The study of Jewish art and visual culture, which has been cultivated for over a century in European, American and Israeli institutions, has burgeoned in the last fifteen years. Major universities have established graduate programs that integrate Jewish art and visual studies and Jewish museums dot the landscape in Israel, Europe and North America. Contemporary scholarship on Jewish art and visual culture intersects with concerns of the wider academy; a lively interchange among scholars has ensued. The field has now achieved the breadth and maturity to sustain an international journal that represents the interests of this interdisciplinary community of scholars.