In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Div... more In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Division of the Harvard Library, published a blue, cloth-bound volume entitled Harvard Judaica (Berlin 2004) to mark the fortieth anniversary of the start of the programmatic development of the Harvard University Library’s Judaica collections (1962–2002).1 This new, school-colored crimson, also hardback volume, Harvard Judaica in the 21st Century, published a decade later, may be read both as a sequel and also as a prequel. Where the fortieth anniversary volume was understated and reflective; the latter is celebratory and future oriented even as both look back on past achievements. If the 2004 volume is mostly about the history of a collection and its development, the 2014 jubilee volume is a tribute to the people who made it great. It also is self-consciously presented in the introduction as an “ethical will” by its founder to future stewards of the collection. This bequest is not only mat...
The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated sinc... more The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated since antiquity. From monaltry to monotheism, from Plato to the American penny's e pluribus unum, successive cultures have struggled to make sense of how particular elements participate in and belong to universal categories. I Recent debates over the historical definition of the term Haskalah echo this ancient dilemma, which is inextricably bound up with a key ideological controversy concerning the modern Jewish experience. 2 The German-Jewish experience, it has been argued, provides a "mirror of modernity" for all modernizing Jewish experiences. 3 Whatever regional variations may exist in Jewish experiences of enlightenment and modernization, according to this argument, these details pale beside the profound and overarching commonalities intrinsic to the trends first manifested and consciously, programmatically articulated by Jews in German-speaking lands. Until recently, alternative accounts of Jewish modernization have largely been erased, delegitimized, or downplayed. Revealingly, the experiences of Jews in Muslim lands and in the western diasporas of England and America have been particularly widely ignored. Jewish modernization in these areas did not follow the familiar pattern of hope, crisis, despair, emigration, and national rebirth that was influentially staked out as paradigmatic by a generation of historians of German and Eastern European Jewry. The traditional definition and circumscription of the term Haskalah, thus, has contributed in part to the exclusion, until recently, of both these regions from the mainstream of modern Jewish historiography.4 I would here like to challenge this regnant model of Haskalah, not by
Que to volume e tato realizzato in occa ione del bicentenario della cas a editrice Salomone Belfo... more Que to volume e tato realizzato in occa ione del bicentenario della cas a editrice Salomone Belforte & c. di Livorno.. . II aogio di Arthur Kiron , uratore delle ludaica Collection dell.a OIv~r Ity of Penn b ylvania Library, e tata pre entato il~. occa ione ?el convegno 1I1ternazlonale /I
The history of Harvard University’s sui generis Judaica Division and its collections are summariz... more The history of Harvard University’s sui generis Judaica Division and its collections are summarized with principled clarity and remarkable reserve in this new publication of the Harvard College Library. The author, Charles Berlin, the Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica in the Harvard College Library and Head of its Judaica Division, is uniquely qualified to tell this story. Indeed, he is the author not only of this volume, but also of much of the recent history it recounts between its elegant, gold-embossed, yet understated hardbound covers. Given the extraordinary scope of Berlin’s achievements, this reviewer must pause to acknowledge his 42 years of contributions, which are recorded her
One of the most spectacular yet quiet revolutions in the modern study of the history of the Medit... more One of the most spectacular yet quiet revolutions in the modern study of the history of the Mediterranean world has resulted from the recovery just over a hundred years ago of the contents of an attic storehold in the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Old Cairo. The Cairo genizah (the technical, religious term applied to a storage area for consigning, or hiding away the worn remains of texts considered narrowly or generally sacred, or even heretical, but in either case unfit for ritual use), has yielded an unprecedented cache of more than 200,000 fragmentary documents, most of which date from the 9th through the 15th centuries CE. The story of a major part of this treasure trove, its origins, rediscovery and relocation from Cairo to Cambridge University, and the significance of its contents is the subject of this much needed survey by Stefan C. Reif
An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of... more An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of Ze\u27ev Gries\u27s ha-Sefer ke-sokhen tarbut, be-shanim 1700-1900 ( The Book as an Agent of Culture, 1700-1900 ). In this slim volume, as he subsequently and modestly would refer to it, Gries introduced his readers to what he calls in Hebrew toldot ha-sefer ha-Yehudi (the History of the Jewish book ). The book, based on his twenty-five previous years of research in the field, offered new insights and raised new questions. Thanks to this 2007 English-language edition, Gries\u27s scholarship happily can reach a broader audience. Moreover, as Gries explains in his preface to the English edition, the present volume draws heavily on (the Hebrew edition) but is not a direct translation. At the same time, Gries acknowledges and thanks Jeffrey Green for translating the original Hebrew text as the basis of the present book. Originally published in Hebrew by ha-J9buts ha-me\u27ul).ad at the sugg...
