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. […]
Guest Post: The Columbia University Menorah Society (Sonya Saepoff)
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 […]
New acquisitions roundup, 2025 edition
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 […]
Exhibition: “Jewish Studies at Columbia: From Samuel Johnson to the IIJS”
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 […]
Manuscripts of the Yemenite Jewish Experience
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 […]
The Seth Low Scop: A Hidden Story, Now Revealed (Guest Post)
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, […]
Jews at Columbia: The Later Butler Years and World War II
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 […]
Artist Books: Jewish edition
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, […]
Jews at Columbia: The early Butler years and the Trustee question (1901-1920)
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 […]
Norman E. Alexander Celebration of Collections 2024
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. […]