Highlighting Jewish American Collections

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 […]

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New acquisitions roundup

Long roll of parchment with text

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 […]

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Hanukkah in the RBML

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 […]

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N. E. Alexander Library’s Celebration of Collections 2022!

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

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 […]

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Life, Love, Loss, and the Shaking of the Earth in Livorno

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 […]

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New electronic resources: Holocaust primary sources, Jewish Book history, and lots of e-books!

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 […]

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“Be Ready”: Anti-Fascist Yiddish Children’s Drawings in the Szajkowski Collections

Guest post by Daniela Goodman Rabner, BC ’22. Daniela spent the Spring 2022 semester inventorying and identifying Yiddish materials in the Zosa Szajkowski archive, so a new and significantly updated finding aid can provide increased access to the collection. She found some incredible gems along the way – some of the documents shown here will […]

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Manuscripts and Printed Books – all bound up

In the very name of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library is a distinction between printed books and those written by hand, or manuscripts. Columbia’s printed books are housed separately from the manuscript codices, and they’re generally considered to be separate kinds of materials.  In the early modern library, however, print and manuscript books sat […]

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