Reading room now open!

By Vanessa Freedman, on 25 August 2017

**Update 29/8/17 1pm**

The work was completed well ahead of schedule and the reading room is now open.

The Hebrew & Jewish Studies reading room will be closed on Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th August while we sort out a few issues with the recent book moves. 

The sections affected will be:

• HEBREW REF
• HEBREW A-Q
• HEBREW & YIDDISH periodicals (current issues and newspapers)

If you need anything from these sections, please ask at the Help Point on the first floor.

The remaining HEBREW & YIDDISH collections, which are now housed in the corridor and adjacent lobby, will remain available.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Phase 2 of Jewish Pamphlets project now complete

By Vanessa Freedman, on 1 August 2017

The second phase of our Uncovering UCL’s Jewish Pamphlet Collections project is now complete! In this phase we have:

• conserved over 500 pamphlets with the help of specially trained volunteers

Conservation of A Historical and law treatise against the Jews and Judaism (MOCATTA BOUND PAMPHLETS 27, no. 7)

• catalogued another 1,300 pamphlets, including the Montefiore Bound Pamphlets and the Zionist pamphlets collected by Albert Montefiore Hyamson

• digitised 172 pamphlets, creating over 6,000 images. You can browse and search these on our website

The tears of a grateful people by Hyman Hurwitz. London: H. Barnett, 1820. A Hebrew funeral dirge for King George III, with an English translation by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, printed on satin (SR MOCATTA PAMPHLETS BOX 18)

We are now planning phase 3, so watch this space!

Another new electronic resource

By Vanessa Freedman, on 31 July 2017

We now have access to the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) Online. EBR offers a comprehensive and in-depth rendering of the current state of knowledge on the origins and development of the Bible in its different canonic forms in Judaism and Christianity. At the same time, EBR also documents the history of the Bible’s reception in the Christian churches and the Jewish Diaspora; in Islam, in other religious traditions and current religious movements, Western and non-Western alike, as well as in literature, art, music, and film.

New electronic resource

By Vanessa Freedman, on 28 July 2017

We now have access to The Textual History of the Bible Online (THBO), a cross-searchable platform with all available information regarding the textual history, textual character, translation techniques, manuscripts, and the importance of each textual witness for each book of the Hebrew Bible, including its deutero-canonical scriptures.

In addition, it includes articles on the history of research, the editorial histories of the Hebrew Bible, as well as other aspects of text-critical research and its auxiliary fields, such as papyrology, codicology, and linguistics.

Hebrew & Jewish Studies moves

By Vanessa Freedman, on 12 July 2017

We’re giving the Hebrew & Jewish Studies reading room a makeover this summer. We’re adding additional study spaces at the south end of the room  and installing 20 new PCs at the north end. The room will also get a new coat of paint.

The reading room is closed until around 2nd August while the building work takes place. Please ask at the Help Point if you need any books or journals from the room.

To make room for the new PCs we have moved some books and journals out into the adjacent corridor and into a new space at the north end of the corridor, next to Scandinavian.

We are still trying to decide what to call this area: the Jewish Studies lobby/vestibule/antechamber perhaps? Any suggestions welcome!

The new locations are:

• HEBREW REF: reading room (ask at Help Point while the room is closed)
• HEBREW A – Q: reading room (ask at Help Point while the room is closed)
• HEBREW R – W 6: corridor
• HEBREW W 6 (continued) – X: lobby
• HEBREW QUARTOS: lobby
• HEBREW FOLIOS: lobby
• HEBREW Periodicals: lobby (current issues are on display racks in the reading room; newspapers are also in the reading room: ask at Help Point while the room is closed)
• YIDDISH A – C 20: lobby
• YIDDISH C 20 (continued) – F: corridor
• YIDDISH QUARTOS: corridor
• YIDDISH Periodicals: corridor (newspapers are in the reading room: ask at Help Point while the room is closed)