Yosef Goldman’s superb revitalization of our knowledge of Hebrew printing in America from colonia... more Yosef Goldman’s superb revitalization of our knowledge of Hebrew printing in America from colonial times through the period of mass migration effectively challenges the widespread prejudice that the United States, and American Jewish history with it, has amounted to a treyfene medine, a wasteland unsuitable for Jewish life. Indeed, this beautifully executed two-volume work is not only a hefty counter-weight to that negative opinion; it also raises the bar of expectations for future bibliographies of Judaica of all kinds. The conception and design of this work effectively centralize in one convenient place, for easy reference and research, all the currently available information about printing in Hebrew letters in one region of the world, and the circulation of these imprints around the globe from 1735 to 1926
An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of... more An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of Ze'ev Gries's ha-Sefer ke-sokhen tarbut, be-shanim 1700-1900 ("The Book as an Agent of Culture, 1700-1900"). In this "slim volume, " as he subse-quently and modestly would refer to it, Gries intro-duced his readers to what he calls in Hebrew "toldot ha-sefer ha-Yehudi " (the "History of the Jewish book"). The book, based on his twenty-five previous years of research in the field, offered new insights and raised new questions. Thanks to this 2007 English-language edition, Gries's scholarship happily can reach a broader audience. Moreover, as Gries explains in his preface to the English edi-tion, "the present volume draws heavily on (the
The changes the Library at the Katz Center has undergone over the last twenty years offer a vivid... more The changes the Library at the Katz Center has undergone over the last twenty years offer a vivid case study for exploring the impact of new technologies on the practices of Judaica librarianship and Judaic scholarship.
This path-breaking collection of studies explores the cultural implications of the digital revolu... more This path-breaking collection of studies explores the cultural implications of the digital revolution in communication for a diverse range of Jewish religious communities and their institutions. This cultural turn, shifting the focus from digital technologies to the people who use them, reflects the critical methodologies and broad fields of research of the editor, Heidi Campbell, an Associate Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. Campbell comes at this task as a scholar of Media Studies, an author of numerous works that analyze the relationship between technology and religion, and director of the Network in New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies. The second in a series on religion and digital culture published by Routledge, 1 edited by Campbell, Mia Löveheim, and Greg Grieve, Digital Judaism looks at the diverse ways in which the internet and digital media have made an impact on the online and offline religious practices and lived experiences of Jews. The book provides a new framework for analyzing how these diverse Jewish communities negotiate their relationships with new media technologies (e.g., the internet, smartphone, apps) and social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and memes). In so doing, it makes a compelling argument for paying careful attention to national and local contexts and the personal agency exercised by Jews across and beyond the familiar denominational spectrum of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Div... more In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Division of the Harvard Library, published a blue, cloth-bound volume entitled Harvard Judaica (Berlin 2004) to mark the fortieth anniversary of the start of the programmatic development of the Harvard University Library's Judaica collections (1962-2002).1 This new, school-colored crimson, also hardback volume, Harvard Judaica in the 21st Century, published a decade later, may be read both as a sequel and also as a prequel. Where the fortieth anniversary volume was understated and reflective; the latter is celebratory and future oriented even as both look back on past achievements. If the 2004 volume is mostly about the history of a collection and its development, the 2014 jubilee volume is a tribute to the people who made it great. It also is self-consciously presented in the introduction as an "ethical will" by its founder to future stewards of the collection. This bequest is not only material, but also spiritual. It is an effort to share a lifetime of wisdom and practical experience and a hope for the future.
The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated sinc... more The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated since antiquity. From monaltry to monotheism, from Plato to the American penny's e pluribus unum, successive cultures have struggled to make sense of how particular elements participate in and belong to universal categories. I Recent debates over the historical definition of the term Haskalah echo this ancient dilemma, which is inextricably bound up with a key ideological controversy concerning the modern Jewish experience. 2 The German-Jewish experience, it has been argued, provides a "mirror of modernity" for all modernizing Jewish experiences. 3 Whatever regional variations may exist in Jewish experiences of enlightenment and modernization, according to this argument, these details pale beside the profound and overarching commonalities intrinsic to the trends first manifested and consciously, programmatically articulated by Jews in German-speaking lands. Until recently, alternative accounts of Jewish modernization have largely been erased, delegitimized, or downplayed. Revealingly, the experiences of Jews in Muslim lands and in the western diasporas of England and America have been particularly widely ignored. Jewish modernization in these areas did not follow the familiar pattern of hope, crisis, despair, emigration, and national rebirth that was influentially staked out as paradigmatic by a generation of historians of German and Eastern European Jewry. The traditional definition and circumscription of the term Haskalah, thus, has contributed in part to the exclusion, until recently, of both these regions from the mainstream of modern Jewish historiography.4 I would here like to challenge this regnant model of Haskalah, not by
In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Div... more In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Division of the Harvard Library, published a blue, cloth-bound volume entitled Harvard Judaica (Berlin 2004) to mark the fortieth anniversary of the start of the programmatic development of the Harvard University Library’s Judaica collections (1962–2002).1 This new, school-colored crimson, also hardback volume, Harvard Judaica in the 21st Century, published a decade later, may be read both as a sequel and also as a prequel. Where the fortieth anniversary volume was understated and reflective; the latter is celebratory and future oriented even as both look back on past achievements. If the 2004 volume is mostly about the history of a collection and its development, the 2014 jubilee volume is a tribute to the people who made it great. It also is self-consciously presented in the introduction as an “ethical will” by its founder to future stewards of the collection. This bequest is not only mat...
