Judaica Librarianship

Volume 11 Issue 1–2 56-61

1-1-2003 One Hundred Years of Genizah Discovery & Research: The American Share Menachem Schmelzer Jewish Theological Seminary, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Schmelzer, Menachem. 2003. "One Hundred Years of Genizah Discovery & Research: The American Share." Judaica Librarianship 11: 56-61. doi:10.14263/2330-2976.1124. One Hundred Years of Genizah Discovery & Research: The American Share* Menahem Schmelzer Jewish Theological Seminary of America New York, NY

Excerpts from the Introduction by appeared in a broad spectrum of journals, comprehensive command of bibliographic Michael W. Grunberger Festschriften, and conference proceed- sources and of the librarian who requires ings. Of special note is Professor this knowledge to provide the tools It is a special honor for me to introduce the Schmelzer’s Herculean re-working of the needed by his scholarly clientele. Before 1997 Myer and Rosaline Feinstein Foun- Union Catalog of Hebrew Manuscripts and his service of more than twenty years at dation Lecturer, Professor Menahem their Location - which he edited and for the helm of the JTS Library, Professor Schmelzer. The Feinstein Lecture is a pro- which he provided an index - rendering Schmelzer was assistant to the head of gram of the Council of Archives and Freimann’s catalog usable in the first the Manuscript Division in the Jewish Research Libraries in Jewish Studies and instance and available to all in the second. National and University Library in is sponsored by the National Foundation Jerusalem and was Librarian of the for Jewish Cultures Jewish Endowment for Menahem Schmelzer has, for many of us, Library of the Jewish Community in Basle. the Arts and Humanities.... defined the field of Judaica bibliography. In In the United States, he was a past presi- the early 1970’s, he designed a course of dent of the Council of Archives and It is especially appropriate that this second study on Judaica bibliography that became Research Libraries in Jewish Studies; Feinstein Foundation Lecture be given by the model for subsequent courses offered associate editor of the Jewish Book Annu- Professor Menahem Schmelzer of the elsewhere. This training course in Judaica al; and a past secretary of the Jewish Jewish Theological Seminary of America bibliography was supported by a grant Book Council. (JTS). Professor Schmelzer is after all from the National Endowment for the JTS’s Professor of Medieval Hebrew Liter- Humanities, and graduates of this course ature and Jewish Bibliography - no doubt a continue to refer to the materials used in Michael W Grunberger is Head of the unique combination and one that reflects the course. I can testify to the number of Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress Professor Schmelzer’s twin areas of “bootleg” copies of the curriculum hand- and serves as President of the Council of expertise. He has over the course of sev- outs and readings that circulated amongst Archives and Research Libraries in Jewish eral decades published numerous studies Judaica library professionals in the years Studies. that rely on these twin specialties: essays following the offering of the course. on the liturgy of assorted illuminated man- uscripts; Hebrew printing in Germany; arti- Professor Schmelzer’s expertise is rooted cles on a variety of paytanim and piyutim; in the experience of both the scholar and many other articles that have whose research requires him to develop a

*Originally presented at the 32nd Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, Cleveland, June 1997. Original- ly published as a pamphlet (New York: National Foundation for Jewish Culture/Council of Archives and Research Libraries in Jewish Studies), 1998. (NFJC Lecture Series no. 2).

