Monthly Archives: February 2026

Conference: “Innovations in the Study of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages: A Scholars’ Seminar in Memory of the Late Prof. Avraham Grossman on the Second Anniversary of His Death,” Bar-Ilan University, March 9

The World Union for Jewish Studies is to sponsor a scholars’ workshop, under a title חידושים בחקר יהדות אשכנז בימי הביניים , at Bar-Ilan University, Monday, March 9. See the program below:

New Book: Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Jewish Visual Culture and Art

by Alec Mishory / Ilil Arbel. Frank & Timme 2026


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.

The Authors
Alec Mishory is an art historian and a scholar of visual culture. He worked on Israeli visual culture, Israeli art and on the Jewish art scene in Israel in the 1940s. He is the author of the Open University of Israel’s art history textbooks.
Ilil Arbel specializes in Jewish history, mythology, and folklore. She regularly publishes on these topics and provides editorial services to several organizations, including the American Museum of Natural History and the University of Haifa.