Jewish Studies @ CUL https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul News from the Norman E. Alexander Library for Jewish Studies at Columbia University Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:02:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/files/2015/09/cropped-NEA-Tote-Final-32x32.jpg Jewish Studies @ CUL https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul 32 32 Alexander Library Celebration of Collections 2023 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/09/12/alexander-library-celebration-of-collections-2023/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/09/12/alexander-library-celebration-of-collections-2023/#respond Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:02:18 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1941 Read More...

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We are thrilled to announce the annual Alexander Library Celebration of Collections for 2023, which will take place virtually on November 9, 2023 at 12 PM EST. This year’s event will feature the following speakers and topics, and focusing on rare books and manuscripts from Spain, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, spanning the 14th through the 18th centuries. Register here!

Rabbi Dr Jacob J Schacter, University Professor of Jewish History & Jewish Thought (Yeshiva University)
Hakham Zevi Ashkenazi and Rabbi Jacob Emden in Columbia’s Judaica Collection

Leaf from Rabbi Ya’akov Emden’s Arba’ah Turim (Berlin, 1702) with his extensive markings and a burn where a candle fell during study.

Abigail Slawik, Conservator (Columbia University Libraries)
Conserving a 14th-century Hebrew Bible from Spain in Columbia University Libraries’ Collection

Detail of a 14th century manuscript of Latter Prophets and Hagiographa produced in Spain (with masoretic notes in micrography)

Shai Zamir, Lapidus Graduate Fellow (Center for Jewish History)
Jewish-Christian Polemics in Judeo-Spanish

Leaf from a volume of polemics in Ladino, with distinctive sewing holes in the binding.
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“Just digitize it!?” A peek into the labor and workflows of the Judaica digitization project https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/07/05/just-digitize-it-a-peek-into-the-labor-and-workflows-of-the-judaica-digitization-project/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/07/05/just-digitize-it-a-peek-into-the-labor-and-workflows-of-the-judaica-digitization-project/#respond Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:39:03 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1913 Read More...

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Image from KTIV showing Columbia’s digitized manuscripts

At Columbia University Libraries, and at the Norman E. Alexander Library in particular, one of our major goals is to provide access to materials to as broad a user base as possible. With one of the largest Judaica manuscript collections in the United States, a major priority has been to provide access to these unique materials – through partnership with the National Library of Israel’s KTIV Database of Hebrew Manuscripts; through digitization of microfilm for hundreds of manuscripts, and, bit by bit, through internal digitization of those manuscripts that have not been made available in any other way.

But digitizing manuscripts is no simple task. Each manuscript must be carefully assessed and sometimes requires conservation before it can be imaged.  The image process itself is complex, requiring talented professionals shooting the manuscripts safely, checking each image to ensure it is up to CUL’s high standards, and archiving the images for safe future use before posting them online. In this post, we’ll spend some time describing the complicated processes required to make the Alexander Library’s manuscripts available to the world.

Midrash Bereshit Rabbah (X893 M584) after treatment. Before treatment, the manuscript could not be opened because the pages were stuck together.

In 2021, the Alexander Library received a remarkable financial gift from an anonymous donor. There were no stipulations to the gift, other than that it be used for the Alexander library.  This is the best (although probably the rarest) kind of donation, which shows the donor’s confidence in those managing the library to make the best decisions for the collection.  Additionally, it allowed for “behind the scenes” work, which is often quite costly but not generally obvious to the general public.  The gift would be used for multiple purposes: conservation, processing, and digitization.  A sample survey in the early 2000s of the Judaica collection had noted that quite a few manuscripts required serious conservation.  This collection, which had been formed alongside the University itself, did not have a curator to care specifically for it until the generosity of the Norman E. Alexander family created a position for a librarian in 2008. The anonymous donation would thus go a long way toward supporting collection care. Three items that were so badly damaged that they could not be used at all (a 13th century volume of Midrash on Genesis, a 17th century volume of Talmudic commentaries, and a 17th century dispute regarding a building in Italy that blocked light from an orphanage) were shipped off to the Center for Conservation of Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia. The donor’s gift thus allowed the Libraries to supplement existing in-house capabilities by sending the manuscripts to this external facility where they could be safely conserved and returned to Columbia ready to be digitized and, later, re-bound.

Funds were also used to purchase conservation-grade boxes for many of the manuscripts in the collection that needed better housing, and also funded the work of students (Hannah Vorschheimer, Elisheva Malomet, and Relly Robinson) to process and upload manuscript images digitized from microfilm to the Internet Archive site for Columbia’s Judaica manuscripts.

The most time-intensive project, however, was the planned digitization of about 130 manuscripts which were not otherwise accessible in any way. The project involved multiple

Megilat Esther in a silver case, Italy, 19th century (General MS 192)

departments and workflows. Before digitization could begin, we needed to ensure that the manuscripts were cataloged.  While the vast majority of the collection had been cataloged into CLIO through a major project from 2008-2010, there were still a few dozen manuscripts that did not have catalog records. Rare book cataloger Matthew Haugen stepped in to create the relevant catalog records.  Additionally, some codices contained multiple texts bound together, and so these had multiple catalog records – one for each text.  In order to have the correct metadata assigned to a single physical unit, Matthew also combined information for multiple records into a single record for each item.