56 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 11 No. 1-2 Winter 2002 - Spring 2003 Lecture by Solomon Schechter was the most influen- shammash told him: “Schechter carried it Menahem Schmelzer tial figure in Genizah discoveries, but he away”.7 But what did Adler carry away? was not the only one. Fortunately, we do have a catalogue of Not long ago Frank Rich wrote an inter- the Dropsie College Genizah fragments, esting column in The New York Times. It Cyrus Adler, an American scholar and now at the University of Pennsylvania. was called “Reverse Exodus” and was public leader, played an important role as This relatively small collection is a kind of subtitled “American Jews go back down- well in this endeavor. Grace Cohen a microcosm of the Genizah as a whole. town.” 1 The main thrust of the article Grossman recently painted an intricate By the way, in the Dropsie collection, in was that American Jews should not have portrait of Cyrus Adler, who, among his addition to the Cyrus Adler acquisition, to seek their roots or identity in the “old many public Jewish and non-Jewish roles, there were also manuscripts that several country” or Israel or the Holocaust, was instrumental in acquiring Judaica other American collectors, Mayer because there is pride to be derived from items for the Smithsonian Institution, Sulzberger, Herbert Friedenwald, David their rich American Jewish heritage. He where he served as secretary. In 1890 Werner Amram, and Camden M. Cobern pointed out that the past of American Adler became involved in the preparation obtained in Cairo. In the Dropsie Collec- Judaism could well serve as a source of of a large scale exposition to take place in tion there are fragments of Bible and Tal- Chicago to celebrate the four hundredth mud, liturgy and poetry, documents and inspiration of younger generations of 8 Jews. The story told here of a little known anniversary of the discovery of America. letters, amulets and philosophical texts. He was asked to travel to the Orient to The oldest known text of the Passover chapter of American Jewish scholarship, 5 is for sure glorious, rich of great achieve- secure objects for the Exposition. On Haggadah is the proud possession of the ment, and part of the proud American his way to the Middle East he stopped for collection, as is a 4,000 word letter from Jewish past. a few days in England where he met for Sicily, from the year 1064, in which vari- the first time two men who later became ous business matters and a civil war in Nineteen ninety-seven marked the cen- important in Genizah history, Solomon Tunisia where the writer faced death, are tennial of the removal of hundreds of Schechter and Elkan Nathan Adler. described. The Dropsie Haggadah is not thousands of old and worn Hebrew manu- Cyrus Adler, no relation to Elkan, pro- only old, but it is very different from the 9 script fragments from a chamber –the ceeded on his trip and spent the Spring of text that we are using today. The avail- Genizah—of the ancient Ben Ezra syna- 1891 in Cairo. In his memoirs, he record- ability of this collection in the United gogue in Old Cairo.2 This feat is forever ed his acquisition of Genizah fragments: States spurred great activity among schol- tied to Solomon Schechter,3 whose name ars in this country, who devoted them- has indeed become a household word, I was always looking out for Museum selves to studying the treasures hidden in mainly because of the success of the net- specimens that could be bought within these fragments. work of Schechter schools named after reason, and I wandered about the him. However, Solomon Schechter’s shops very often. I happened one day Solomon Schechter’s arrival in New York name is memorable for the reasons of his to find several trays full of parchment as president of the Jewish Theological own watershed achievements. Schechter, leaves written in Hebrew, which the Seminary in 1902 made New York into a a hundred years ago, was a teacher of merchant had labeled anticas. I saw at capital of Genizah research. Schechter Rabbinics at Cambridge University in a glance that these were very old. As I himself continued to publish his discover- England, enjoying fame as a scholar, wore a pith helmet and khaki suit, like ies, and others joined him. Many of these whose pioneering publications made a every other tourist, he thought I wanted discoveries were first published in the great impression on Jews and non-Jews one as a souvenir. But indicating an scholarly journal, The Jewish Quarterly alike. It is well-known how two Scottish interest in the whole lot I purchased Review, which was issued since 1910 tourist ladies, returning from a trip to them, big and little, some of the pieces under the auspices of Dropsie College in Egypt, showed Schechter some old only one sheet, some of them forty or Philadelphia, and was edited by Adler and Hebrew manuscript fragments that they fifty pages, at the enormous price of one Schechter. The transfer of the prestigious had acquired there, and how Schechter, shilling per unit and thus brought back journal from England, where it had been in great excitement, identified these frag- to Europe what was probably the sec- published from its inception in 1889 until ments as part of the long-lost original of ond largest collection from the Genizah, 1910, to the United States, was another the ancient Hebrew work, the Book of Ben certainly the first to America, out of important step in the development of Jew- 10 Sira. Schechter, with the full support of which has come at least one book and ish studies in this country. Schechter the authorities of Cambridge University several important articles. These are also brought with himself several impor- journeyed to Cairo and removed the con- now in the Dropsie College . . . I tant fragments that were owned by him tents of that old chamber, called the showed these documents to Dr. personally. One of them was a famous Genizah,* and transferred it to Cam- Schechter of Cambridge in 1892. He letter signed by the own hand of Mai- bridge.4 With this event, a century of promptly borrowed a few, and I have monides. In the letter, Maimonides pleads exciting discoveries began. always flattered myself that this acciden- for funds for the redemption of Jewish tal purchase of mine was at least one of prisoners who were captured in a caravan the leads that enabled Dr. Schechter to in Erez Yisrael and were held for ransom make his discovery of the Cairo by the Crusader King of Jerusalem. Mai- Genizah.6 monides describes how he and the *The Genizah was the repository for Jew- dayyanim (the judges of Rabbinical ish religious texts – Torah scrolls, prayer That Adler did a good job of arousing courts), the elders and learned people books, Bibles, rabbinic literature, and Schechter’s interest in the Genizah is (talmidei hakhamim), worked day and other religious and ritual Judaica – which obvious. When Adler returned to Cairo in night, in the synagogues, in the market under religious law must not be destroyed. 1929 and wanted to see the Genizah, the places, and in private homes to gather

