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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
As part of the follow up on the fantastic work that was done by Kelilah, Hannah, and Avinoam, I have been revisiting some of the interesting materials that they came across while working on cataloging our rare Judaica imprints. Below is just a sampling of some of the wonderful materials that we have in the […]
Happy New Year! December 2016 marked the end of a three year project to catalog Columbia’s rare Hebraica and Judaica collections. While Columbia has been collecting Judaica since its inception (with a donation from Kings’ College founder Samuel Johnson that included his Hebrew-Latin Psalms), many of the books were left uncataloged due to lack of […]
From its inception in 1754, the founders of Columbia University felt that the study of Hebrew was critical to understanding the classics. Columbia’s collection includes founder Samuel Johnson’s own copy of a Hebrew-Latin psalms with the Hebrew alphabet written in his own hand. Another professor in the 18th century was Johann Kunze, who taught Hebrew […]
The Conservation Department at Columbia University Libraries is an often unsung hero of the libraries. The work of their talented conservators encompasses all areas of the library, and ensures that our collections, both modern and ancient, will endure for years to come. Many times, in a routine conservation activity, hidden aspects of books come to […]
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 […]
We are very pleased to announce the recent acquisition of a haunting and beautiful portfolio of exhibition prints entitled All this has come upon us…, created by Dr. Mark Podwal. This series of images was created for an exhibition at the Terezin Ghetto Museum from April to July 2014. The series includes images relating to […]
In 1733, a man from Firenze, in Italy, named Moise (Moses) Vita (Hayyim) Cafsuto (Cassuto) set off on a journey to the Holy Land. He kept a diary of his travels throughout the Middle East, where he noted interesting sites (specifically Jewish ones, like graves and synagogues) and scenes along his journey. We recently acquired […]