The manuscripts then had to be reviewed by the Libraries’ Conservation department – Alexis Hagadorn, Morgan Adams, and Emily Lynch reviewed each manuscript to see if it had any needs before it could be safely imaged. In some cases, conservation work was necessary prior to digitization, and thankfully the generous gift allowed us to do this work. In other cases, manuscripts were deemed too delicate to digitize, or they were flagged as needing critical conservation that would cost far more time and money than we had to work with at the time. These were removed from the digitization queue and flagged for a later conservation project. Sometimes the conservators approved digitization, but with special handling such as with specialized equipment or supports to keep the manuscripts safe during imaging. The review brought the total number of manuscripts to be digitized down to about 100, but and set important future conservation priority needs. In some cases, the decision was made to shoot just a sample image of a manuscript, such as the Megilat Esther above, or the Torah scroll below, since these texts are not unique, but the physical objects are of interest to scholars.

Torah scroll in wooden case, North Africa, late 19th/early 20th century (General MS 198)

Each manuscript was pulled individually for imaging for Lauren Wansker, a Technical Assistant in the Preservation & Digital Conversion division of the Libraries. Enrique Ortiz imaged additional materials, including the Torah and Esther scrolls shown here. Dave Ortiz, Manager for the Digital Imaging Lab, supervised imaging work and advised the project team on approaches for different manuscripts, such as when special setups would be needed in the Lab. With careful precision, Lauren set up each manuscript according to specifications from the conservators, and photographed each page, one by one. Larger manuscripts required a special setup, as did single leaves or very small manuscripts. Following Lauren’s work, the quality control team of Andy Moore and Nancy Wolfe reviewed every single digitized image to make sure they met the department’s high standards of quality. In some cases, manuscripts included pages bound in upside down, so the team was careful to retain the images as they would look to one holding the physical book. Once the images passed QC, they were turned over to Yasuhito Denda – Yasu would crop the images to ensure that they’ll read like a book on the web, and then uploaded the images and all their associated metadata to the Internet Archive. Each digital book also received a new digital record so they can be found as new entities in CLIO. The entire project was ably overseen by Brianna Gormly, the Assistant Director of the Preservation, Reformatting, and Metadata department in the Libraries, whose close eye ensured that the entire project was executed seamlessly.

And what of those manuscripts that could not be digitized?  What about new manuscripts, acquired after the digitization project had already begun?

This is to be our next project. Another gift from the same anonymous donor, along with a second gift from Haim Gottschalk, will be used to hire a conservator in Columbia’s lab over the 2023-2024 fiscal year to work on those manuscripts that were flagged as needing critical conservation work.  Because conservation work is slow and careful, we cannot say exactly how many manuscripts will be conserved over the course of this coming year, but we will be prioritizing those with the most severe needs first. As more manuscripts are deemed safe for handling, we will work on planning our next digitization project to continue to make as much material as possible open to all users around the world.

If you’re interested in supporting these endeavors, you can donate to the Alexander Unrestricted fund by selecting it in the dropdown on the Libraries’ Gift page.

 
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Highlighting Jewish American Collections https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/05/11/highlighting-jewish-american-collections/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/05/11/highlighting-jewish-american-collections/#comments Thu, 11 May 2023 15:31:44 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1866 Read More...

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Students in the Columbia Jewish Club, c. 1932 (University Archives)

In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month (May), we’re highlighting unique materials relating to the history of the Jews in the Americas.  In the past, of course, we’ve discussed the 18th century history of Hebrew and Jewish materials in the Columbia context, but the vast collections in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library highlight many aspects of the diverse Jewish American experience.

We can start with a uniquely Columbia story about Kings’ College President Myles Cooper acting as a courier, taking a Bible manuscript owned by a Jew named Sampson ben Joseph Simson in New York to London for the use of Benjamin Kennicott in his monumental work on the Hebrew Bible in the late 18th century. Simson’s nephew, also called Sampson, gave a commencement address in Hebrew at Columbia in 1800 which was written with the assistance of Gershom Seixas, the Jewish Columbia Trustee from 1787-1815. (For more on the address, see: Isidore S. Meyer, “The Hebrew Oration of Sampson Simson,” in Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Vol. 46, No. 1 (September, 1956), pp. 51-58).

Because the Columbia collection is a relatively old one within the American context, there are quite a few materials that speak to American Jewish Heritage. On the left is an example from the Park Benjamin collection – a Discourse, delivered at the Consecration of the Synagogue of [She’erith Israel] in the City of New York (April 17, 1818). Shearith Israel was originally built in 1730, and is the oldest building in continental North America to be built specifically as a synagogue. Mordecai Noah’s speech was given on the occasion of the synagogue’s move from its first location on Mill Street (now South William Street in the Wall Street district of New York City) to a larger location on the same block.

