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.
Tombstone of son of Ephraim Cohen
Tombstone of a son of Ephraim Cohen, who was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Cochin, India. The first Jewish communities in Cochin were established as early as 1000 CE, and legends claim that Jews were…
Tombstone of Mordechai Franco Mendes and His Wife Sara Franco Mendes
This gravestone in the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Netherlands (est. 1614), that of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam, is inscribed in memory of Mordechai Franco Mendes (d…
Tombstone of Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen
Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen (ca. 1670–1749) was a rabbi in Altona. His gravestone bears a relief of open books and is inscribed with the titles of his works, each playing on a scriptural phrase involving…
Tombstone of Mordechai Margaliot
Moses Mordechai Margaliot (d. 1617) was a member of a family descended from the illustrious medieval scholar Rashi. Margaliot served as a rabbi in Kraków. He was buried in the cemetery of the Rema…
Tombstone of Samson Wertheimer
Samson Wertheimer (1658–1724) was the chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, a court Jew, and Habsburg financier. His grave in the Viennese Seegasse cemetery is marked with an elaborately decorated…
Tombstone of Judah Loew and His Wife Pearl
The gravestone of Judah Loew (known as the Maharal) and his wife, Pearl (1528–1610) is located in the Old Jewish Cemetery of the Jewish quarter in Prague. A prominent scholar and kabbalist, the…
Tombstone 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…
Tombstone Inscriptions (Curaçao)
Italics indicate that the text was written in Hebrew, not Portuguese.
Tombstone 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…
Tombstone 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…
Tombstone of Manuel Levy Ximenes Belmonte and Esther de Pinto
Manuel Levy Ximenes Belmonte (1729) and Esther de Pinto (1741)
Tombstone of Abraham Pereira d’Azevedo
The first Jewish community was established in Kingston, Jamaica by refugees from Spain and Portugal after 1492. This tombstone in the cemetery of She‘are Shalom Synagogue marks the grave of Abraham…