Libraries tend to be dedicated to open access, devoted to making their collections available to anyone in need of research. With a recent announcement from a Harvard Judaica Librarian, we see that Harvard is definitely on board with this. The Judaica publications that they have digitized include work on Yiddish language and literature, Israel Studies, […]
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Hebrew mss @ CUL: Jews and Privileges in Germany
The Hebrew manuscript collection at CUL is quite wide-ranging, covering space from India to the Carribean, and time from the 10th to the 20th centuries. It has particularly strong coverage of the early modern period, with substantial historical materials from Italy and Amsterdam, Greece (Corfu) and France. One obvious lacuna for our collection was the […]
Online Resources: Finding Archives
It is true that the business of doing history in today’s internet age has become much easier, but there are still a tremendous amount of resources that are only available physically. One example of this is archives, or collections of papers (personal or institutional). Archives can range from the very small (one or two folders) […]
Hebrew Mss @ CUL: The Pope, the Sun King, and a Hebrew prayerbook in Southern France
Throughout the centuries leading up to the French Revolution, the Jews of France were alternatively expelled and invited back many times (the 14th and 17th centuries were particularly confusing in this regard). Throughout this time, however, there were four cities that remained consistently safe for Jews. Ironically (but perhaps not too surprisingly for those familiar […]
Staying on top of research: Rambi feeds and Google Reader
With so much work being published in so many different forums in today’s world, it is hard to know when relevant research is published. Enter a match made in heaven: RAMBI feeds and Google Reader! RAMBI, discussed earlier here, is a catalog of articles and chapters in the field of Jewish Studies. RAMBI allows scholars […]
Hebrew MSS @CUL: Digitized Manuscripts
As of today, about 50 manuscripts from the Columbia Hebrew manuscript collection are now available digitally, through a project with the new National Library of Israel and the Institute for Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts (IMHM). The IMHM started in the 1960s, with the goal of microfilming all Hebrew manuscripts in existence. It has succeeded tremendously, and now […]
CCNMTL And JTS Announce New Partnership
[See original press release here] The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) announced a three-year pilot project to have CCNMTL support JTS faculty in the purposeful use of technology and new media in teaching and learning. As part of the agreement, CCNMTL will open a satellite […]
Hebrew Mss @ CUL: New Aquisitions in History
In February of 1988, the Library Columns, the publication of the Columbia University Libraries, had a note about a donation from Mr. and Mrs. Schaefler. The donation described, among other items, "…fourteenth-century documents pertaining to commercial transactions of the Jewish community at Apt in Provence, France." Six of these manuscripts have been digitized, and are […]
Two new digital manuscript sites: Dead Sea Scrolls and Maimonides
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd exploring a cave in the Judean desert came across a fantastic treasure trove of Hebrew documents from the third to the first centuries BCE. The Dead Sea Scrolls, as we now know them, are now the oldest known Biblical manuscripts in existence. While they can be viewed today at the […]
RAMBI: The Index to Articles in Jewish Studies
One of the first things to do before embarking on any research is to check the current work on the topic being studied. In many cases, this can be very daunting: How do I find what has already been done? Sure, I can check CLIO to see if there are books published in my area of […]