Art of the Jewish people

The art of the Jewish people refers to all art forms including visual plastic arts, ancient Jewish art, modern Jewish art and to some extent Israeli art practiced or created by the Jewish people. Jewish art can first be referred to in the ancient Israelite and Hebrew culture in the Levant, which evolved through the Second Temple period and later the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, with Jews continuing to produce art through out the millennia, including in the diaspora. Until the emancipation, Jewish art was mostly centered around religious practices and rituals. Following the emancipation in the early modern period, Jewish artists, notably in Europe began to explore different themes, with different levels of connection to religious art. Notably, Jews in France, some of whom from fleeing from Eastern Europe, produced at times modernist art of completely secular nature. Later in the first half of the 20th century, a group composed mainly of these Eastern European Jews fleeing from persecution were known as the School of Paris. From the late to mid 20th century, following the holocaust and the immigration of Jews to modern Israel and the holocaust, Israel reemerged as a center of Jewish art while Europe declined in its importance as a centre of Jewish culture.