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.
Synagogue (Bechhofen, Germany)
The Bechhofen Synagogue (built in 1685) is believed to have been the largest wooden synagogue in Germany. The interior of the synagogue was painted with lavish decorations in 1732 and 1733, in typical…
Horb Synagogue (Horb am Main, Germany)
The interior of the wooden Horb synagogue (completed in 1735) is richly decorated in typical East European style, which artist Eliezer Zusman, originally from Brody, introduced to southern Germany…
Scuola Grande Tedesca (Venice)
The Scuola Grande Tedesca is the oldest of five synagogues in the Venetian ghetto and was built in 1528 by the local Ashkenazic community. Although only its five windows are visible from the street…
Sephardic Synagogue (Pesaro, Italy)
Home to a Jewish community from at least the thirteenth century, Pesaro later became the refuge of Portuguese and Spanish Jews in the sixteenth century. In 1642, a few years after the town’s Jews were…
Paradesi Synagogue (Cochin, India)
Built in 1568, the Paradesi Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in India, as well as in the entire British Commonwealth. The land on which it was built was a gift from the Rajah of Cochin, Paraja, so…
Illustrations from Sefer minhagim (Book of Customs)
These woodcuts appeared in Sefer minhagim (Book of Customs), a very popular Yiddish book published by Giovanni di Gara, the leading publisher of Jewish books in Venice from 1564 to 1609. It was the…
Menaḥem Egozi’s Gal shel egozim (Nut Garden)
This book was printed in Belvedere, outside Constantinople, by Reina Nasi, the daughter of Gracia Nasi, and widow of Joseph. She was the first Jewish woman to establish her own press.
Gravestone of Mordecai Hezekiah Namias de Crasto (replica)
In reference to the deceased’s name, the central verse fragment on this monument reads “And Mordechai came before the king . . .” (Esther 8:1), and the top panel contains a low relief of a richly clad…
Gravestone of Rachel Pereira
Rachel Soares Pereira, who died in 1721 at the age of twenty-four, was married to Isaac Pereira. Floral motifs decorate the top of her gravestone, while the bottom panel contains a relief of a hand…
Torah Crown
This copper Torah crown was made in Bolzano, Italy. An excellent repoussé piece, its delicate pierced and traced decorations are adorned with floral arrangements of leaves and vines. The shape of this…
Torah Finials
These small Torah finials, decorated with silver repoussé and dark and light blue enamel, originated in Persia. They are further adorned with slender flowers and graceful geometric patterns.
Astronomical Illustration
This diagram of the cosmos is from a treatise on astronomy, Sefer mareh ha-ofanim (The Appearance of the Heavenly Beings), by Solomon ben Abraham Avigdor. The treatise was mostly a translation of…