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.
Portrait of Jacob Ries
Jacob Ries (1660–1751) of Prague first worked as a badchan (jester) for weddings. In 1710, he became court jester in Vienna under Charles VI. The artist of this portrait of Ries is not known. It…
Wedding Ceremony
Johann Christoph Georg Bodenschatz’s Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden, sonderlich derer in Deutschland (Religious Constitution of Today’s Jews, Especially Those in Germany), published in…
Interior of the Synagogue in Fürth
This print depicting a service in the synagogue in Fürth is from the beginning of the eighteenth century, a period of prosperity for the city’s Jewish community. There were between 350 and 400 Jewish…
Scroll of the Book of Esther
Moses ben Abraham Pescarol’s illuminated scroll of Esther, completed in Ferrara, constitutes one of the oldest and most unusual examples of illustrated manuscripts of this biblical book, which is…
Calendar Manual
Sifre ‘evronot—manuals for calculating the Jewish calendar, including leap years and holidays—were a popular genre of Ashkenazic illustrated manuscripts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries…
Torah Shield
This Torah shield was cast in silver in Hamburg, Germany. Partly gilt and adorned with precious stones, four crowns sit at its center, framed by symmetrical columns on either side that are encircled…
Flyer for Redeeming Captured Jews
This flyer calls for the Jewish community to pay a ransom to rescue Jewish captives from the 1686 siege of Buda, which resulted in the capture of the Hungarian city from the Ottoman Empire by armies…
Silver Purim Cup
On this silver Purim cup from Augsburg, Germany, a quotation from the Talmud (b. Megillah 7b) inscribed around the rim advises its bearer to drink in celebration of Purim until unable to distinguish…
Portrait of Issachar Baer Teller
The physician and surgeon Issachar Baer Teller received his medical training by studying and practicing with other physicians in Prague. He completed his studies under the guidance of Joseph Solomon…
Collection of Yiddish Stories from Southern Germany
This page is from a manuscript containing stories in Yiddish. It was copied and illustrated in Tannhausen, Germany between 1580 and 1600, for the Ulma family, who owned a number of important…
Cabbalistic Sphere
Cabbalistic Sphere, a sculpture made from polished aluminum, is one of Kaish’s many works inspired by ancient Jewish texts. Some of her works with spiritual and metaphysical themes are abstract…
Souls, Inc.
This poster was created for Komar and Melamid’s We Buy and Sell Souls, a conceptual art project the Soviet artists launched soon after their emigration to the United States. They formed a corporation…