M. M. Noah’s discourse on the consecration of Shearith Israel (1818)

An unusual manuscript, written on cheap paper, and with the name of a street on each page, is a list of Jews living in New York between 1892 and 1893. Possibly compiled by a charity collector from Palestine, the book, lists almost 700 names of Jews on the Lower East Side and Brooklyn, along with what seems to be the amount donated:

A volume produced by the Ladino paper La Amerika around 1912 shows the multilingual universe of Jews in the United States. The paper produced a small phrasebook called Livro de embezar las lingwas Inglezah i Yudish to help its readers acclimate to life in America. The phrases were transliterated into English in Hebrew characters, translated directly into English, and translated into Yiddish. Translating and transliterating (for those who did not read Latin characters) the phrases into English is understandable – but why Yiddish? At that time, even a Ladino speaker in New York city would have had to interact with some of their Yiddish-speaking co-religionists in order to obtain the items needed to practice Judaism – like kosher meat or matza for Passover – and this phrasebook would help them do it! The section at the end of the book, with questions for the US citizenship test, was translated into English only (Ladino and Yiddish speakers were more likely to speak about renting rooms, as below, than about the citizenship test!)

Phrasebook translating Ladino phrases to English and Yiddish

Jewish Education in New York City is a thesis written by Alexander Dushkin for the Philosophy Department in 1918. It includes multiple maps, tables, and other data, highlighting the state of Jewish education in New York in the early 20th century.

Early 20th century scholarship at Columbia under Richard Gottheil, Salo Baron and Arthur Goren included many theses on Jewish life in America. Some notable ones include Samuel K. Joseph on Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881 to 1910 (in 1914); Isaac B. Berkson’s Theories of Americanization ; a critical study; with special reference to the Jewish group (1920), Helen Hadassah Levinthal’s The Jewish fraternal order : an Americanizing and socializing force (1932); Beryl Harold Levy’s Reform Judaism in America ; a study in religious adaptation (1933); Hyman B. Grinstein on The rise of the Jewish community of New York, 1654-1860 (1945) Abraham Meyer Rogoff on the Formative years of the Jewish labor movement in the United States (1890-1900) (1945), Harry Garfinkle on Idealogical elements in the development of the American Yiddish school movement (1954) and many more.

Other theses made their way into Columbia’s collections, highlighting the interest in Jewish life in America to Columbia’s faculty and students: Lee Levinger’s The causes of anti-Semitism in the United States : a study in group and sub-group (University of Pennsylvania, 1925), Nathan Marvin’s The attitude of the Jewish student in the colleges and universities towards his religion ; a social study of religious changes (University of Pennsylvania, 1932), and a rather chilling thesis (given the date) by Donald S. Strong out of the University of Chicago on Anti-revolutionary, anti-Semitic organizations in the United States since 1933 in 1939.

A number of archival collections deal with Jewish immigration and Jewish life in America in the early 20th century. The Lillian Wald Papers address major reforms and social services provided to the new immigrants; the Community Service Society Papers include an extensive photo archive (much of which has been digitized) documenting immigrant life, including many Jews. The Julius Samuel Wulbert Papers address (among other things), “a conflict within the Chicago Jewish community in 1915-16”; the Albert Lasker papers deal with quite a bit of Jewish philanthropic activity, including the creation of a Jewish farm in Pennsylvania that allowed for the training of poor Jewish immigrants in agriculture; and the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter collection document the only Jewish refugee camp in America during World War II, in Oswego (upstate New York).

A wonderful example of Jewish institutions in the United States can be found in our Book Arts collection, in the form of a chess board (above) created in 1876 at the Industrial School of the H.O.A. (Hebrew Orphanage Asylum). The HOA, located in New York, was a short-lived industrial School that taught printing and other trades to its students. The tiny letters inside the white squares detail instructions for playing the game and information about its history – some examples are below:

Moving beyond the United States to the Caribbean, a portion of a major collection donated to Columbia by Temple Emanu-el in 1892 includes the library of the Surinamese rabbi M. J. Lewenstein (1829-1864). Although his tenure as Rabbi was cut short due to his untimely death at the age of 35, we have about forty-five books in the collection that have been identified as coming from the Lewenstein collection, and are identified as such in CLIO. Among the Judaica manuscripts is a small volume (below) from 1810 containing prayers for the Jewish community and the rulers of Suriname. As a Dutch colony, Suriname was affected by the Napoleonic upheavals in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe.  It was during this time, when Suriname was under temporary occupation by the British, that this prayer was written.  The poignant text, written in both Hebrew and Dutch, begs for forgiveness, success, and redemption, as well as benedictions for the king and the government leaders.

There are, of course, many, many examples of American Jewish heritage and culture found in the Norman E. Alexander Library for Jewish Studies. This small sampling gives a bit of an insight into some of the holdings in this rich collection.

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New acquisitions roundup https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/01/13/new-acquisitions-roundup/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2023/01/13/new-acquisitions-roundup/#respond Fri, 13 Jan 2023 15:32:28 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1833 Read More...