Do ask a member if staff if you can’t find something

New books May-June 2017

By Vanessa Freedman, on 7 July 2017

Knauf, Ernst Axel. A history of biblical Israel : the fate of the tribes and kingdoms from Merenptah to Bar Kochba. Sheffield, UK : Equinox, 2016.
HEBREW A 15 KNA

Josephus, Flavius. The Jewish war / translated by Martin Hammond ; with an introduction and notes by Martin Goodman. Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, [2017]
HEBREW A 35

Textbook of Aramaic ostraca from Idumea. Volume 2, Dossiers 11-50: 263 commodity chits / [compiled, edited, and translated into English by] Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni ; with the assistance of Matt Kletzing and Eugen Han. Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns, 2016.
HEBREW QUARTOS A 54 POR

Jütte, Daniel. The age of secrecy : Jews, Christians, and the economy of secrets, 1400-1800. New Haven : Yale University Press, [2015]
HEBREW A 105 JUT

The trial that never ends : Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem in retrospect / edited by Richard J. Golsan and Sarah M. Misemer. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2017]
HEBREW A 143 GOL

Rydell, Anders. The book thieves : the Nazi looting of Europe’s libraries and the race to return a literary inheritance / translated by Henning Koch. New York, New York : Viking, [2017]
HEBREW A 149 RYD

Copisarow, Alcon Charles. Unplanned journey : from Moss Side to Eden : memoirs. Huddersfield, West Yorkshire : Jeremy Mills Publishing Limited, 2014.
HEBREW B 20 COP

Petuchauskas, Markas. Price of concord : memoirs, portraits of artists, interactions of cultures. Vilnius : Versus aureus, 2015.
HEBREW B 20 PET

Clarno, Andy. Neoliberal apartheid : Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
HEBREW FC 15 CLA

Normalizing occupation : the politics of everyday life in the West Bank settlements / edited by Marc Allegra, Ariel Handel, and Erez Maggor. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2017]
HEBREW FC 15 HAN

Rozin, Orit. A home for all Jews : citizenship, rights, and national identity in the new Israeli state. Waltham, Massachusetts : Brandeis University Press, [2016]
HEBREW FC 15 ROZ

Gutman, Yifat. Memory activism : reimagining the past for the future in Israel-Palestine. Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, [2017]
HEBREW FC 16 GUT

Podeh, Elie. Chances for peace : missed opportunities in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Austin : University of Texas Press, 2015.
HEBREW FC 16 POD

Schulze, Kirsten E. The Arab-Israeli conflict. London : Routledge, 2017.
HEBREW FC 16 SCH

Seelig, Rachel. Strangers in Berlin : modern Jewish literature between East and West, 1919-1933. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2016]
HEBREW Q 5 SEE

Subtle citation, allusion, and translation in the Hebrew Bible / edited by Ziony Zevit. Sheffield, UK : Equinox, 2017.
HEBREW QM 6 ZEV

The formation of the Pentateuch : bridging the academic cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America / edited by Jan C. Gertz, Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, and Konrad Schmid. Tübingen, Germany : Mohr Siebeck, [2016]
HEBREW QM 10 GER

Hezser, Catherine. Rabbinic body language : non-verbal communication in Palestinian rabbinic literature of late antiquity. Leiden : Brill, [2017]
HEBREW R 10 HEZ

Kulp, Joshua. Reconstructing the Talmud : an introduction to the academic study of rabbinic literature. New York, NY : Hadar Press, [2016]
HEBREW RD 295 KUL

Sommer, Benjamin D. Revelation and authority : Sinai in Jewish scripture and tradition. New Haven : Yale University Press, [2015]
HEBREW W 25 SOM

Starr, John M. Classifying the Aramaic texts from Qumran : a statistical analysis of linguistic features. London : Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017.
HEBREW W 142 STA

Naḥman, of Bratslav. Contes de sagesse de rabbi Naḥman de Braslav / [adaptés et commentés] Adin Steinsaltz ; traduit de l’hébreu par Cyril Aslanoff. Paris : Albin Michel, [2014?]
HEBREW W 250 NAH

