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.
The little lightning bolt of Yemen
The little lightning bolt of Yemen flashed, despite the overwhelming darkness,
Spurring on sheets of dewy rain to the joy of mankind,
The rivers of Paradise are streams, watering the roses and the…
Linen with Colored Wool Decoration
Fragment of beige linen material with blue linear embellishment and added red wool, from Kuntillet Ajrud. The dyes are from vegetal sources, the blue from indigo and the red from alizarin. Textiles…
Kitchen Judaism
Kashruth was not only redefined but repositioned as a growing number of American Jews restricted its observance to the home. The new geography of kashruth promoted a more flexible approach toward…
Building a Community of Torah and Tzedek
If being Jewish is to regain its meaning for Jews today, the Jewish community must be transformed. While it’s impossible to “know” the exact shape the new paradigm will take, we must begin, with…
Modeh Ani
Thank you, Lord, for having me awaken
to become a witness to the flaming of the sun.
Someone gently shook me from my bed
as I was somewhere in a dream
of visiting Jerusalem again.
And I walked (still…
Eternal Wanderers
At first Eternal Wanderers seems like an abstract assemblage of colorful shapes. A closer look, however, reveals a group of people, young and old, with mask-like faces, teetering on tilting ground…
Costume Design for Dovid Bergelson’s The Deaf One
In the wake of the Russian Revolution and the lifting of restrictions on Jewish publishing, Jewish theater companies revolutionized theater and scene design and experimented with modernist approaches…
Sports in Israel: Discus Thrower
This photograph of a discus thrower refers to the Zionist idea of “muscular Judaism,” in which the “new” Jew would celebrate and cultivate the body, sports, and physical fitness. When Grschebina…
Father and Sons
Yosl Bergner was only twenty-one years old and living in Australia when he painted this bleak picture. Many of his paintings were drawn from memories of his childhood in Warsaw but he also portrayed…
Illustration to Y. L. Peretz’s A gilgul fun a nigun
Arthur Kolnik dedicated his illustrations of Y. L. Peretz’s story, “A gilgl fun a nign” (The Transmigration of a Melody), to his brother, who, along with his family, was murdered in the Holocaust…
Dancers Resting
The female figure, especially dancers, were a favorite subject for Moses Soyer. He was especially inspired by Edgar Degas and Honoré Daumier, whose paintings he had the opportunity to examine…
Portrait of Leo Lehmann
Leo Lehmann (1782–1859) was the father of the popular portrait artist Rudolf Lehmann. Here he depicts his father, a painter and printmaker (and his son’s first art teacher) at work, with the tools of…