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University calendars tend to operate on a different year than the standard January-December. The academic calendar begins in the fall, and the budget calendar restarts in the summer, and so January 1 is simply the restart after a holiday break. However, the new year is a good time to consider the many new unique and special acquisitions that we have added to the Norman E. Alexander Library.  (And considering that our last special collections acquisitions roundup was back in March 2022, we’re certainly overdue for another!)

Top of roll, 1495, showing land ownership by Chresino and Grassino, sons of Jacob.

In order of age, then, we start with a large roll from the late 15th century. Written on parchment, and measuring nearly 9 feet unrolled, this manuscript is an estate survey for the sale valuable parcel of land in the vicinity of the village of San Vito on the outskirts of Lodi. Most unusually, it was owned by a Jewish family under the protection of the Renaissance general Filippino Fieschi. We don’t know very much about the family that owned this land, other than their names: Chresino and Grassino, sons of Jacob, as well as Benedicto. Also mentioned in the document are Leo and his sisters Ventirie and Belle.  The family is documented as having arrived from “Roine,” which is possibly Rhone in the south of France. The estates listed were evaluated as worth 1950 livres ‘valoris,’ a very high sum of money.  In many places, Jews were not allowed to own land, much less an estate of this size, and so this manuscript has much potential for new findings on the history of the Jews in 15th century Italy.

Targum Sheni on Megillat Esther in Italian

Another Italian addition to our collection is an interlinear translation of Targum Sheni (a midrashic commentary) of Megillat Esther dated to the 18th century. Clearly the Italian-speaking user of this manuscript was interested in studying the book of Esther and wanted to understand the text in his or her native tongue and so translated the entire text.

Binding, Orden de las Oraciones Quotidianos…including gold clasps and additional ornamentation

Moving northward to the Netherlands, we acquired a remarkable book, exquisitely bound, which includes prayers in Spanish for the entire year. Printed in Amsterdam between 1706 and 1716, and bound with a volume of the Pentateuch with Haftarot printed in 1691, this volume is particularly remarkable because of a leaf inserted between the two books. The document, in Dutch, details the transfer of printing permissions obtained by David de Castro Tartas to Moseh Coutinho, and dates of monopolies granted regarding the printing of a number of important Hebrew works. This document is issued by Simon van Beaumont and is unknown from any other source; it is an important witness to the development of Amsterdam’s important Hebrew printing industry. The document sheds new light specifically on the timing of the transfer of rights between Tartas and Coutinho, which has long been the subject of scholarly contention.

List of books for sale from the library of Shemu’el David Luzzatto. Note the initials S.D.L. in the margin

We added another item to our extensive collection of materials by Shemu’el David Luzzatto. This document includes a list of books owned by the rabbi and scholar often know as “ShaDaL,” which apparently were being prepared for sale from his personal library.

Title page, Ladino Haggadah with illustrations by Shlomo Katz

Moving to the modern era, we were grateful for a donation of two series of lithographs decorating a Haggadah produced in 1978. Both include the illustrations of Polish-Israeli artist Shlomo Katz (1937-1992). One of the copies includes an English translation of the traditional seder text, while a second translates the text into Ladino. Both editions were published by Leon Amiel. The volumes will be a lovely addition to the library’s collection of artists’ books.

Another modern acquisition to our collection this year was a collection of recent prints by Lynne Avadenka called “The Female Forme.” Incorporating words from Song of Songs about the “woman of valor,” Avadenka’s series focuses on “the work of her hands,” highlighting Jewish women printers throughout history, such as Yehudit Rosanes, Estellina Conat, Deborah Romm, and others. These are quite relevant to a seminar on Jewish Book history that will be reprised in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Spring of 2023.

We look forward to identifying new and unique materials to add to the collection in 2023!

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Hanukkah in the RBML https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/12/22/hanukkah-in-the-rbml/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/12/22/hanukkah-in-the-rbml/#respond Thu, 22 Dec 2022 18:53:05 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1726 Read More...

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Title page, ‘Or Hadash (Prague, 1600).

Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds a diverse collection of Judaica, and its holdings relating to the holiday of Hanukkah span various collections, including rare books and manuscripts, graphic arts, and literature. This post will attempt to show some of the varied items from our collections dealing with the holiday, through legal and rabbinic treatises, prayer, and popular children’s literature.

Religious and Legal Works

An 18th century collection of sermons from Italy (below) provides a glimpse into the the work of rabbis throughout the century. In this case, the author wanted to find references to Hanukkah in the weekly Torah portion that was read that week – and, it seems he was successful!  Thus the section is labeled “For Va-yehi Mikets [Genesis 41:1-44:17] and for Shabbat Hanukkah.”

Sermon for “va-yehi mikets and Hanukkah” in an 18th century book of sermons (X893 D44)

Liturgical Texts

Tikun hatsot (Italy, 1879) (X893 J529)

Tikun Hatsot (Italy, 1857), X893 J7358

Prayer, of course, is another notable area where one can find texts relating to Hanukkah.  A particular song, with a refrain taken from the “‘al ha-nissim” prayer sung on Hanukkah, appears in multiple manuscripts, including two copies of Tikkun Hatsot (kabbalistic prayers to be said at midnight commemorating the Temple at Jerusalem) produced in Italy in the 19th century.