The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated sinc... more The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated since antiquity. From monaltry to monotheism, from Plato to the American penny's e pluribus unum, successive cultures have struggled to make sense of how particular elements participate in and belong to universal categories. I Recent debates over the historical definition of the term Haskalah echo this ancient dilemma, which is inextricably bound up with a key ideological controversy concerning the modern Jewish experience. 2 The German-Jewish experience, it has been argued, provides a "mirror of modernity" for all modernizing Jewish experiences. 3 Whatever regional variations may exist in Jewish experiences of enlightenment and modernization, according to this argument, these details pale beside the profound and overarching commonalities intrinsic to the trends first manifested and consciously, programmatically articulated by Jews in German-speaking lands. Until recently, alternative accounts of Jewish modernization have largely been erased, delegitimized, or downplayed. Revealingly, the experiences of Jews in Muslim lands and in the western diasporas of England and America have been particularly widely ignored. Jewish modernization in these areas did not follow the familiar pattern of hope, crisis, despair, emigration, and national rebirth that was influentially staked out as paradigmatic by a generation of historians of German and Eastern European Jewry. The traditional definition and circumscription of the term Haskalah, thus, has contributed in part to the exclusion, until recently, of both these regions from the mainstream of modern Jewish historiography.4 I would here like to challenge this regnant model of Haskalah, not by
Que to volume e tato realizzato in occa ione del bicentenario della cas a editrice Salomone Belfo... more Que to volume e tato realizzato in occa ione del bicentenario della cas a editrice Salomone Belforte & c. di Livorno.. . II aogio di Arthur Kiron , uratore delle ludaica Collection dell.a OIv~r Ity of Penn b ylvania Library, e tata pre entato il~. occa ione ?el convegno 1I1ternazlonale /I
The history of Harvard University’s sui generis Judaica Division and its collections are summariz... more The history of Harvard University’s sui generis Judaica Division and its collections are summarized with principled clarity and remarkable reserve in this new publication of the Harvard College Library. The author, Charles Berlin, the Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica in the Harvard College Library and Head of its Judaica Division, is uniquely qualified to tell this story. Indeed, he is the author not only of this volume, but also of much of the recent history it recounts between its elegant, gold-embossed, yet understated hardbound covers. Given the extraordinary scope of Berlin’s achievements, this reviewer must pause to acknowledge his 42 years of contributions, which are recorded her
One of the most spectacular yet quiet revolutions in the modern study of the history of the Medit... more One of the most spectacular yet quiet revolutions in the modern study of the history of the Mediterranean world has resulted from the recovery just over a hundred years ago of the contents of an attic storehold in the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Old Cairo. The Cairo genizah (the technical, religious term applied to a storage area for consigning, or hiding away the worn remains of texts considered narrowly or generally sacred, or even heretical, but in either case unfit for ritual use), has yielded an unprecedented cache of more than 200,000 fragmentary documents, most of which date from the 9th through the 15th centuries CE. The story of a major part of this treasure trove, its origins, rediscovery and relocation from Cairo to Cambridge University, and the significance of its contents is the subject of this much needed survey by Stefan C. Reif
An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of... more An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of Ze\u27ev Gries\u27s ha-Sefer ke-sokhen tarbut, be-shanim 1700-1900 ( The Book as an Agent of Culture, 1700-1900 ). In this slim volume, as he subsequently and modestly would refer to it, Gries introduced his readers to what he calls in Hebrew toldot ha-sefer ha-Yehudi (the History of the Jewish book ). The book, based on his twenty-five previous years of research in the field, offered new insights and raised new questions. Thanks to this 2007 English-language edition, Gries\u27s scholarship happily can reach a broader audience. Moreover, as Gries explains in his preface to the English edition, the present volume draws heavily on (the Hebrew edition) but is not a direct translation. At the same time, Gries acknowledges and thanks Jeffrey Green for translating the original Hebrew text as the basis of the present book. Originally published in Hebrew by ha-J9buts ha-me\u27ul).ad at the sugg...
