
Hybrid creature with wings on stone relief, Carchemish, 9th century BCE. The creature has the body and head of a lion, an additional human head, and wings, paralleling some of the elements in Ezekiel…
Hybrid Creatures with Four Wings Supporting Deity in Persian Seal Impression
Hybrid creatures with four wings supporting deity in Persian seal impression, 6th or 5th century BCE. Biblical imagery and ancient Near Eastern iconography offer some parallels to the creatures…
Four Biblical Scenes
These four etchings were made by Rembrandt van Rijn for Menasseh Ben Israel’s book, Piedra Gloriosa (Glorious Stone), a messianic treatise. Clockwise from upper left, they illustrate the biblical…
The Wonder-Working Rabbi of Barcelona
During the weeks that Eleazar spent in pious contemplation in old Asia, the people of Barcelona took pains to persecute the Jews. It was they, once again, who made it hard for Spanish merchants to…
Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man
According to the colophon, Natan Hammerschlag’s Ilan de-adam kadmon (Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man) was copied from the writings of Ḥayim Vital, the most prominent disciple of Isaac Luria…
Monish
Life is like a river;we are fish.The water’s wholesome and freshand we would swim forever,but for a black figureon the riverbank.There Satan stands,in his handsa fishing rod,and catches fish.With a…
Todah w’simrah (Music of Thanksgiving)
For decades, my efforts have been directed at purifying the old modes [die alten Weisen]. Through [general] use and arbitrary treatment they have suffered tactless changes and distortions. I…
Printer’s Mark
The press of Solomon Proops was one of the most prolific and well-known Hebrew presses in eighteenth-century Europe. The printer’s mark used by Proops (which does not appear on all his works) depicts…
Jew of Lorraine
A depiction of a Jew from Lorraine, engraved by Sébastien Leclerc in Paris. The antisemitic inscription, which alludes to the Jewish man having acquired wealth by deceptive means, is a rhymed couplet…
Letter
In the name of the Lord:
My brothers and my friends, the inhabitants of Albanian Belgrade [Berat, Albania]: may all who are worthy merit seeing the salvation of the Lord. Hurry and send me the maḥzor…
Colophon: Zohar (Mantua Edition)
I will greatly thank the Lord with my mouth, and I will bless God in full assembles [see Psalms 68:27], for He has not forsaken His mercy and His truth from me [see Genesis 24:27], but has led me on…