Salon Jewish Studies Blog

In 2005 the Stanford University Libraries aquired from the antiquarian bookseller Eliasaf Robinson a collection on the early history of Tel Aviv. By now, significant portions of this collection are digitized and accessible online. Concentrating on materials that date before 1948, the collection includes books, pamphlets, journals, documents, photographs, posters, maps, architectural plans, and ephemera relating to the history of the „First Hebrew City“. Part of the collection are also several Ottoman land deeds (kushans) for lots purchased in 1909 by the first Jewish settlers, who built Tel Aviv as a new Jewish suburb outside of the Arab city of Jaffa.

Over Thirty-five Passover Haggadot will be displayed , between March 21-April 15, 2009 at Kresge Art Museum. The exhibition The Story of Exodus: The Passover Haggadah shows artifacts from the Michigan State University (MSU) libaries special collections, which contain "450,000 printed works, numerous manuscript and archival collections, and an extensive collection of ephemera." (MSU Lib.) [...] "At the MSU Main Library’s Special Collections, historically important 20th century examples will be on view, ranging from consumer-product and feminist Haggadot to those from Israeli kibbutzim.
Related events are a discussion of Geraldine Brooks’ “The People of the Book” at 5:30 p.m. April 1, led by Marc Bernstein, Jewish Studies and College of Arts and Letters, and a gallery talk on collecting Jewish heritage and illustrated Haggadot at noon April 13, led by Constance Harris, author, collector and donor of Haggadot." (MSU News)

A service provided by the photographic agency of the RMN, the assembly of national museums of France, allows to search and sight also big parts of the holdings of the Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme in Paris: 1087 digital images of the museums impressive collection of ceremonial and profane art are available online.

Remarkable is furthermore the museums collection of printed material, a collection that includes many examples of modernist Yiddish book design from the 1920s and early 30s. Next to works of household names like Nathan Altman, Marc Chagall, and El Lissitzky, one can discover here a number of less-known artists and designers and their work. For example the constructivist Yiddish typography of Mark Epstheyn and Issachar Ryback's groundbreaking children's book illustrations.

The digitized material is also accessible via Europeana.

Forschungsprojekt zur Geschichte der hebräischen Typographie. Systematische Beschreibung anhand hebräischer Druckerzeugnisse aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum aus der Zeit von 1500 bis 1939.

Mit dem Projekt Bildquellen zur Geschichte hebräischer Gebrauchsgrafik in Palästina von Philipp Messner ist das erste private wissenschaftliche Projekt im Salon online.