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.
He Cast a Look and Went Mad
He Cast a Look and Went Mad depicts traditional East European Jews in some sort of religious setting but invokes in its title the classic talmudic legend of the sage who “looked and was injured” when…
Relying on Humans Versus Relying on God
Thus said the Lord:
Cursed is he who trusts in man,
Who makes mere flesh his strength,
And turns his thoughts from the Lord.
He shall be like a bushin the desert,
Which does not sense the coming…
Mortality
Though Jacob Steinhardt came to be best known for his woodcuts depicting biblical and Jewish subjects, this print, made during World War I, evokes the horrors he witnessed on the battlefield. Much of…
Messages between the Opponents of the Jews and Nehemiah
When word reached Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a breach remained in it—though at that time I had not yet set up doors in the…
Amazone (bronze)
The woman depicted in Amazone is believed to be Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972), an American writer, lesbian, and feminist who hosted a literary salon in Paris. She was one of several women whom…
David’s Heroic Warriors
This is the list of David’s warriors: Jashobeam son of Hachmoni, the chief officer; he wielded his spear against three hundred and slew them all on one occasion. Next to him was Eleazar son of…
Wertheim Department Store (Interior)
The façade of the massive Warenhaus Wertheim had rows of narrow pillars extending from the ground floor to the roof and was a showpiece of early twentieth-century Berlin. The interior looked more like…
Men’s Names and Titles from the City of David
Amo]s son of Ahiel, the rag shredder
. . . ya]hu son of Hasadyahu, the sil[ver] collector
. . . ]yahu [son of Ye]dayahu the [silver] collector
Translated by Anson F. Rainey from Shmuel Aḥituv’s…
Bezalel Student as Ruth the Moabite
Ben-Dov was the founder of the photography department in the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. This photograph of an art student posing as the biblical Ruth is faithful to the Bezalel mission to…
Sample from “Besszer” Calendar: Foreigners in Budapest
This text was produced under Ágai’s pseudonym, Mokany Berczi.
Safed
Zaritsky was a member of what is known as the Land of Israel movement, a group of artists who, in the 1920s, drew on the ideas and practices of post-impressionism to create a modern art of Jewish…
Almanac for the Year 5675
This calendar, Almanac for the Year 5675: Souvenir der Hochschule Bar Iochai und Altenhaus in Miron, was probably a fundraising giveaway for an old-age home and for the high school that Eliezer Ya…