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.
Astrological Calendar from Kabbalistic Manuscript
This astrological calendar contains a zodiac rota, divided into twelve astrological signs. The rota was one of the authoritative schemata that kabbalists used to map the structure of the sefirot, the…
Paul Street Boys
The grund . . . You handsome and robust country lads of the wide-open spaces, who need only step outside your doors to be close to limitless meadows, under a marvelous vast canopy of blue; you whose…
Portrait of the Artist's Wife, with the Dome of the Rock in the Background
Ze’ev Raban painted this portrait of his wife, Miriam, in 1914, the same year they got married and he became head of the repoussé department at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. His…
Shloyme ha-melekh (King Solomon)
An illustration by El Lissitzky from Chaim Nahman Bialik’s Shloyme ha-melekh (King Solomon), from an issue of the Hebrew journal Shtilim (Saplings) that was printed in 1917 in Moscow, two days before…
Ornamental Artillery Shell Casing
The soldier-artist Raphael Avraham Shalem used found objects, such as shell cases, as the material for his artworks. On this shell casing, he engraved a view of Rachel’s Tomb, a site revered by Jews…
The Moon and Sleep
Simeon Solomon’s The Moon and Sleep was inspired by the Greek story of Endymion, a beautiful youth beloved of Selene, the goddess of the moon. In some versions of the myth, Zeus grants Endymion…
Torah Scroll from Kaifeng
Jews first settled in Kaifeng, the capital of Henan province in central China, before 1127. According to scholars, they had come from India or Persia, spoke Persian, and worked as cotton dyers and…
Kabbalistic Diagram
This page from a kabbalistic manuscript depicts the inner processes of the divine (the sefirot). Visualization plays an important part in kabbalah, and these diagrams provided a divine cartography…
The dedication page for Charles VI and his wife, Elizabeth Christina
This dedication page made by Meshulam Zimmel for Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (1711–1740) and his wife, Elizabeth Christina (1691–1750), whose portraits appear on the page, presents three versions of…
Astrolabe
This astrolabe, an astronomical instrument, from the sixteenth century is inscribed in Hebrew characters.