Title page, collection of poetry, etc. 18th century (X893 J7393)

Prayers for Hanukkah, 18th century (X893 J7393)

 

 

A miniature (10 cm) collection of poems, liturgy, ritual texts, fairy tales and a dictionary of Mishnaic Hebrew words into Greek in Hebrew characters (left) includes a page with blessings and poetry for Hanukkah.

A collection of prayers for “special” Sabbaths that was recently featured in our Corfu exhibition (right) includes prayers for the Shabbat of Hanukkah, as well as when Shabbat Hanukkah also coincides with the new month (Rosh Hodesh) for the month of Tevet, as it does this year (2022).

Prayers for Shabbat Hanukkah that includes Rosh Hodesh (Corfu, 18th century), X893 J5222

The Jews of Avignon, part of the unique Comtat Venaissan community (and the only Jews allowed to live in France continuously after their expulsion in the 14th century until the French Revolution, due to their protection by the Pope) printed a volume of their unique liturgy in Avignon in 1765. Of course, this volume also included prayers for Hanukkah, as pictured below.

Prayers for Hanukkah according to the rite of Avignon (Avignon, 1765), B893.17 Se27

Historical Collection of Children’s Literature

Red book cover with a boy and a girl sitting on a bench reading a book, surrounded by green vegetation.
Holiday Storybook, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1952 (HISTCHIL 1730)

“Catching Up,” a story for Hanukkah in the “Holiday Storybook” (HISTCHIL 1730)

Illustration of a family looking at the menorah, with an image of Jerusalem and the Temple in the background
Holiday Storybook, Illustration for “Catching up” (HISTCHIL 1730)

Among the collections of the RBML is about eight thousand books of historical children’s literature from the Historical Collection of Children’s Literature (HCCL). A Holiday Storybook published in 1952 features a number of stories pertaining to Jewish holidays, including Purim, Passover, Rosh Hashana, and Hanukkah!

American Institute of Graphic Arts Collection

Cover of the Fireside Book of Folk Songs with images of people dressed in "folk" dress, and flowers.
“Fireside book of folk songs” (Simon and Schuster, 1947) AIGA 1948 42

 

Image of a man standing next to a table lighting a green menorah, with the Hebrew word 'Or (light) over his right shoulder.
“Hanukkah Song,” from “Fireside book of folk songs” (Simon and Schuster, 1947) AIGA 1948 42

Music for "Hanukkah Song."
“Hanukkah Song,” from “Fireside book of folk songs”  AIGA 1948 42

The Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds the collection of around 5100 volumes from 1923 to the present that were awarded a prize as one of the “Fifty Books of the Year” (subsequently renamed “50 Books/50 Covers) by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). The AIGA collection includes around 5100 volumes (cataloged individually in CLIO) that were awarded a prize as one of the “Fifty Books of the Year” (subsequently renamed “50 Books/50 Covers) since 1923. Among them are several books dealing with Hanukkah! First is the Fireside book of Folk Songs, published by Simon and Schuster in 1947. Among its list of “Old Hymns and Spirituals” is a “Hanukkah Song” – one that’s fairly well known today (right)

A second AIGA submission is a 1979 copy of an English translation of Sholem Aleichem’s Hanukah Money. In this story, two poor brothers discuss the potential Hanukah gelt (gifts of money traditionally given on Hanukkah) they might get from their relatives.

Cover of "Hanukah Money" by Sholem Aleichem (illustrated by Uri Shulevitz), showing two poor boys in rags.
“Hanukah Money” by Sholem Aleichem (illustrated by Uri Shulevitz), Greenwillow Books, 1978. AIGA 1979 77

Another book by a famous Yiddish author in the collection is Isaac Bashevis Singer’s The Power of Light, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 1980. This particular copy is signed by both Singer and the illustrator, Irene Lieblich.

Title page, with inscriptions by Isaac Bashevis Singer and Irene Lieblich.

Text reading "The Power of Light: Eight Stories for Hanukkah by Isaac Bashevis Singer." Image of houses covered in snow at night, with people walking around.
The Power of Light (New York, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980), PJ5129.S49 P6

All in all, Hanukkah clearly features broadly among the RBML collections – sometimes almost accidentally!  Our final image is from a collection of model letters from 16th century Italy. In this book, there are a variety of drawings, perhaps by a student who was learning the correct method of writing. One of the pages includes a menorah for Hanukkah, and was perhaps drawn as the student daydreamed about lighting the candles later that night.

Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!

Doodle of a menorah in a collection of model letters from 16th century Italy (MS X893 M582)

 

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Manuscripts for Sukkot https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/10/09/manuscripts-for-sukkot/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/10/09/manuscripts-for-sukkot/#respond Sun, 09 Oct 2022 14:09:44 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1681 Read More...

