FIVE CENTURIES OF THE GLOBAL JEWISH BOOK: HIGHLIGHTS OF WESTERN LIBRARIES’ JUDAICA COLLECTION DAVID SCHLITT, JUDAICA PROJECT ARCHIVIST WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
“ A PORTABLE HOMELAND ” “The Koran calls Jews a ‘people of the book’, but this is an understatement. We are a people only because of the book. […] It was, said the German poet Heinrich Heine, the ‘portable homeland’ of the Jew .” “ The key word of the twenty-first century is ‘ globalisation ’ . For most, it is the newest of the new. For Jews it is the oldest of the old. Since the Babylonian exile twenty-six centuries ago, certainly since the Roman era two thousand years ago, Jews lived at great distances from one another, yet they were connected by a thousand gossamer strands of the spirit. They were the world ’ s first and, until recently, its only global people. ” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Heinrich Heine, Geständnisse (1854)
OYFN PRIPETSHIK (BY THE HEARTH) M. Warshawski (1848-1907) Oyfn pripetshik brent a fayerl, By the hearth a fire burns, Un in shtub iz heys, in the house it ’ s warm / And Un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh, the Rabbi teaches small Dem alef-beys. children the Alef-Beys […] [ … ] Az ir vet, kinder, dem goles shlepn, When you grow weary from Oysgemutshet zayn, shlepping the exile / Draw Zolt ir fun di oysyes koyekh shepn, strength from the letters – Kukt in zey arayn! look into them! Illustration from Leipzig Machzor (ca. 1310)
APRIL 2018 “ To that end, and prior to these anti- Semitic incidents, the Libraries [have] been actively acquiring content related to Jewish and Holocaust Studies in order to support both the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity, and Jewish Studies coursework at Western. ” (Western Libraries Responds to Antisemitism, Book Vandalism, April 3, 2018)
NOVEMBER 2018 Transfer of over 3000 volumes from the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley to WWU: 1. Edward S. Setchko Holocaust Collection: 40 boxes (approx. 1000 volumes) 2. Rare books in Judaica, 16 th -20 th century: 28 boxes 3. Magnes Museum collections (Rare books & Western Americana): 25 boxes
THE GLOBAL JEWISH BOOK (I) Venice Constantinople Zhitomir Budapest San Francisco Livorno Safed Posen (Pozna ń ) B ę dzin Shanghai Prague Frankfurt am Main Krotoszyn Melbourne Satu Mare Kraków Liady Czernowitz (Cern ă u ț i) Mexico City London Lublin Mohilev Munkács Minsk Offenbach Amsterdam Jerusalem Pressburg (Bratislava) Salonica (Thessaloniki) Metz Ż ó ł kiew (Zhovkva) Kopys Bardejov Calcutta (Kolkata) Baghdad Nowy Dwór Berdichev Odessa Fürth Aleppo Lwów (Lemberg) Sudilkov Saint Petersburg Leipzig Djerba Szk ł ów (Shklov) Vienna Kiev Danzig (Gdansk) Buenos Aires Korets Warsaw Tel Aviv Sulzbach Paris Dubno Vilnius (Wilno) Berlin Koenigsberg Tunis Slavuta Tarnopol New York Lyck Irkutsk Ostróg Jozefów Piotrków Algiers Havana…
THE GLOBAL JEWISH BOOK (II) 1. Rosh Amana (Constantinople : Dav ̣ id and Samuel ibn Nah ̣ mias, 1505) Venice, 16 th Century 2. 3. Sefer Elim (Amsterdam : Menassah b. Israel, 1629) Amsterdam, 17 th Century 4. 5. Amarot Tehorot (Frankfurt-am-Main : Johannes Wust, 1698) Russian Empire, 19 th Century 6. 7. Sefer Zivhe Tsedek (Baghdad : Sh. B. Hutsin, 1904)
DEVELOPMENT OF ASHKENAZ , 11 TH -15 TH CENTURY
