In recent years, through the kindness of several donors, we’ve been grateful to be able to conserve many items from our collections. Most recently, the Gottschalk Foundation has generously supported the conservation of a number of items from the collection that could no longer be used or needed significant work for proper maintenance. The most […]
The Law Library at Columbia is one of a handful of libraries at Columbia (along with Barnard, Teachers’ College and the Medical School) that are under a different administration, and thus are somewhat separate from the overall Columbia Libraries system. That being said, all of our libraries work very closely together, and there is still […]
One of the most common questions we get in the N.E.A. Library is “where is the library located?” The answer is…complicated. Just like Jews live all over the world, and are incredibly diverse in their experiences, activities, and practices, books and other library resources about Jews can be found in all libraries on campus. So […]
In the fall of 2025, Professor Rebecca Kobrin led a class focusing on the history of Jews in New York – and specifically, at Columbia – in the 20th century. We hope to feature a series of posts that resulted from the research in the class. This post is by Vera Kurczewski, CC ’29. […]
In the fall of 2025, Professor Rebecca Kobrin led a class focusing on the history of Jews in New York – and specifically, at Columbia – throughout history. We hope to feature a series of posts that resulted from the research in the class. This post is by Sonya Saepoff, M.A. ’26. “Menorah Societies” (described […]
It’s been a while since we’ve posted about recent additions to the library’s unique collections, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been coming in! Here’s a sampling of some new and exciting additions to the library: In the literary realm, we acquired a polemical manuscript from Italy, a grammatical text formerly owned by S.D. Luzzatto […]
In conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, a new exhibition has been mounted on the third floor of Butler Library (on either side of the circulation desk). The exhibit consists of eight cases. The first case describes the earliest Hebrew classes (taught by Columbia founder Samuel Johnson) through […]
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 […]