Our latest newsletter is up! Click here to download our Spring 2016 newsletter (with live links). Highlights include: details about the Jewish collections included in the Global Studies exhibition in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library; updates on the digitization of the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry; links to the video for the […]
Three kabbalistic “brother” manuscripts identified: Paris, London, and New York
The British Library is working on digitizing their complete (and incredible) collection of Hebrew manuscripts. In the process of doing so, they have been asking scholars, experts in their various fields, to write articles on various aspects of the Hebrew manuscripts. This was the case with a recent article written by noted Kabbalah scholar Yossi […]
Jewish Studies materials to be featured in Global Studies exhibit, April 4-June 24, 2016
Six items from the Jewish Studies collections will be featured as part of an exhibit featuring Global materials in Columbia’s Special Collections (more information about the general exhibit below). Included in the Jewish Studies portion will be a manuscript copy of Spinoza’s Opera Posthuma; a Jewish elegy for Maria Theresa of Austria; a scroll of […]
Adventures in the Stacks: Everything Old is New Again
The wonderful thing about Columbia’s rare Judaica collection is that there is so much yet to be discovered – and rediscovered! A brief foray into the RBML rare stacks always yields wonderful stories. A couple of weeks ago, I began looking at some of the very largest rare Hebrew books, trying to see if any […]
New Acquisitions: Prague history, 15th c. Yiddish medicine, and Italian Broadsides
It has been a busy year for Judaica acquisitions at the Columbia RBML. Three important acquisitions have been added to our collection: A collection of forty Italian Broadsides depicting regulations on various communities (including Ferrara, Padua, Ancona, and others), only one of which is in the extensive Valmadonna collection of broadsides. We plan to digitize […]
5th Annual NEA Lecture: David Ruderman on “Missionaries, Mushumadim, and Maskilim
We are pleased to announce that David Ruderman (University of Pennsylvania) will be presented the 5th Annual Norman E. Alexander Lecture in Jewish Studies. His topic will discuss a unique instance in Jewish history where Maskilim (Enlightened Jews) defended traditional Judaism against missionary Alexander McCaul. Reception to follow the lecture. Additionally, our brand new NEA […]
New Databases for the new academic year! Hebrew books and Talmud Index
Just in time for the beginning of the Fall semester, I am pleased to announce the purchase of two new databases for Columbia’s Judaica collection: 1. Otzar HaHochma – a database of 72,700 digitized Hebrew books, from the 15th century to the present day. Includes books from the presses of Mossad HaRav Kook and Mekhon […]
Salo Baron on building up Columbia’s Judaica manuscript collection
As cited in Tablet Magazine, from David L. Langenberg, ed., Of Many Generations: Judaica and Hebraica from the Taube-Baron Collection. “Columbia at that time had only a small collection of Hebraica and Judaica, largely donated by Temple Emanu-El. This collection was valuable from an antiquarian standpoint, but could hardly be of any use to a class […]
Isaac Newton’s Josephus (and others) at Columbia
Columbia’s printed Judaica collection is composed of many different books, each with their own story to tell. Unfortunately, however, only about 1/3 of our books were actually in our online catalog. To rectify this, we hired Hannah Vaitsblit, a Barnard student who has been carefully checking every Judaica book in our rare stacks to make […]
NEH grant to digitize LCAAJ (Yiddish language archive)
Columbia University Libraries/Information Services (CUL/IS) has received an award of $150,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize field notes and linguistic surveys from the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (LCAAJ) archive. The LCAAJ archive is an extraordinary resource for research in Yiddish studies that can shed much valuable light on […]