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On the fall holiday of Sukkot (also known as the Feast of Tabernacles) Jews construct temporary huts (reminiscent of the temporary existence of the Jews in the Sinai Desert) and acquire a selection of greenery (palm fronds, citrons, myrtle and willow branches) for ritual use. The final days of the holiday, Hosha’ana Rabba, Shemini Atseret, and Simhat Torah, are not very well known.  Hosha’ana Rabba concludes the judgement period begun with the High Holidays – if the judgement is written on Rosh Hashana and sealed on Yom Kippur, it is considered to be delivered on Hosha’ana Rabbah.  Thus this day has symbolic penitential prayers as we will see below.  Shemini Atseret and Simhat Torah are connected to one another, and celebrate the completion of the annual cycle of reading the Torah. Simhat Torah is often celebrated with merriment and dancing.

Of course, all of these are well represented in Columbia’s Judaica collections.

Fragment of Alfasi’s commentary on Masekhet Sukkah, c. 14th century (MS X893 Al352)

The earliest representation of a Sukkah in our collections is probably a manuscript fragment from the Cairo Geniza featured in a 2012 exhibition; its text comes from Yitshak Alfasi’s commentary on the laws in the Talmudic Tractate dealing with the holiday – as you can see above, it includes a diagram of a Sukkah as part of the discussion.

 A Rare Decorated Sukkah Plaque, [Germany]: 1796.
Decorated Sukkah Plaque, 1796 (MS 2409)
A recent acquisition shows a decoration that would have been hung in the Sukkah. In the image illustrated above, someone took an illustrated printed page (meant for use as a title page), and wrote in the center the verse from Leviticus 23:42 describing the holiday of Sukkot: “and you shall dwell in Sukkot for seven days.” The Hebrew date at the top is the equivalent of the year 1796, and with the bright colors (added by hand) it would have made a lovely decoration for the Sukkah.

Title page, prayer book for the holiday of Sukkot (MS X893C J55 v.15)

Most of our Sukkot-related manuscripts are prayer books. Columbia’s collection includes quite a few from the Comtat Vennaissin region in France, in the “Minhag Carpentras.” These are written in the distinctive Comtat script, and often have beautiful title pages and careful illustrations as in the image on the left. The community of the Comtat was protected by the Popes, who controlled the region, and a special prayer was said on Simhat Torah for the health and well-being of the Pope who protected “his” Jews. (Except for that one time when Louis XIV occupied the Papal States and the Jews had to change the prayer…)

We have many manuscripts that address the the “hosha’anot,” where the congregation circles the synagogue, waving the lulavim and etrogim and singing special prayers. The root of the Hebrew word “hosha’anot” means “salvation,” and the phrase “hosha’a na,” or “please save [us]” occurs throughout the prayer. Below is a lavishly illustrated title page and first opening of an 18th century volume dedicated to the Hosha’anot from the Italian communities of Asti, Fossano, and Mocalvo (abbreviated as “APaM”)

Copiously decorated title page with archway, two naked figures carrying vegetation, and vines and flowers throughout. The title reads "Hoshanot"

 

Hosha’anot for the first and second day of Sukkot according to the rite of Corfu (MS X893 J719)

The manuscript on the right, currently on display as part of the “Jews of Corfu” exhibition, is decorated with leaves – perhaps ‘aravot, or willow branches (ritually bound with the lulav on Sukkot) – surrounding the text. Hosha’anot occur during the entire Sukkot, but the Hosha’anot Service on Hosha’ana Rabbah was especially long.  In some places, the evening was called “lel hotemet” or “the eve of the sealing,” referring to completion of the judgement period, and penitential prayers were recited.

Some leaves from a manuscript for Hosha’ana Rabbah from Avignon (1693) show how the prayers must have gone on well into the evening. Traces of tallow or wax from the candles spot the volume throughout the Hosha’ana Rabba service, as you can see below:

Prayers for Sukkot according to the rite of Avignon, 1693 (MS X893C J55 v.16)

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N. E. Alexander Library’s Celebration of Collections 2022! https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/09/20/alexander-celebration-of-collections-2022/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/09/20/alexander-celebration-of-collections-2022/#respond Tue, 20 Sep 2022 15:36:31 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1675 Read More...

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We are very pleased to announce the 2022 Norman E. Alexander Celebration of Collections on November 14, at 12:30 PM EST, featuring Charles E. Steinman, Dr. Susan Einbinder, and Dan Klein. Collections discussed include a medieval French manuscript that echoes the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, a 17th century manuscript discussing the plague in Padua, and a 19th century Italian commentary of the Bible!

Registration is at the QR code below, or at this link.

Poster for the Alexander Lecture, to be held on Novmeber 14, 2022.

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The Jews of Corfu: Between the Adriatic and the Ionian https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/08/16/the-jews-of-corfu-between-the-adriatic-and-the-ionian/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/08/16/the-jews-of-corfu-between-the-adriatic-and-the-ionian/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2022 19:05:27 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1608 Read More...

