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.
Self-Portrait
Chaim Soutine’s self-portrait is both an homage to art history and a critique of it. There was a long tradition of artists painting themselves facing an easel, holding a palette and paint brushes. But…
Sha‘ar Hashamayim Synagogue Dome
When it was first built, the Sha‘ar Hashamayim (Gate of Heaven) Synagogue in Cairo was the largest building on the boulevard where it still stands. Built to resemble what was imagined to be the design…
Judean Spearman Depicted on Relief of Sennacherib
This panel, from a relief in Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh, complements Sennacherib’s statement, in the account of his campaign to Judah, that Hezekiah sent him “his elite troops (and) his best…
Metropolis No. 2
This painting dates to the early years of Walkowitz’s career, when he frequently painted New York cityscapes. Walkowitz’s cubist style was well suited to capturing the skyscrapers, elevated trains…
Aniska
Shterenberg is famous for a series of paintings he did in 1917 and 1918, which are sometimes known as “hungry still lives.” A single object, such as a herring or a loaf of bread, is the focus of the…
Samson and Delilah
Cover of the Yiddish satirical newspaper Der groyser kundes: A zhurnal far humor, vitz un satire (July 12, 1912), with a cartoon by Lola (Leon Israel). Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson is portrayed…
Reform Synagogue, Plauen
This modern synagogue in Plauen (in the Saxony region) was one of the few synagogues built in Germany in the economically turbulent years of the Weimar Republic. Jews and non-Jews contributed funds…
The Two Camps
Michael began to visit that house.
At first he did so only occasionally, but later he began to come every day, in the afternoon or early evening. At first, he intended to arrive just when…
The Road into the Open
“As you see me, I’m on my way to Corfu . . . for the present. The season begins before times become intolerable for me at the Ehrenberg house.”
“No one is demanding,” replied Frau Ehrenberg gently,…
And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight
Menashe Chaim rends his life, and she remains another’s wife. A man holds the keys to his fate in his hand, and a parable sublime and grand. His broken thoughts stumble as death draws near…
The Honors Student
No, Anton Wanzl was not good. He lacked love, he lacked heart. He did only what he thought was clever and sensible. He gave no love and asked for none. He never needed any affection, any tenderness…
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum complex was designed to harmonize with its surroundings. Its low, flat-roofed buildings with facings of Jerusalem limestone were intended to resemble an Arab village on a hilltop…