This was originally written for the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies‘ magazine, 2024 edition. It is presented here with some light edits and news about a recent acquisition since the article was first published. The country of Yemen, at the entrance of the Red Sea, has been in the news quite a lot in […]
Relly Robinson, BC ’25, is a Barnard College senior majoring in English. I have been working for Michelle Margolis at the Jewish Studies department of Columbia Libraries for over two years. In that time I have worked on countless different projects that make up a small part of our libraries’ vast collections of Jewish artifacts, […]
Once again, many thanks to Joanna Rios and Jocelyn Wilk for their assistance with tracking down citations – and always suggesting good rabbitholes for further research! Notwithstanding the difficulties of the earlier years of Nicholas Murray Butler’s presidency, and the rising antisemitism in other parts of the world, the 1930s and 1940s showed a remarkable […]
On the website of Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, under “What we collect,” there’s an intriguing designation: “Printing History and Book Arts.” The description reads: The Book Arts have been a collecting focus of RBML since its inception in 1930. It contains both “books about books,” that is books about paper and other substrates, […]
Nicholas Murray Butler’s presidency would usher in a new era for Columbia. Although the move uptown to the present location in Morningside Heights began under President Seth Low (the campus would be dedicated in 1896), the new campus would expand considerably under Butler’s tenure, and Columbia would rise to international stature during that time. Butler […]
Save the date! We eagerly await this year’s Norman E. Alexander Celebration of Collections on December 5, which will feature the Inquisition in Bologna, Jews at Barnard in the late 19th century, and a unique story from early modern Prague. For more information and to register, see here. […]
Until now, we’ve only been discussing the men’s institution known as King’s College and then Columbia. We’ll now take brief detour across Broadway to learn about the Jewish connections to Barnard College.* In the late 19th century, a young Jewish woman named Annie Nathan Meyer was increasingly frustrated by the barriers to women attempting to […]
In the first hundred years of Jews at Columbia we already saw how Columbia – as an institution in the middle of a major city (unlike its Ivy-draped peers) – took a bit of a different turn when it came to inclusion of people who practiced religion differently than the majority. This second post in […]
Many of our posts have dealt with Jewish-related material at Columbia, focusing on the importance of the study of Hebrew to its founder and subsequent 18th century instructors, and even about finding American Jewish history in the collections. This series will focus on the Jews at Columbia through the 20th century, starting with its first […]
Over the course of the last year, many books in the Norman E. Alexander Library have been repaired through the excellent conservation work of Abigail Slawik and other experts whose expertise was funded through the generosity of multiple donors. Abby’s work has included the repair and rebinding of a 14th century Spanish Hebrew Bible held […]