Harari, Yuval. Jewish magic : before the rise of Kabbalah / translated by Batya Stein. Detroit : Wayne State University Press, [2017]
HEBREW W 510 HAR

Der Idisher ṿelt-almanakh : yohr-bukh far sotsialisṭisher, Idisher un algemeyner geshikhṭe, sṭaṭisṭiḳ un informatsye.Tsṿeyṭer yohrgang / tsuzamengeshṭelṭ un redaḳṭirṭ fun D. Shub. New York, N.Y : Farlag “Wecker”, 1927.
STORE

Zunser, Eliakum. Selected songs of Eliakum Zunser / arranged for voice with piano accompaniment by William Fichandler ; based on notes by Joseph Rumshinsky. New York, Zunser Publishing Company, ©1928.
STORE

Noṿiḳ, P. Idn in Biro-Bidzshan : a bazukh in der Idisher oyṭonomer gegnṭ. Nyu Yorḳ : Iḳor, 1937.
STORE

Lehman, Szmil. Arbeyṭ un frayheyṭ : zamlung fun lider. Ṿarshe : Folḳlor biblioṭeḳ, 1921.
STORE

Bernuth, Ruth von. How the wise men got to Chelm : the life and times of a Yiddish folk tradition. New York : New York University Press, [2016]
YIDDISH C 80 BER

Bauman, Mordechai. Umḳum un oyfḳum : publitsisṭishe un liṭerarishe eseyen = From darkness to light. Flushing, N.Y. : Mordechai Bauman, [1994]
YIDDISH C 200 BAU

Goldfaden, Abraham. Yidishe natsyonal-gedikhṭe : deḳlamatsyonen fir Tsiensbrider. Ḳraḳo : Yosef Fisher, 1898.
YIDDISH C 200 GOL

Knapheys, M. Balades fun mayn ḥorever heym. Buenos-Ayres : Il. Liṭ. Bleṭer, 1968.
YIDDISH C 200 KNA

Nomberg, Hersh David. Shrifṭen v. 2. Ṿarshe : Ferlag “Bikher-far-ale, “, 668-670 [1907 or 1908-1909 or 1910]
YIDDISH C 200 NOM

Sholem Aleichem. Jewish children / translated from the Yiddish of “Shalom Aleichem” by Hannah Berman. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1922.
YIDDISH C 200 SHO

Mandel, Michael. The Jewish Hour : the golden age of a Toronto Yiddish radio show and newspaper. Toronto : Now and Then Books, [2016]
YIDDISH F 400 MAN

New books April 2017

By Vanessa Freedman, on 11 May 2017

Cohen, Jeremy. A historian in exile : Solomon ibn Verga, Shevet Yehudah, and the Jewish-Christian encounter. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017]
HEBREW A 110 SOL:COH

Teller, A. Money, power, and influence in eighteenth-century Lithuania : the Jews on the Radziwiłł Estates. Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2016]
HEBREW EL 10 TEL

Klein, Reuven Chaim. Lashon Hakodesh : history, holiness, & Hebrew : a linguistic journey from Eden to Israel. [Bet Shemesh, Israel] : Mosaica Press, 2015.
HEBREW P 8 KLE

Budish, J. M. Geshikhṭe fun di ḳloṭh heṭ, ḳep un milineri arbeyṭer. Nyu Yorḳ : [o. fg.], 1926.
STORE 17-0424/100

Koidonover, Ẓevi Hirsch. Sefer Ḳav ha-yashar : bi-leshon ha-ḳodesh uvi-leshon Ashkenaz …  Ṿilna : Bi-defus ha-almanah ṿeha-aḥim Rom, 1875.
STORE 17-0424/101

Deḳlamaṭer fun der Soṿeṭisher Yidisher liṭeraṭur / tsunoyfgeshṭelṭ Y. Dobrushin, Y. Rabin, unṭer der redaḳtsye fun L. Goldberg. Mosḳṿe : Emes, 1934.
STORE 17-0424/102

