The “Yung Yiddish” museum, tucked away inside a massive bus station, is something in between a library and an underground club. Its collections have survived two world wars in Europe. Whether they can survive the disparaging attitude in Israel remains to be seen.
Revealed: 90 “New” Pages from One of the Oldest Printed Hebrew Books
Pages come from the only existing copy of a ca. 1492 edition of “Arba’ah Turim”, one of history’s most important codes of Jewish law
Did a Woman Really Read from the Torah in the 15th century?
Leifheit bat Asher owned a copy of the oldest printed Jewish prayer book. Was she also called to the Torah?
Gershom Scholem’s Mishna Comes Home
About a year after the renowned scholar’s Talmud set finally found its way home, his Mishna has too…
Memories from my Sephardic Grandparents, by James Russell
Greek songs and stories, a book from Morocco, and one ruby-eyed snake ring…
Meet the Oldest Printed Book in the National Library!
Printed in Rome, this book was once part of an Italian prince’s library. Years later it made its way to Argentina, and eventually to Israel. The tome is now over 550 years old…
Spotting a Fake: The Flourishing Industry of Jewish Manuscript Forgeries
Hebrew letters jumbled together and Stars of David in every corner – The National Library is swamped with calls from “collectors” from Arab countries offering “historical manuscripts” that supposedly once belonged to Jewish communities in Islamic lands.
The Book That Survived Kristallnacht and Made It to the Land of Israel
A battered copy of “In the Heart of the Seas,” rescued from anti-Semitic riots in Germany, was returned to its author, S.Y. Agnon, with a letter telling the incredible story of its survival
