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, […]
Category: Jews at Columbia
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 […]
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 […]
Jews at Columbia: Annie Nathan Meyer and the “College for Women”

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 […]
Jews at Columbia: The beginnings of Jewish Studies (1854-1901)

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 […]
Jews at Columbia: The first hundred years (1754-1854)

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 […]