THE ERDINE LETTER, RABBI ISAAC SARFATI (1454) “I have heard of the afflictions, bitterer than death, that have befallen our brethren in Germany, of the tyrannical laws, the compulsory baptism and the banishment, which are of daily occurrence. […] “Brothers and teachers, friends and acquaintances! I, Isaac Sarfati … I proclaim to you that Turkey is a land wherein nothing is lacking, and where, if you will, all shall yet be well with you… Here every man may dwell at peace under his own vine and fig tree… Here you are allowed to wear the most precious garments.” (Quoted in Jews of Islam, by Bernard Lewis)
DEVELOPMENT OF SEPHARAD , 15 TH -18 TH CENTURY
ROSH AMANA Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) Constantinople : David and Samuel ibn Nachmias, 1505
VENICE, 16 TH CENTURY “ The main Jewish printing center in the world. ” (YIVO Encyclopedia, “ Printing and Publishing before 1800 ” )
VENICE, 16 TH CENTURY 1. Halikhot Olam (Venice: Printed by Cornelius Adelkind for Giovanni Farri & Brothers, 1544) [not pictured] 2. Avodat ha-Levi, Solomon ben Eliezer ha-Levi (Venice : Marco Antonio Giustiniani, 1545) 3. Le-khol Hefets, Eliezer Mili, ed. (Venice : Daniel ben Cornelius Adelkind, 1552)
PRINTERS’ MARKS (I) Marco Antonio Giustiniani (Venice, 1545-1552)
THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY? Prague, 1570 Lublin, 1574
Prague: Mordecai ben Venice: Giustiniani, 1545 Lublin: Kalonymous ben Gershom Katz, 1570 Mordecai Jaffe, 1574
SEFER ELIM Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591-1655) Amsterdam : Manasseh ben Israel, 1629
SEFER ELIM Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591-1655) Amsterdam: Manasseh ben Israel, 1629
Delmedigo’s Enlightenment: Menachem Mendel Lefin (1749-1826) (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews)
Delmedigo’s Enlightenment: Matsref le-khokhma (D. Tursh: Warsaw, 1890)
Delmedigo ’ s Enlightenment: Matsref le-khokhma (D. Tursh: Warsaw, 1890)
AMSTERDAM, 17 TH CENTURY: “Fugitives from the Inquisition” ( The Hebrew Book , Posner & Ta-Shema, eds.) Zayit Ra’anan , Solomon de Oliveyra (Amsterdam : David de Castro Tartas, 1683)
AMSTERDAM, 17 TH CENTURY Solomon de Oliveyra (d. 1708): Zayit ra’anan (Amsterdam : David de Castro Tartas, 1683) Sharsherot Gavlut - Rhyming roots. (Amsterdam : David de Castro Tartas, 1665) Igeret – Ayelet Ahavim - Morals in verse and rhyme. (Amsterdam : David de Castro Tartas, 1665)
PRINTERS ’ MARKS (II) Samuel Proops (Amsterdam, 1704-1734)
AMSTERDAM, 17 TH CENTURY “ Be’otiot Amsterdam ”
AMAROT TEHOROT Menahem Azariah da Fano (1548-1620) Frankfurt-am-Main : Johannes Wust, 1698
AMAROT TEHOROT Menahem Azariah da Fano (1548-1620) Frankfurt-am-Main : Johannes Wust, 1698 CPSCRM: “ Cum privilegio Sacrae Caesaris Maiestatis ” (Used in the area within the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Emperor).
RUSSIAN EMPIRE, MID-19 TH CENTURY 1. ROMM (Vilna, 1799-1910) 2. SHAPIRA (Slavuta, 1791- 1835; Zhitomir, 1847-1862) Babylonian Talmud (Vilna: Widow & Brothers Romm, Shulhan Arukh ( S ́ lav ̣ uta: M. Shapira, 1826-27) 1880-86) [Image courtesy Kestenbaum & Co.]
JEWISH WOMEN IN HEBREW PRINTING Mahzor le-Rosh ha-Shana (Lemberg: Portrait of Dvoyre Romm. Vilna, c.1900 Pessel Balaban, 1889) (YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland)
SEFER ZIVHE TSEDEK Abdullah Somekh (1813-1889) Baghdad : Shlomo Bekhor Hutsin, 1904
Sefer Yosifon (Calcutta : Eleazar ben Aaron Saadiah Iraqi ha-Cohen, 1841-1842).
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