Yosef Goldman’s superb revitalization of our knowledge of Hebrew printing in America from colonia... more Yosef Goldman’s superb revitalization of our knowledge of Hebrew printing in America from colonial times through the period of mass migration effectively challenges the widespread prejudice that the United States, and American Jewish history with it, has amounted to a treyfene medine, a wasteland unsuitable for Jewish life. Indeed, this beautifully executed two-volume work is not only a hefty counter-weight to that negative opinion; it also raises the bar of expectations for future bibliographies of Judaica of all kinds. The conception and design of this work effectively centralize in one convenient place, for easy reference and research, all the currently available information about printing in Hebrew letters in one region of the world, and the circulation of these imprints around the globe from 1735 to 1926
An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of... more An important milestone in the study of the Jewish book was marked in 2002 with the publication of Ze'ev Gries's ha-Sefer ke-sokhen tarbut, be-shanim 1700-1900 ("The Book as an Agent of Culture, 1700-1900"). In this "slim volume, " as he subse-quently and modestly would refer to it, Gries intro-duced his readers to what he calls in Hebrew "toldot ha-sefer ha-Yehudi " (the "History of the Jewish book"). The book, based on his twenty-five previous years of research in the field, offered new insights and raised new questions. Thanks to this 2007 English-language edition, Gries's scholarship happily can reach a broader audience. Moreover, as Gries explains in his preface to the English edi-tion, "the present volume draws heavily on (the
The changes the Library at the Katz Center has undergone over the last twenty years offer a vivid... more The changes the Library at the Katz Center has undergone over the last twenty years offer a vivid case study for exploring the impact of new technologies on the practices of Judaica librarianship and Judaic scholarship.
This path-breaking collection of studies explores the cultural implications of the digital revolu... more This path-breaking collection of studies explores the cultural implications of the digital revolution in communication for a diverse range of Jewish religious communities and their institutions. This cultural turn, shifting the focus from digital technologies to the people who use them, reflects the critical methodologies and broad fields of research of the editor, Heidi Campbell, an Associate Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. Campbell comes at this task as a scholar of Media Studies, an author of numerous works that analyze the relationship between technology and religion, and director of the Network in New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies. The second in a series on religion and digital culture published by Routledge, 1 edited by Campbell, Mia Löveheim, and Greg Grieve, Digital Judaism looks at the diverse ways in which the internet and digital media have made an impact on the online and offline religious practices and lived experiences of Jews. The book provides a new framework for analyzing how these diverse Jewish communities negotiate their relationships with new media technologies (e.g., the internet, smartphone, apps) and social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and memes). In so doing, it makes a compelling argument for paying careful attention to national and local contexts and the personal agency exercised by Jews across and beyond the familiar denominational spectrum of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Div... more In 2004, Dr. Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Judaica Division of the Harvard Library, published a blue, cloth-bound volume entitled Harvard Judaica (Berlin 2004) to mark the fortieth anniversary of the start of the programmatic development of the Harvard University Library's Judaica collections (1962-2002).1 This new, school-colored crimson, also hardback volume, Harvard Judaica in the 21st Century, published a decade later, may be read both as a sequel and also as a prequel. Where the fortieth anniversary volume was understated and reflective; the latter is celebratory and future oriented even as both look back on past achievements. If the 2004 volume is mostly about the history of a collection and its development, the 2014 jubilee volume is a tribute to the people who made it great. It also is self-consciously presented in the introduction as an "ethical will" by its founder to future stewards of the collection. This bequest is not only material, but also spiritual. It is an effort to share a lifetime of wisdom and practical experience and a hope for the future.
The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated sinc... more The philosophical question of the relationship between the one and the many has been debated since antiquity. From monaltry to monotheism, from Plato to the American penny's e pluribus unum, successive cultures have struggled to make sense of how particular elements participate in and belong to universal categories. I Recent debates over the historical definition of the term Haskalah echo this ancient dilemma, which is inextricably bound up with a key ideological controversy concerning the modern Jewish experience. 2 The German-Jewish experience, it has been argued, provides a "mirror of modernity" for all modernizing Jewish experiences. 3 Whatever regional variations may exist in Jewish experiences of enlightenment and modernization, according to this argument, these details pale beside the profound and overarching commonalities intrinsic to the trends first manifested and consciously, programmatically articulated by Jews in German-speaking lands. Until recently, alternative accounts of Jewish modernization have largely been erased, delegitimized, or downplayed. Revealingly, the experiences of Jews in Muslim lands and in the western diasporas of England and America have been particularly widely ignored. Jewish modernization in these areas did not follow the familiar pattern of hope, crisis, despair, emigration, and national rebirth that was influentially staked out as paradigmatic by a generation of historians of German and Eastern European Jewry. The traditional definition and circumscription of the term Haskalah, thus, has contributed in part to the exclusion, until recently, of both these regions from the mainstream of modern Jewish historiography.4 I would here like to challenge this regnant model of Haskalah, not by
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