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Update: Links to recordings of the Corfu community event and the conservation event are now linked below.Poster with event details (as in text below)

We are thrilled to announce the opening of a new, joint exhibition about the Jews of Corfu. The Jewish communities in Corfu date back millennia, but due to its devastation by the Nazis during World War II, this vibrant and unique community is not very well known today.  The Libraries of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), together holding one of the world’s largest collections of materials relating to Jews on this Greek Island, will launch an exhibition the week of August 22 featuring illuminated ketubbot (marriage contracts), decorated prayer books, communal documents, and government legislation over the communities of Corfu. A digital exhibition showcasing the items is also available.

There are two parts to the physical exhibition: one at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library‘s (RBML) Chang Gallery at Columbia University, and one in the in the new Library building at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). The exhibitions will be open during each library’s regular business hours (RBML; JTS). Note that Columbia materials will be on display at both locations; the JTS materials will be only at their library’s exhibition.

Image of Bilaam and his donkey taken from a book of liturgical poems

Some of the events surrounding the exhibit are listed below.

  • An opening event and celebration for the exhibition was held on Wednesday September 7.
  • On Thursday, September 15, from 2-5, we held an “open house” at Columbia featuring Corfu materials not included in the exhibition.
  • On Thursday September 15, at 6 PM, Dr. Shalom Sabar, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University, presented a lecture on the art and unique language in the Corfu ketubbot.  This event was sponsored in memory of Manfred Max and Nehama Gottschalk.
  • Guided tours at JTS were be available on September 22, October 25, and November 8 at 11 AM and September 29 and November 17 at 6 PM.
  • On Thursday, October 13, in conjunction with the holiday of Sukkot, Columbia Libraries hosted a pop-up exhibit showcasing Judaica treasures from the collection alongside the Corfu exhibition.
  • In partnership with the JTS/Columbia exhibition uptown, the Kehila Kedosha Janina mounted an exhibition of items relating to the Jews of Corfu from materials in their collection on Sunday, October 23.
  • In partnership with the Jewish Museum of Greece (JMG) and the Corfu Jewish community, we held a virtual event on Monday, October 31 at 12 PM EST, 6 PM Greece called “The Jews of Corfu: Past and Present.”  The event highlighted a recent digital exhibition by the JMG on the Jews of Corfu, the current exhibition at Columbia and JTS, and a conversation with members of the community on Jewish life in Corfu today.
  • To celebrate the incredible work of the conservation team that worked to make the materials safe for exhibition, we hosted an online event on November 7 at 12:30 PM called “Red Inks and Gold Leaf, Parchment and Paper: Conservation of the Corfu Manuscripts.”
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Life, Love, Loss, and the Shaking of the Earth in Livorno https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/08/08/life-love-loss-and-the-shaking-of-the-earth-in-livorno/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/08/08/life-love-loss-and-the-shaking-of-the-earth-in-livorno/#respond Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:22:23 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1611 Read More...

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Rear board of a book, with red seals and inscriptions

Books tell stories. Not only through the texts written or printed within them, but also through the ephemera and paratexts – the bindings, the inscriptions, even wax seals casually stamped in the back of a volume. Such is the case with a volume in Columbia’s collection, cataloged with the call number B893.14 Y11.  There are records in CLIO for the three printed volumes bound within the book, all dealing with Hebrew language and grammar: David ibn Yahya’s Leshon Limudim (Constantinople, 1542); Elijah Levita’s Masoret ha-Masoret (Venice 1538), and part II of that work, titled Tov Ta’am (Venice, 1538).

Title page for Hebrew grammar produced in Livorno, 1612.

However, there are a number of other “works” within this volume, some of which are a bit more difficult to classify. Beginning in the early 17th century, owners of the book began to use the blank pages scattered throughout the book (separating individual volumes – and in one case separating a title page from its work) to detail their history, recording births, marriages, and deaths. The earliest date listed is 1598, and the records go well into the 18th century. The bound volume begins with Leshon Limudim as noted above.  Following this printed text were a few blank pages preceding the title page for a new book, this one written by hand, titled Dikduk Lashon ha-Kodesh (Grammar of the Holy Tongue), produced in Livorno in 1612. The binder of the volume also inserted a couple of blank pages following the title page and before beginning the main manuscript text.

Page describing the marriage of Yitshak and Rahel, and the birth of their first four children.

To give a sense of the deep history hidden within the pages of this book, I will document just two generations of the many that are detailed within the volume: In the mid-17th century Yitshak Anversa of Livorno took up the quill to list the history of his family. Yitshak begins his narrative on the first of the blank pages by documenting his marriage to Rahel on Friday, the 13th of the month of Nissan, 1676. After the dates (in both the Christian and Jewish calendars) of their wedding, Yitshak wrote a heading that translates as “the children which God has granted his servant,” with a paragraph for each child, indicating the day of the week, the Torah portion that was read that week, the Hebrew date of birth, the date in the Common Era, the child’s name, and who the child was named after. We thus learn of the birth of five children to Yitshak and Rahel Anversa:

A daughter, Esther (16 Feb 1677), named after Yitshak’s mother; a son, Elyakim (4 Jan 1679), named after Yitshak’s father; a daughter, Palomba (6 Jan 1681) – no reason is given for her name; a son, Avraham (26 Feb 1683) – named after Hakham Abraham For(i)do. The entry for Avraham is crossed out, and the next page shows a new entry five years later, for a son named Avraham Hayim (18 August 1687).

