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The Torah prohibits graven images. But it doesn't prohibit art. Indeed, it
describes the artistic endeavors of Bezalel and others in decorating the
Tabernacle.
We're not experts on art here at the Jewish Book Mall, but you could
probably make the case that Jewish art and artists developed over the centuries
with this in mind. Jewish ceremonial art avoids images even today. Consider what
you might see on a mizrach (a wall hanging showing , a parochet (ark cover), torah mantle, havdalah spice
box, etc. One of the most common themes in Jewish art has long been nature,
especially plants. (Here and there, you'll find animals as well, like the lions
that are part of the Jerusalem municipality's seal today.)
Another common Jewish art form has been the ketubah, the
marriage contract.
It's the practice among some couples to commission an artist to include artistic
renditions of various parts of their lives or personalities in the ketubot, such
as something suggesting where they met, that he's a Yankees fan, that she is a
cat lover, as well as more traditional depictions of Jerusalem.
Here are some more books on Jewish arts of various forms (plastic, visual,
musical, literary). Also see our new selection of
Marc Chagall books. If, instead of books (or in addition!) you want some
beautiful Jewish art, have a look at our
Jewish and Israeli Posters page.

And I Shall Dwell Among Them
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Complex Identities: Jewish Consciousness and Modern Art |

Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe |

The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years |

Venice and Environs Jewish Itineraries: Places, History and
Art (Jewish Itineraries) |

I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from
Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 |

The Jewish Spirit: A Celebration in Stories & Art |

Traditional Jewish Papercuts: An Inner World of Art and
Symbol |

The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems With a Jewish Theme |

Jewish Origami |

Tuscany Jewish Itineraries: Place, History and Art (Jewish
Itineraries) |

At Memory's Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary
Art and Architecture |

Ketubbah: The Art of the Jewish Marriage Contract |

Jewish Identity in Modern Art History |

Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust |

Screening the Holocaust: Cinema's Images of the
Unimaginable |

American-Jewish Filmmakers: Traditions and Trends |

Painting a People: Maurycy Gottlieb and Jewish Art (Tauber
Institute for the Study of European Jewry) |

Painting a Place in America: Jewish Artists in New York
1900-1945 |

Landscapes of Jewish Experience: Paintings (Tauber Institute for
the Study of European Jewry Series, 25) |

The Hebrew Bible in art |

Last Traces: The Lost Art of Auschwitz |

Fixing the World: Jewish American Painters in the Twentieth
Century (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture and Life) |

The Dura-Europos Synagogue |

The French Connection: Jewish Artists in the School of Paris,
1900-1940 |

Pictori evrei din Romãania : 1848-1948 |

Images of a Lost World: Jewish Motifs in Polish Painting,
1770-1945 |

Graven Images: Graphic Motifs of the Jewish Gravestone |

A Sculpture of Love and Anguish: The Holocaust Memorial, Miami
Beach, Florida |

Rubies and Rebels: Jewish Female Identity in Contemporary British
Art |

Jewish Artists: The Ben Uri Collection: Paintings, Drawings,
Prints and Sculpture |

My Brother's Keeper: The Holocaust Through the Eyes of an
Artist |

Peintres juifs et modernite: Montreal, 1930-1945 (Jewish
painters and modernity) |

Jewish Life: Paintings by Saul Raskin in Postcards |

A Brush With Death : An Artist in the Death Camps (Suny Series in
Modern Jewish Literature and Culture) |

Treasures of Jewish Art |

Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Freidl Dicker-Brandeis and
the Children of Terezin |

Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change: 1890-1990 |

Women of the Book : Jewish Artists, Jewish Themes |

Jews in Russian Literature After the October Revolution: Writers
and Artists Between Hope and Apostasy (Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature) |

The Emergence of Jewish Artists in Nineteenth-Century
Europe |

Jewish Art |

Jewish Museums of the World |

Portraits of Jews: By Gilbert Stuart and Other Early American
Artists |

Miniature Paintings in Judaeo-Persian Manuscripts |

My Shalom, My Peace: Paintings and Poems by Jewish and Arab
Children |

Spiritual Resistance: Art from Concentration Camps, 1940-1945: A
Selection of Drawings and Paintings from the Collection of Kibbutz Lohamei
Haghetaot |

Jewish Artists: The Ben Uri Collection: Paintings, Drawings,
Prints and Sculpture |

Jews/America/a Representation |

Drama and Ideology in Modern Israel |

Judaic Artisans Today |

Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater (Judaic
Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) |

Songs from Bialik: Selected Poems of Hayim Nahman Bialik (Judaic
Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) |

Against the Apocalypse: Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish
Culture (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) |

A Traveler Disguised: The Rise of Modern Yiddish Fiction in the
Nineteenth Century (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) |

Rock 'N' Roll Jews (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and
Art) |

God, Man, and Devil: Yiddish Plays in Translation (Judaic
Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) |

Hurban: Responses to Catastrophe in Hebrew Literature (Judaic
Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) |

Enlarging America: The Cultural Work of Jewish Literary Scholars,
1930-1990 (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) |

Contemporary Jewish American Writers and the Multicultural
Dilemma: The Return of the Exiled (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and
Art) |
Want more books on Jewish art?
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