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 […]
Books tell stories. Not only through the texts written or printed within them, but also through the ephemera and paratexts – the bindings, the inscriptions, even wax seals casually stamped in the back of a volume. Such is the case with a volume in Columbia’s collection, cataloged with the call number B893.14 Y11. There are […]
In 2018, we decided to partner with a developer named Russel Neiss to create an automated Twitter account that randomly selects and posts images from the Hebrew manuscript collection on the Internet Archive. In doing so, we have not only made the manuscripts available to an audience that includes people who could not or would […]
"The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP) were established in 1939. They hold the archives of hundreds of Jewish communities, as well as of local, national and international Jewish organizations and the private collections of many outstanding Jewish personalities. The Archives now hold the most extensive collection of documents, pinkassim (registers) […]
The Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has been helping Jews around the world since its inception at the onset of World War I in 1914. Its archives have long been a resource for scholars researching Jewish immigration, anti-semitism, Jewish aid, geneology, and many other topics. Now, for the first time, the JDC Archives from 1914-1932 are […]
The word manuscript comes from a combination of two Latin words (manu, meaning "hand"; and script, meaning "writing"). In the literal definition of the word, a manuscript is anything written by hand (as opposed to printed). The manuscript you see in this post would not be found as part of our "Hebrew manuscript collection," but […]
"The Harvard Law School Library has approximately one million pages of documents relating to the trial of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) and to the twelve trials of other accused war criminals before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT)." The Law Library has undertaken a tremendous […]
I am very pleased to announce a new database available at Columbia, Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954. According to their own description: "Jewish Life in America will enable you to explore the history of Jewish communities in America from the arrival of the first Jews in the 17th century right through to the mid-20th century. […]
On Wednesday, February 23, 1820 (8 Adar 5580), Abraham son of Hayyim Shaptai and Esther, daughter of Jacob were married in Corfu. This Ketubah (MS X893 K51991) is one of about 50 ketubot in the Columbia collection, of which about 20 are from Corfu. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, Jews have been known to live […]