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.
Italian Synagogue, Conegliano Veneto, Italy
This exquisite synagogue, with Rococo gold wooden detailing, was originally located in in the village of Conegliano Veneto. Built in the sixteenth century, it was subsequently reassembled by the…
Gravestone of Menahem Ventura
This tombstone for Menahem Ventura, son of Abraham Ventura, is one of only four that have survived from the Jewish cemetery in Bologna. (After the entire Jewish community was expelled from this town…
The Jewish Cemetery at Ouderkerk
The Jewish Cemetery at Ouderkerk is one of Jacob van Ruisdael’s better-known works. Purchased for use by the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in Amsterdam in 1641, the cemetery holds twenty…
Three Representatives of the Prague Burial Society
Three representatives of the Prague Burial Society in the 1730s are pictured in these portraits: Jonas Jeitteles (1735–1806, the community’s official physician), Rabbi Leib Fayvel Dayan (another…
Persian Carpet
This Persian carpet, manufactured between 1600 and 1630, was later used for a reader’s desk and desk cover in the Portuguese Synagogue in The Hague, Netherlands.
Lo Tishkach (Thou Shalt Not Forget)
Berman’s best-known work is her Holocaust memorial for the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island in Washington State. The twelve-foot-high bronze sculpture consists of stylized Hebrew…
I Hate the Name Kenneth
Abraham from Odessa changed his name. He had to if he wanted to get ahead at Ford where he got a job painting stripes on Model Ts. Fifty years later Albert retired, a vice-president in the tractor…
Pond (55)
In 2000, Cohen Levy had an exhibition, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, of a series of paintings of ponds. Each of the paintings has a pattern: a single image, such as leaves, eyes, or fish, which is…
Yeven metsulah (Abyss of Despair)
The Oppressor Chmiel, may his name be blotted out, heard that many Jews had gathered in the holy community of Nemirow, and that they had a great deal of…
Sheloshah perushim (Three Commentaries) on the Song of Songs: Story of His Exile
R. Isaac ben Abraham ben Judah ‘Akrish, may he rest in peace, from exile in Spain and Naples, said that he would not receive the proud waters [of baptism; see Psalms 124:5], and was driven out…
Account of a Vision
Listen carefully to my words. When I was in the land of Safed, one night, when the sun had set, I was tired and weary, lying on my bed. I was asleep, but my heart was awake; my beloved was knocking…
Last Will and Testament
In the year fifteen hundred and forty-nine, the seventh indiction, the first day of the month of February, during the time of the pontificate of the Holy Father in Christ Our Lord, Lord Paul III, pope…