The Penn Libraries have launched a new website, the Gershwind-Bennett Isaac Leeser Digitization Project, featuring access to the personal papers and publications of Isaac Leeser, widely regarded as the foremost American Jewish leader in antebellum America The Leeser site, developed as an international partnership over the course of seven years, is the first of a number […]
Online Resources: Holocaust and Genocide
The Shoah Visual History Archive is largest database of first-person Holocaust testimonies, founded by Steven Spielberg. With over 50,000 testimonies from Holocaust survivors and liberators, carefully indexed in short segments for ease of searchability and use, the VHA is a tremendous resource for the history of the Holocaust. Recently, the VHA has expanded to include […]
Crowdsourcing Yiddish transcription/translation
As anyone who has done research using Yiddish newspapers can tell you, it's not easy to find primary sources, especially those from newspapers, in the digital world. While Yiddish newspapers contain critical information about the labor industry, immigration, the Jewish day-to-day environment, and so much else, finding these materials is not easy, and often requires […]
New Resource: Early New York Synagogue Archives
Synagogue records, as records of a particular community in a particular place, can contain tremendous gems for scholarship in Jewish history. Thanks to a wonderful collaboration between the The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the American Jewish Historical Society, the records of five of the most important synagogues in New York City are […]
Updated Resource: The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
"The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP) were established in 1939. They hold the archives of hundreds of Jewish communities, as well as of local, national and international Jewish organizations and the private collections of many outstanding Jewish personalities. The Archives now hold the most extensive collection of documents, pinkassim (registers) […]
David Stern Lecture: The Lives of Jewish Books
As we near the close of physical version of The People in the Books (the online version will, of course remain online), we look forward to one more lecture dealing with Hebrew manuscripts. On January 22, as part of the Grolier Club's Bibliography Week, Professor David Stern (University of Pennsylvania) will be speaking at Columbia […]
Discoveries in the vault – a book collector’s book
One of the wonderful things about being the first librarian for Jewish Studies at Columbia is the constant discovery that takes place as I research and document the history of the Judaica collection. In the process of reviewing a list of Hebrew books in the Columbia Manuscript Room (which included both rare printed books and […]
Digital Exhibition: Leaving Europe: A New Life in America
Cambridge, MA, USA / The Hague, Netherlands, 18 December 2012 – To mark the beginning of a unique digital collaboration, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and Europeana are pleased to announce the launch of Leaving Europe: A new life in America. The all-new virtual exhibition tells the story of European emigration to the […]
New Acquisitions: Bookdealers and Sabbateans
I am pleased to announce two new acquisitions for the Judaica collection at Columbia: 1) A small collection of materials from Judaica bookdealers around the world in the first part of the 20th century. A brief description: Collection of letters and ephemera relating to the Judaica book trade, most from 1926-1955. The collection includes […]
Ruth Wisse at Columbia: Tuesday, November 27
Please join us on Tuesday, November 27, for the 2nd Annual Norman E. Alexander Lecture in Jewish Studies. […]