Singer, Isaac Bashevis. ha-Mafteaḥ : sipurim / Y. Basheṿis Zinger ; ʻIvrit, Yiśraʼel Zamir. [Tel Aviv?] : Sifriyat poʻalim, 1979.
STORE 17-0424/99

Kwartin, Zavel. Mayn leben. Filadelfye : Aroysgegeben fun a gezelshafṭlikhen ḳomiṭeṭ, 1952.
STORE

Grant, Haim. Ershṭe ṭriṭ : a lernbukh far onfanger. Nyu Yorḳ : Hibru poblishing ḳompani, 1934.
STORE

Basman Ben-Haim, Rivka. The thirteenth hour = Di draytsnṭe shoh / translated from Yiddish by Zelda Kahan Newman. Woodstock, NY : Mayapple Press, 2016.
YIDDISH C 200 BAS

Katz, Dovid. The city in the moonlight : stories of the old-time Lithuanian Jews / translated by Barnett Zumoff. Jersey City, NJ : KTAV Publishing House, Inc., [2012]
YIDDISH C 200 KAT

Kadar, Naomi Prawer. Raising secular Jews : Yiddish schools and their periodicals for American children, 1917-1950. Massachusetts : Brandeis University Press, [2017]
YIDDISH C 41 KAD

Children and Yiddish literature : from early modernity to post-modernity / edited by Gennady Estraikh, Kerstin Hoge and Mikhail Krutikov. Cambridge : Legenda, 2016.
YIDDISH C 6 EST

Gurwitz, Z. Memories of two generations : a Yiddish life in Russia and Texas. Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2016]
YIDDISH D 500 GUR

Take a peek at our digitised Jewish pamphlets

By Vanessa Freedman, on 26 April 2017

The digitisation part of the Uncovering UCL’s Jewish Pamphlet Collections project is now well under way. As with all digitisation projects (unless you’re fortunate enough to have funding to digitise an entire collection), selecting items has been a challenge. We have given priority to rare pamphlets which haven’t been digitised by other libraries, and have focused on a few themes, such as Jewish emancipation in England, and how the Jewish community marked royal or national occasions. For more on these themes, see this article by Professor Colin Shindler.

The first images have now been uploaded to our website; the page for the project will be available soon, but in the meantime you can find them by searching for ‘Jewish pamphlets‘.

An Ode for His Majesty and Royal Family, from A short narrative of the loyalty and affection of the Jews … towards … King George, the Queen, and all the Royal Family; exhibited on the joyful occasion of His Majesty’s arrival at Portsmouth. Portsmouth-Common: printed by R. Lee …, 1773.

New books March 2017

By Vanessa Freedman, on 24 April 2017

Going to the people : Jews and the ethnographic impulse / edited by Jeffrey Veidlinger. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2016]
HEBREW A 8 VEI

The Jewish annotated New Testament : New Revised Standard Version Bible translation / Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors. Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2011]
HEBREW QB 70.4 LEV

Frieden, Ken. Travels in translation : sea tales at the source of Jewish fiction / Ken Frieden. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2016.
HEBREW SX 5 FRI

Abegg, Martin G. The Dead Sea Scrolls concordance. Volume Two, The non-Qumran documents and texts. Leiden : Brill, 2016.
HEBREW QUARTOS W 142 ABE

Gelbart, Shmuel. Dos geṭo in flamen. Minkhen : Farband fun Liṭṿishe Yidn in Dayṭshland, 1948.
STORE

Asch, Sholem. Fun shṭodṭ un dorf. Ṿarsha ; Nyu Yorḳ : Ferlag “Progres”, 1911.
STORE

Auerbach, Ephraim. Far groys un ḳleyn. New York : Hebrew Publishing Company, 1921.
STORE

Gross, Naftoli. Yudzshin Debs : a mayśeh fun a menṭshn. Nyu Yorḳ : Arbeyṭer ring bildungs deparṭmenṭ, 1933.
STORE

Simon, Solomon. Ḳinder yorn fun yidishe shrayber. Bukh 2. Nyu Yorḳ : Farlag Matones, 1953.
STORE

