Description

Jewish visual culture is very rich-and this despite the fact, that Judaism has forbidden graven images for centuries. This groundbreaking guide reveals how Jewish artists forged an extraordinary visual language across 3000 years and is the first concise study of the rich Jewish iconography. The dictionary provides the history of visual art as well as the interpretations of biblical, talmudic, kabbalistic, and modern narratives.The authors decode symbols that embody Jewish identity from Abraham to the Holocaust and beyond. They range from biblical heroes, demons and angels, sacred sites and holy spaces, flora and fauna, to mythical events and lived rituals, ancient artifacts and modern emblems, the calendar and its holy days, and also include abstract concepts such as gender, apostasy, and ritual. This guide is for the interested reader who encounters the topic for the first time as well as for the scholar who seeks a deeper understanding of already familiar symbols. It helps you discover new pathways through Jewish visual culture.