Page detailing births and deaths in the Anversa family.

Here we have a small peek into a tragedy that impacted so many early modern families. It appears that the first Avraham died, perhaps shortly after birth. The next son was named for the first, with the added name “Hayim,” (i.e. life), as a prayer that this child not suffer the same fate as his brother. Unfortunately, though, there is a notation next to that entry as well, indicating the Avraham Hayim passed away on 6 Tishre, in the year 1701.

Yitshak’s son Elyakim seems to have inherited the book, and he continued writing  the family history. Elyakim provides the date for his own marriage, to a woman named (like his mother) Rahel, the daughter of Eliyahu Yeshurun, on 3 Adar in the year 1709. Elyakim wrote the details for his own children (noting that he named his first daughter Dina after his mother-in-law rather than his mother because his wife and his mother had the same name). His second and third daughters were named for his sisters, Esther and Palomba. Esther unfortunately died before her second year. Interestingly, the same narrative also includes children born to Yitshak’s son-in-law and Elyakim’s brother-in-law, Yitshak Servi, who married Elyakim’s sister Palomba. (None of the writers indicated who Yitshak Servi’s wife was, alas, and so I am very grateful to Francesca Bregoli who brought my attention to the Registres de ketubbot de la Nation juive de Livourne, which identified Palomba as Servi’s wife, and, in 1734, documented the marriage of Dina to Gherson de Mose Haim Esforno – Elyakim notes in this volume that their son was named after his father, Yitshak.) Thus, in just a few scribbled pages, we learn about four marriages, the birth (and in some cases, death) of multiple children, and about 75 years of family history.

Manuscript grammar book

But the Anversa family did not just chronicle family matters! After the manuscript grammar book, a few more pages (initially blank) were filled up, this time documenting the “shaking of the earth” in Livorno.  A major earthquake in Livorno is known to historians in the 1740s, but the list detailed here begins in Yitshak’s time, nearly 100 years earlier: on Passover in the year 1646. Here the author writes like a scientist – documenting even the hour of the day (22.5) that the earth shook. Further earthquakes are noted on Thursday, 12 Sivan (25 May), 1684 (in the 16th hour), Saturday night (1.5th hour) on 5 Av 1705 (26 July), and Wednesday, 13 Tevet 1712 (in the 9th hour). For the earthquake on 19 Sivan 1716, the author notes that he and his family were in the synagogue upon the first ‘quake, but there was a second one that Saturday night in the 2nd hour, and then the following Tuesday in the 11th hour.

First page listing earthquakes in Livorno

The printed editions of Masoret ha-Masoret and Tuv Ta’am complete the volume of linguistic works, and thus it ends. An additional clue to the people who owned and used the book use can be found in a censor’s mark on the very last page, indicating that the book was reviewed by the Ferraran censor Laurentius Franguellus, probably in 1575.

A person just opening or closing the volume might miss the incredible stories hidden within, but a closer look reveals the stories – of love and loss, of life and the shaking of the earth – that can be hidden within just a few pages.

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New electronic resources: Holocaust primary sources, Jewish Book history, and lots of e-books! https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/07/25/new-electronic-resources-holocaust-primary-sources-jewish-book-history-and-lots-of-e-books/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2022/07/25/new-electronic-resources-holocaust-primary-sources-jewish-book-history-and-lots-of-e-books/#respond Mon, 25 Jul 2022 14:47:36 +0000 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/?p=1475 Read More...

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We are constantly adding new physical books to the library’s Judaica collection, but during the summer, when Butler Library seems far away, electronic resources are key to scholarly research. In recent months, we have added a number of databases, e-books, and e-journals to our virtual collections which are accessible to Columbia users everywhere. Note that links require a Columbia ID and password for access.

We recently acquired a number of collections containing primary sources relating to the Holocaust (see our Holocaust Guide for many available primary and secondary sources dealing with the Holocaust).

The first volume of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures is now available to Columbia affiliates. This monumental new work, to be completed over the course of the next few years, will be a critical resources for students studying the Jewish book. Its first volume contains overview essays introducing the field, covering books in ancient times to the most contemporary research on the study of the Jewish book.

Following the addition of the Magnes e-book platform to our suite of e-books available to scholars doing work in Jewish Studies at Columbia, we also have access to over 2000 Hebrew e-books through the online database PSIK.  Records for all of these books are accessible directly in CLIO, so there’s no need to search another database for your desired title. Logging in with your Columbia e-mail address allows you to save books to an online library so you can save relevant parts of the books you’re using. Another collection of e-books we provide access to contains works produced by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Note that the electronic versions of the Littman books have a 30 month delay before they are accessible, which means you still have to visit Butler for the most recent copies!

Relatively new journals that are now accessible to Columbia users include Aschkenas: Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden and the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism
As always, don’t hesitate to be in touch with questions about these and all Columbia resources in Jewish Studies, or to suggest titles that you want to be sure we have.
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