When Sherlock Holmes met the Maharal of Prague: How did a well-known rabbi in the early 20th century “convert” an Arthur Conan Doyle detective story and present it as an ancient manuscript discovered in an imaginary library?
The Living Encyclopedia of Lost Jewish Communities
Moshe Tzinovitz filled page after page with the stories of rabbis and communities that no longer exist. Now, as his scattered archive is finally being organized, a portrait emerges of the man who devoted his life to preserving the memories of others, while leaving little order in his own papers.
“Literature is stronger than death”: How a Poem by Avrom Sutzkever Saved His Own Life
In 1943, while hiding from the Nazis in a Lithuanian forest, Sutzkever managed to smuggle a booklet containing his poem “Kol Nidre” to Moscow. The poem was so powerful it convinced the Soviet authorities to send a plane and execute a daring rescue mission that brought Sutzkever and his wife to safety. Today that booklet is preserved at the National Library of Israel.
Maimonides, the Christian Artist, and the Censor: The Story of a Revolutionary Manuscript
Cairo, Provence, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Jerusalem: a long and winding journey was taken by the extraordinarily beautiful manuscript now displayed in the National Library of Israel’s permanent exhibition in Jerusalem. This is the story of one of the rarest, and likely the most magnificent, copies of “Mishneh Torah” by Maimonides, among the most important works in the Jewish literary canon, and one that received dazzling and highly unconventional artistic treatment.
Sefer Yetzirah: Letters as the Building Blocks of the World
While the ancient Greeks feared the invention of writing, an early Jewish mystical work viewed it as the foundation of everything that exists.
“I’m Famished”: The Excuse Maimonides Gave His Translator
From the moment he became chief physician at the royal court of Egypt, Maimonides found that he had almost no time left for anything else, not even to meet with the translator of his most famous work.
The Struggle Over a Baby Baptized by Force
A recently discovered letter sheds light on a tragic historical phenomenon: the secret, forced baptism of Jewish children by Christian servants.
From Portugal, to Aleppo, to Jerusalem: The Remarkable Journey of the Lisbon Mahzor
Created on the eve of a community’s destruction, the Lisbon Mahzor survived the horrors of persecution and expulsion, and then wandered the world as one of the few surviving treasures of a rare religious and artistic tradition. At some point along the war, its three volumes were separated. Only recently, thanks to the efforts of the National Library of Israel, have all three been reunited in Jerusalem, and now they have even been joyfully rejoined in digital form.
The Magician, His Manuscript, and Its Strange Journey to Jerusalem
In Elizabethan London, Simon Forman was a doctor, astrologer, and magician.
In 1600, he created a strange and beautiful manuscript that claimed to magically offer the keys to all knowledge. Today, that very book is part of the National Library of Israel collection in Jerusalem.
A 900-Year-Old Jewish-Iranian Manuscript and the Story It Tells
They were small, remote communities that preserved and passed on ancient Jewish traditions, while adding a distinctive local flavor. What were the unique features of Jewish manuscripts produced in Iran a thousand years ago, and how did one of them make its way to the National Library of Israel?
