In his 1987 Encyclopedia of Religion article, Israeli art historian Moshe Barasch surveyed some of the important issues and artistic genres in the history of Jewish art as they were understood by historians of Jewish art of his generation. Within that community, scholars were often reacting against a deep prejudice against Jewish art—and even the possibility of Jewish art—that was deeply ingrained in the Western discourses on art and on the relation of art and Judaism. This reaction against prevalent notions that Judaism was aniconic (without symbols or icons), iconophobic, or otherwise antithetical to art resulted in the discovery, publication, and exhibition of artifacts of Jewish art and archaeology.

Apologetics and Early Research

With few exceptions, late nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship did not face the prevailing prejudice against Jewish artistic production head on. Rather, it was refuted indirectly through discovery, scholarly...