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.
Shrine II
In the 1960s, Miriam Schapiro created a series of works she called “shrines.” Each consisted of four panels, with borders that suggested frames, in which she explored her identities as artist, wife…
The Liberation of Jerusalem
The Liberation of Jerusalem, created shortly after the Six Day War, was a bold statement by its artist Solomon (Shlomo) Dreizner, at a time when any expression of support for Israel by Soviet Jews…
Solar Flame
Solar Flame is one of many oil paintings by Leonardo Nierman that reflect his fascination with solar flares, shooting stars, and volcanos. The sense of swirling movement evoked by the explosion of…
Tu tournes lentement
The pen-on-paper Tu tournes lentement, an example of surrealist automatic painting, depicts women and fragmented humanoid shapes in dance-like movement. It was drawn by Paul Păun during World War II…
Landscape of Jerusalem
Anna Ticho’s life work was drawing the landscapes of the Judean Mountains and Jerusalem. In the 1950s, she was able more easily to access these landscapes when she bought a house in Motza, a town on…
Hebrew Prayer at the Time of Revolt of the Negroes
This Hebrew prayer, written by the ḥazan of the synagogue in Jodensavanne in Surinam, blesses Jewish troops sent to fight against nearby “Maroon” communities of runaway enslaved people. The ḥazan…
Beauty
Moses Feigin painted both realist and abstract paintings, sometimes mixing both styles in one painting. In the late 1960s, he became fascinated by the world of the carnival, seemingly evoked by the…
Alms Plate
This silver alms plate was likely used to collect donations in a synagogue. In the center is a boat, meant to represent Noah’s ark, a common image on Jewish alms containers. The Hebrew word for…
Portrait of a Man
Though he also worked in other media, Dmitry Borisovitch Lion preferred to work with ink on paper. His drawings have feathery, broken lines, and sometimes include text, illegible letters, and shapes…