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.
Passover Set
This wood, glass, and metal Passover set, meant to hold the ritual foods used in the Passover seder, is strikingly modern. Inspired by the principles of the Bauhaus, it strives for functionality and…
Isaac Babel
Isaac Babel (1894–1940) is considered one of the greatest writers of the Soviet Union. He was one of the many celebrities that Nappelbaum photographed in his long career as a portrait photographer…
Coney Island Beach
Weegee, known for his boundless energy and the wildly diverse subject matter to which he was attracted as a photographer, shot this photograph on a hot Saturday in July 1940 for the left-wing tabloid…
Cover for Peretz Markish’s Book of Poetry, Far folk un heymland (For People and Homeland)
The cover of Far folk un heymland features a red flag and Yiddish writing in which the letter qof has been stylized to resemble a hammer and sickle. The book was published when World War II was still…
East End, London
In 1950, when this photograph was taken, much of London’s East End was in ruins, the result of heavy bombing during World War II. Its glory days as a vibrant Jewish immigrant community were over, and…
E. O. W. Nude
E. O. W. Nude is considered one of Frank Auerbach’s masterpieces, an example of his distinctive painting style, which focused on the paint itself. The paint surface is thick enough to become almost…
La Kahena
The title of this painting, La Kahena, alludes to a seventh-century military Berber queen who opposed the Arab conquest of North Africa. Legend has it that she was Jewish and also a sorceress. The…
“Insist on yourself . . .” from the Series Great Ideas of Western Man
“Insist on yourself . . .” is from the series Great Ideas of Western Man, an innovative advertising campaign by the Container Corporation of America, which ran from 1950 to 1975. Its mission was to…
Latina, Southern Italy
Dorothy Bohm was known for her photographic still lifes, portraits, reportage, social documentary, and landscapes, such as this one, expressing her interest in capturing “poetic, mysterious…
Huppah
This glimpse into an eighteenth-century German Jewish marriage ceremony offers an opportunity to consider how gender roles have changed for this vital ritual.
Torah Ark Curtain
This Torah ark curtain from Gördes, Turkey, features an archway flanked on either side with double columns and a hanging lamp, a motif common to both Islamic prayer rugs and mats and Ottoman Torah ark…
Assimilation and Anti-Semitism
When an intimidated individual or a careerist among my brethren feels inclined or forced to identify himself as a son of his forefathers, then he usually describes himself—provided he was not baptized…