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.
Coin with Lily/Falcon
On the front is a lily, commonly found on Yehud coins. On the back is a bird that most ornithologists consider to be a falcon; there is no consensus on its symbolism. With wings spread, this falcon…
Ivory Box with Ritual Scene
This ritual scene was carved twice on a cylindrical ivory box from Hazor, about 2.7 inches high and 2.2 inches in diameter (7 × 6 cm). A kneeling man raises his hands in prayer toward a stylized tree…
Ivory Cloisonné Relief with the Egyptian God Horus
This leaf-shaped ivory relief from Samaria depicts Horus as a child sitting on a lotus flower. The lotus was a symbol of regeneration, and because, in Egyptian belief, each pharaoh was considered an…
Seal with Four-winged Uraeus
This seal, found at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem, shows a uraeus or upright cobra with four wings. Modeled on the black-necked cobra that applies its venom both by biting and spitting, it was…
Seal with Grazing Griffin
The griffin on this black stone seal found in Jerusalem has a bovine body. Its wings are held out and down.
Samson
The Israelites again did what was offensive to the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
There was a certain man from Zorah, of the stock…
Gideon
Then the Israelites did what was offensive to the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. The hand of the Midianites prevailed over Israel; and…
Amulet for Falling Sickness
An amulet for a person with the falling sickness [epilepsy—Ed.]. He should wear it [the amulet] around his neck, and he should fast and ritually immerse, and it should be written in the first hour at…
Sikhes-khulin (Small Talk, or, The Legend of Prague)
Cover of Sikhes-khulin: Eyne fun di geshikhtn (Small Talk, or, The Legend of Prague) by Moyshe Broderzon, with illustrations by El Lissitzky. The book is an example of a new modernist style that…
Die Erschaffung des Menschen (The Creation of Man)
Die Erschaffung des Menschen (The Creation of Man) is an illustration by Ephraim Moses Lilien for the 1902 German translation of the Yiddish poems of Morris Rosenfeld, Lieder des Ghetto (Songs of the…
Letter to Hugo Boxel
From B. d. S.
Sir,
Yesterday I received your letter, which was very welcome to me, as much because I wanted to hear some news from you as because I see that…
Letter to Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen
“I, too, have authority, the authority of the Lord, blessed be He, of the Shekinah and all the members of the Heavenly Academy.”
[Padua, 16 March 1730]
Oh, thou great Prince, lofty pillar, Gaon R…