L’ultimo capitolo inedito de La famiglia Mushkat / Isaac B. Singer ; introduzione e traduzione di Erri De Luca. La stazione di Bakhmatch / Israel J. Singer ; introduzione e traduzione di Erri De Luca. Milano : Giangiacomo Feltrinelli editore, 2013.
STORE

Davis, Scott Hilton. Souls are flying! : a celebration of Jewish stories : Jewish short stories by Sholem Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, I.L. Peretz and Jacob Dinezon. Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A. : Jewish Storyteller Press, 2016.
YIDDISH C 10 DAV

Have I got a story for you : more than a century of fiction from the Forward / edited by Ezra Glinter ; introduction by Dara Horn. New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017]
YIDDISH C 10 GLI

Bergner, Herz. Between sky & sea / translated from the Yiddish by Judah Waten. Melbourne, Australia : Text Publishing, 2016.
YIDDISH C 200 BER

Peretz, Isaac Leib. Fun Peretses oytser : Perets-anṭologye / tsunoyfgeshṭelṭ un farṭayṭshṭ fun Zalman Yefroyḳin. Nyu-Yorḳ : Bildungs-ḳomiṭeṭ fun Arbeṭer-ring, 1963, c1952.
YIDDISH C 200 PER

Carroll, Lewis. Di avantures fun Alis in Vunderland / bilder fun John Tenniel ; Yidishe iberzetsung fun Joan Braman. Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland : Evertype, 2015.
YIDDISH C 220 CAR

New books February 2017

By Vanessa Freedman, on 27 March 2017

The economy of ancient Judah in its historical context / edited by Marvin Lloyd Miller, Ehud Ben Zvi, and Gary N. Knoppers. Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns, 2015.
HEBREW A 16 MIL

Schmidt, Brian B. The materiality of power : explorations in the social history of early Israelite magic. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, [2016]
HEBREW A 59 SCH

History, memory, Hebrew scriptures : a festschrift for Ehud Ben Zvi / edited by Ian Douglas Wilson and Diana V. Edelman. Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns, 2015.
HEBREW A 6 BEN

New under the sun : Jewish Australians on religion, politics & culture / edited by Michael Fagenblat, Melanie Landau & Nathan Wolski. Melbourne, Victoria : Black Inc., an imprint of Schwartz Publishing Pty Ltd, [2006]
HEBREW A 6 FAG

Endelman, Todd M. Leaving the Jewish fold : conversion and radical assimilation in modern Jewish history. Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2015]
HEBREW A 90 END

Metzler, Tobias. Tales of three cities : urban Jewish cultures in London, Berlin, and Paris (c. 1880-1940). Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014.
HEBREW A 90 MET

Zadoff, Noam. Mi-Berlin li-Yerushalayim uva-ḥazarah : Gershom Shalom ben Yiśraʼel ṿe-Germanyah. Yerushalayim : Karmel : Merkaz Ḳovner, 775 = 2015.
HEBREW B 20 SCH:ZAD

Brossat, Alain, and Sylvia Klingberg. Revolutionary Yiddishland : a history of Jewish radicalism / translated by David Fernbach. London : Verso, 2016.
HEBREW C 30 BRO

ha-Sifriyah shel tenuʻat ha-Haśkalah : yetsiratah shel republiḳat ha-sefarim ba-ḥevrah ha-Yehudit ba-merḥav ha-dover Germanit / Shemuʼel Fainer, Zohar Shaviṭ, Naṭali Naimarḳ-Goldberg, Ṭal Ḳogman (ʻorkhim). Tel Aviv : ʻAm ʻoved, [2014]
HEBREW D 50 FEI

Friedman, Matti. Pumpkinflowers : a soldier’s story. London : Biteback Publishing Ltd, 2016.
HEBREW FC 16 FRI

Etzion, Giore. The Routledge introductory course in modern Hebrew / illustrations by Dick Beutick = ʻIvrit be-Yiśraʼel / iyurim me-et Diḳ Baiṭiḳ. New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009.
HEBREW QUARTOS P 5 ETZ

