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mmargolis.bsky.social
Ooo! This reminds me of a favorite book: where an owner glued together pages of a quarto to replace leaves in their folio!
blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
January 13, 2025 at 12:17 PM
mmargolis.bsky.social
New platform, new chance to re-up my post on Hanukkah related collections in the RBML!
blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie... 📜#rarebooks
Hanukkah in the RBML
Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds a diverse collection of Judaica, and its holdings relating to the holiday of Hanukkah span various collections, including rare books and manuscripts, ...
blogs.library.columbia.edu
December 26, 2024 at 1:17 AM
mmargolis.bsky.social
Happy Hanukkah to all, but especially to Talia, who drew a menora (upside down) in a 16th century Italian manual for letter writing. More on Hanukkah in Columbia's collections here: blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
Hebrew text on a page, with upside down text and a menorah on the bottom.
December 7, 2023 at 11:58 PM
christophersilver.bsky.social
The graduate portal for McGill's Department of Jewish Studies is now open! MA and PhD applications are due January 6, 2027. Apply here: www.mcgill.ca/gradappli......; and here: www.mcgill.ca/jewishstudie.... Questions? Contact: graduate.jwst@mcgill.ca.
www.mcgill.ca
September 29, 2026 at 4:19 PM
mmargolis.bsky.social
New post on manuscripts of Yemenite Jews in the collections: blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
📜 #rarebooks #bookhistory
Manuscripts of the Yemenite Jewish Experience
This was originally written for the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies' magazine, 2024 edition.  It is presented here with some light edits and news about a recent acquisition since the article w...
blogs.library.columbia.edu
February 20, 2025 at 6:18 PM
mmargolis.bsky.social
New post in the #JewsatColumbia series!
On Sephardic music at the @CasaHispanicaNY, Butler's intervention to hire Lionel Trilling, and the significant work of Columbia's faculty to assist Jewish refugees during WWII
blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
Jews at Columbia: The Later Butler Years and World War II
Notwithstanding the difficulties of the earlier years of Nicholas Murray Butler's presidency, and the rising antisemitism in other parts of the world, the 1930s and 1940s showed a remarkable rise in J...
blogs.library.columbia.edu
January 8, 2025 at 3:01 PM
christophersilver.bsky.social
We have a postdoc opportunity in Jewish Studies at McGill! Come work with an incredible set of scholars in an incredible city. Deadline is fast approaching: Dec. 15, 2023. Email me with any questions. www.mcgill.ca/jewishstudie...
November 22, 2023 at 1:55 AM
helendecruz.net
Okay so having read a fair chunk of Israel's Radical Enlightenment, I have good reasons to now think that this is not in fact Spinoza's death mask --
I've looked a bit around and didn't see anyone make this argument, but roughly 1/
blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
Spinoza’s Death Mask, and Reflections on Working at the RBML
Guest post by Marianna Najman-Franks, Barnard '22. Marianna has done incredible work in the last three years participating in various projects to provide important access to the Judaica collections. ...
blogs.cul.columbia.edu
February 6, 2024 at 4:29 AM
mmargolis.bsky.social
I was going to use the images for this post, but you'll just have to come see that one in person.
blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie... #rarebooks 📜
December 20, 2024 at 7:11 PM
mmargolis.bsky.social
I don't think I've posted this here yet, but worth a share, perhaps. Lots of talk these days about Jews at Columbia, but/and there's also a long and nuanced history...

Starts here: blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...

(Four posts in the series thus far...the 20th c. is gonna take a while)
Jews at Columbia: The first hundred years (1754-1854)
Many of our posts have dealt with Jewish-related material at Columbia, focusing on the importance of the study of Hebrew to its founder and subsequent 18th century instructors, and even about finding ...
blogs.cul.columbia.edu
November 25, 2024 at 3:58 PM
cujewishstudies.bsky.social
Congratulations to the 2025-2026 Shneer Faculty Fellows: Natalie Block and Martin Kavka!

To learn about the Fellows and their research projects, go to: www.colorado.edu/jewishstudie...

@samirakmehta.bsky.social
@hfalbk.bsky.social
black and white text on blue background with image of Natalie Block that reads: Researcher in Hebrew Bible Exegesis at Lund University, Sweden black and white text on blue background with image of Martin Kavka that reads: Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Florida State University
May 19, 2025 at 7:03 PM
mmargolis.bsky.social
And you'll never guess who the only American Colonial subscriber was! ;)
blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
Benjamin Kennicott's Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum (the Columbia connection)
Benjamin Kennicott is probably best known today for the incredible illuminated manuscript at the Bodleian Library at Oxford that bears his name.  However, his magnum opus was a two-volume print editio...
blogs.library.columbia.edu
January 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM
mmargolis.bsky.social
I acquired a pamphlet from the Society a couple of years ago (blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...), but I've never stopped thinking about that Bible. I was so glad to finally be able to acquire it for our collection a few months ago!
New and newly cataloged manuscripts from around the world
In recent months, we have been able to add many important materials to the Judaica collection.  We acquired another set of letters (in Spanish, Hebrew, and Ladino) from the earliest days of the Amster...
blogs.cul.columbia.edu
November 27, 2024 at 5:38 PM
mmargolis.bsky.social
I was going to wait until all of the Scops were online, but I need a distraction from thinking about news that isn't quite news yet. From my excellent student, Relly Robinson, on the newspaper of the Seth Low Junior College:

blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
The Seth Low Scop: A Hidden Story, Now Revealed (Guest Post)
Relly Robinson, BC '25, is a Barnard College senior majoring in English. I have been working for Michelle Margolis at the Jewish Studies department of Columbia Libraries for over two years. In tha...
blogs.library.columbia.edu
January 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM
emartincontreras.bsky.social
blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
Manuscripts of the Yemenite Jewish Experience
This was originally written for the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies' magazine, 2024 edition.  It is presented here with some light edits and news about a recent acquisition since the article w...
blogs.library.columbia.edu
March 14, 2025 at 1:04 PM
citizenwald.bsky.social
The brilliant & idiosyncratic artist Michel Fingesten www.colorado.edu/jewishstudie... had no illusions about the future.

His New Year's prints from the eve of World War II through the Phony War are unrivaled

Cheers, 1940
Optimism!
Even when you feel as if you are being given a shave by the devil
agonized man in barber chair getting a shave from a horned figure text in script: Prosit 1940 Optimismus! auch wenn Sie das Gefühl haben--vom Teufel rasiert zu werden--
January 3, 2024 at 5:37 AM
mmargolis.bsky.social
Well... His brother Felix founded the Ethical Culture Movement, so I'm thinking maybe not?

blogs.library.columbia.edu/jewishstudie...
May 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
lajsa.bsky.social
🎉 LAJSA has announced the results of its 2026 elections!

Meet the newly elected Co-Presidents, Board Members at Large, and Ex Officio members who will officially take office on July 1, 2026.

📖 Read the announcement here: lajsa.org/lajsa-2026-e...

#LAJSA #LatinAmericanJewishStudies #JewishStudie
LAJSA Announces Results of the 2026 Elections
LAJSA announces its 2026 leadership, welcoming a new Executive team and Board Members to advance Latin American Jewish studies.
lajsa.org
May 30, 2026 at 10:43 AM
citizenwald.bsky.social
The brilliant & idiosyncratic artist Michel Fingesten www.colorado.edu/jewishstudie... had no illusions about the future

His New Year's prints from the eve of World War II through the Phony War are unrivaled.

Here he imagines a client "Siegfried Maginot," after the German & French fortifications
Text: Ex musicis Siegfried Maginot a monstrous twisted thin figure puts hands to head and looks on in horror as two gun turrets face one another, preparing to play a concert of cannon fire The Siegfried Line was the Germany border defense, and the Maginot Line was of course the extensive wall of fortifications that the French regarded as impregnable (and the Germans partly bypassed) the gun turret on the left is in the shape of a German helmet; that on the right, in the shape of a French helmet--so this is an effect a view from the north
January 3, 2024 at 5:45 AM
citizenwald.bsky.social
The brilliant & idiosyncratic artist Michel Fingesten www.colorado.edu/jewishstudie... had no illusions about the future.

His New Year's prints from the eve of World War II through the Phony War are unrivaled

the artist's own New Year's Greeting for 1939: I choose to withhold my wishes...
red-brown ink on tan paper: roughly sketched rectangular border; writing in cursive at top: Ich verschweige meine Wünsche für 1939-- (I choose to withhold or conceal--literally: remain silent about my wishes for 1939 a stalk of grapevine with grapes made of skulls serves as a pen: the hand writes out the words: In Vino Veritas! bottom: signature of Michel Fingesten
January 3, 2024 at 5:31 AM
citizenwald.bsky.social
The brilliant & idiosyncratic artist Michel Fingesten www.colorado.edu/jewishstudie... had no illusions about the future.

His New Year's prints from the eve of World War II through the Phony War are unrivaled

ex libris for the great collector Eugène Strens www.escherinhetpaleis.nl/escher-today...
a groteseue showgirl (in the style of the Folies Bergères) with a skull for a head jumps rope and leads an endless column of soldiers to their death
January 3, 2024 at 5:18 AM
flaneuse1.bsky.social
Yes, I feel pretty much the same as you about them these days. Hard to know where to go for the best info but academic sources can often be good. Pays to read a few to see where they're coming from though. Might be something here:
libguides.csun.edu/jewishstudie...
LibGuides: Jewish Studies: Primary Sources on the Conflict
Welcome to the Jewish Studies Guide which contains information and links to resources to support students in Jewish Studies courses at CSUN
libguides.csun.edu
February 8, 2024 at 3:07 AM