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.
Tańczący chasydzi (Dancing Hasidim), ca. 1875
Sympathetic or even neutral artistic depictions of Hasidic Jews in the nineteenth century are rare. This sketch of Hasidic Jews dancing is one example. Hasidism is known for ecstatic prayer, and…
Portrait of Rahel Levin Varnhagen
The influence of Rahel Levin Varnhagen (1771-1833) on German culture owed much to the salon society of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Hostess of a noted salon in Berlin, she was…
Portrait of R. Akiva Eger
Born in Eisenstadt (in Burgenland) and educated in Mattersdorf and Breslau, Akiva Eger was a prominent rabbinic and halakhic leader. After living in Lissa, Prussia, he served as rabbi in Märkisch…
Cover of Kol tefila ve-kol zimra
This manuscript copy of a prayer book, containing prayers and hymns for the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, was written out by David Mendes Franco. It shows David dancing before God and his…
Dictionary of Maritime Terms
This dictionary of maritime terms, a hand-written manuscript, includes definitions in Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
Title Page of the Register of a Jewish Midwife
This detailed bilingual Hebrew-Yiddish register kept by Roza, a Jewish midwife in the Jewish community of the Dutch city of Groningen in the years from 1794 to 1832, provides basic information about…
Promissory Note on Clay Tablet
Promissory note on clay tablet, Judahtown, Babylonia, 550 BCE. This promissory note, written in cuneiform script, has an endorsement by the debtor (named Shelemiah), written on the lower edge, in West…
City Plan Incised on Clay Tablet
City plan incised on clay tablet, Babylonia. The command in Ezekiel 4:1 to “incise Jerusalem” on a brick may have meant to incise a map of it, like this map of the Babylonian city Nippur (near where…
Destruction of City and Capture of Inhabitants in Assyrian Relief
Destruction of city and capture of inhabitants in Assyrian relief, from the palace of Assurbanipal (reigned 669–627 BCE), Nineveh. Assyrian soldiers destroy and burn the Elamite royal city, with…
Hittite Couple Sacrificing to Bull
Hittite couple sacrificing to bull, Alaça Hüyük, Turkey. In this relief, a king and queen, or perhaps a priest and priestess, stand at an altar and make an offering before a bull. On the symbolism of…
Hybrid Creatures with Four Wings Supporting Deity in Persian Seal Impression
Hybrid creatures with four wings supporting deity in Persian seal impression, 6th or 5th century BCE. Biblical imagery and ancient Near Eastern iconography offer some parallels to the creatures…
Philistine (?), "Asiatics," and Other Captives
Philistine (?), “Asiatics,” and other captives, Medinet-Habu, Egypt, 12th century BCE. The relief depicts captives of Ramses III (reigned 1187–1156 BCE). The second man from the right is one of the…