Brody, Robert. Mishnah ṿe-Tosefta Ketubot : nusaḥ, parshanut, ṿa-ʻarikhah. Yerushalayim : Hotsaʼat sefarim ʻa. sh. Y.L. Magnes, ha-Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit, 775 = 2015.
HEBREW RB 90 BRO

Makers of Jewish modernity : thinkers, artists, leaders, and the world they made / editors, Jacques Picard, Jacques Revel, Michael P. Steinberg, Idith Zertal ; editorial assistant and photography curator, Ulrich Schutz. Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2016]
HEBREW REF A 2 PIC

Newman, Hillel. ha-Maʻaśim li-vene Erets-Yiśraʼel : halakhah ṿe-hisṭoryah be-Erets-Yiśraʼel ha-Bizanṭit. Yerushalayim : Yad Yitsḥaḳ Ben-Tsevi, ©2011.
HEBREW RH 8 NEW

Midrash Ester Rabah : mahadurah biḳortit ʻal pi kitve yad : ʻim mavo, masoret ha-midrash,  shinuye nusḥaʼot u-ferush / me-et Yosef Tabori, Arnon ʻAtsmon. Yerushalayim : Mekhon Shekhṭer le-madaʻe ha-Yahadut, 775 [2014]
HEBREW RM 30 TAB

Huss, Boaz. The Zohar : reception and impact / translated by Yudith Nave. Oxford : The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2016.
HEBREW RS 59 HUS

Kahan, J. Dray yor in Poylishn miliṭer : 24.10.1919-22.11.1922 : memuarn. Tel-Aviv : ha-Menorah, 1967.
STORE

Ben ḥurban li-teḳumah / ba-ʻarikhat Yeḥiʼel Shainṭukh u-Miryam Ṭrin. Yerushalayim : Hotsaʼat Mifʻal Dov Sadan le-yad ha-Ḳatedrah le-Yidish, ha-Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit 775- = 2015-
STORE

Sing me a song in Yiddish = Zingshe mir a lidele in Yidish / Przemysław Piekars̄ki, translation. Kraków : Szolem Alejchem, 2000 = 5760.
STORE

Dutch in Yiddish, Yiddish in Dutch / edited by Marion Aptroot. Amsterdam : Menasseh ben Israel Institute, 2016.
YIDDISH B 15 APT

Birnbaum, Salomo A. Yiddish : a survey and a grammar / Solomon A. Birnbaum. Toronto : University of Toronto Press [2016]
YIDDISH B 5 BIR

Rozshansḳi, Shemuʼel. Jacob Dinezon : the mother among our classic Yiddish writers : a biography / translated from the Yiddish by Miri Koral ; preface by Scott Hilton Davis. Raleigh, North Carolina, USA : Jewish Storyteller Press, 2016.
YIDDISH C 200 DIN:ROZ

Dineson, Jacob. Yosele : a story from Jewish life / translated from the Yiddish by Jane Peppler ; foreword by Scott Hilton Davis. Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A. : Jewish Storyteller Press, 2015.
YIDDISH C 200 DIN

Rolnick, Joseph. With rake in hand : memoirs of a Yiddish poet / Joseph Rolnik ; translated by Gerald Marcus. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2016.
YIDDISH C 200 ROL

Nowersztern, Abraham. Kan gar ha-ʻam ha-Yehudi : sifrut Yidish be-Artsot ha-berit. Yerushalayim : Hotsaʼat sefarim ʻa. sh. Y.L. Magnes, ha-Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit [775, that is, 2015]
YIDDISH C 5 NOW

Zfatman, Sara. Tse ṭame : gerush ruḥot be-Yahadut Ashkenaz be-reshit ha-ʻet ha-ḥadashah. Yerushalayim : Hotsaʼat sefarim ʻa. sh. Y.L. Magnes, ha-Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit, [776 = 2015]
YIDDISH C 80 ZFA