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.
Torah Finials
These Torah finials from Cochin, India, were made around 1565. Elegant and simple, crafted from metal, their surfaces appear to be hammered, with one adorned with a Hebrew inscription. The earliest…
Jewish Widow and Jewish Matron
This watercolor from the Gennadius Library’s Costume Album collection, in Athens, depicts two Jewish women—a widow (left) and a married woman (right)—in the colorful traditional attire of…
Torah Mantle
This Torah mantle, from about 1655, is embroidered with silk and gilt-silver thread and is richly decorated with curling, interlocking patterns. The crown dates from the middle of the nineteenth…
Gravestone of Abraham Cohen Pimentel
This gravestone is inscribed in memory of Abraham Cohen Pimentel, who served as rabbi of the Portuguese Synagogue (Esnoga) in Amsterdam, and also as hakham in the Hamburg synagogue. A student of Saul…
Spice Container
This ritual spice container is thought to have been made in Frankfurt am Main. It is decorated to represent a four-story tower with brick walls. At its top, two short spires flank a central, taller…
Oratorio Israelitico Synagogue, Casale Monferrato, Italy
This Piedmontese synagogue, built in 1595, is typical of many synagogues constructed in times and places where Jews did not want to call attention to themselves because of fear of persecution. From…
Torah Ark Curtain
This splendid Torah ark curtain, made in Kriegshaber, Germany, is the work of the embroiderer Elkana Schatz Naumberg of Fürth, whose name appears in an inscription in the central bottom section. It is…
Silver Cup
This silver-gilt cup is decorated with representations of the biblical patriarch Jacob’s twelve sons, each standing in his own separate archway with his Hebrew name inscribed underneath. This cup was…
Portrait of Court Jew with Ring
The identity of the sitter for Portrait of Court Jew with Ring is unknown. It is possible that the man in the picture is Jost Liebmann (also known as Juda Berlin), a Court Jew and jeweler in Berlin…
Torah Finials
These silver Torah finials are from Corfu and were made between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by an artist whose initials were A.Z. They were used in the Scuola Greca Synagogue, which…
Reader’s Desk
This wooden tevah—a stand or reader’s platform used for supporting Torah scrolls—was made and used in Yemen. It was the practice in Yemen for boys to become active participants in synagogue services…
Burial Society Pitcher and Shield
This pitcher from Nuremberg, Germany, was made around 1650. Cast in silver, the repoussé piece is finely traced and engraved with floral patterns. On its lid sits a shield engraved with a Hebrew…