Judaica Librarianship Vol. 11 No. 1-2 Winter 2002 - Spring 2003 57 together the sums needed to ransom the 1896, still before Schechter’s 1897 trip. the obstinacy and obstructiveness of the captives.11 At Schechter’s death his own On Adler’s second journey, “The Cairo Parvenu.17 Genizah fragments became part of the synagogue authorities accompanied me Library of the Jewish Theological to the Genizah and permitted me to take Seminary. away the first sackful of fragments from Another interesting collection of Genizah that famous hoard. Neubauer13 rated me fragments in the United States was once There is an interesting episode that is soundly for not carrying the whole lot owned by Johann Krengel, who served as connected with Schechter’s coming to away, Schechter admired my continence rabbi in several Central European com- America and the Genizah. The manu- but was not foolish enough to follow my munities.18 Krengel received these frag- scripts that Schechter removed from example.”14 Elsewhere, Elkan Adler ments in the early years of the century Cairo in 1897 had become part of the wrote the following on his visit to the Cairo and wrote an article on some of them.19 library of Cambridge University in Eng- Genizah Synagogue: “I…was conduct- They disappeared during World War II land. When Schechter prepared his move ed…to the extreme end of the ladies’ and were found in the Seminary Library in to New York, he borrowed from the library gallery, permitted to climb to the topmost the 1970’s in an old, worn, leather brief- more than a hundred documents on rung of a ladder, to enter the secret cham- case, mixed up with Krengel’s typewritten which he intended to work; the manu- ber of the Genizah through a hole in the sermons in German. The collection is scripts were given call numbers as Cam- wall, and to take away with me a sackful now called the Krengel Genizah. bridge Loan Fragments. Some of them of paper and parchment writings—as were indeed published. In the 1920’s and much in fact as I could gather up in the The easy availability of these collections 1930’s the Cambridge authorities turned three or four hours I was permitted to in American libraries, combined with the to the Seminary Library in New York and linger there.”15 great impact of the magnetic personality asked for the return of the original of of Solomon Schechter and the lure and these “Loan” manuscripts. Despite dili- What was in the sack that Adler called a challenge of the opportunity for a veritable gent searches by the then Librarian, very Benjamin’s sack?16 The best treasure hunt among the dispersed Alexander Marx, the originals could not be description of the original state and con- leaves, inspired many leading Jewish located. They were rediscovered in the tents of the Genizah is still one that scholars in the United States to devote Seminary Library in the late 1960’s comes from the pen of Schechter: their lives to the exploration of this among huge, long sheets of paper on immense accumulation of old Hebrew, which Schechter himself transcribed the One can hardly realize the confusion in a Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic fragments. original texts. The late Professor Louis genuine, old Genizah until one has seen Finkelstein asked me to return them, in it. It is a battlefield of books, and the liter- I would like to single out four great schol- person, to Cambridge, which I did; and ary productions of many centuries had ars who were closely associated with obviously, I received a royal treatment at their share in the battle, and their disjecta American institutions of learning most of the Cambridge University Library as the membra are now strewn over its area. their lives and whose work had an bearer of such treasures. Some of the belligerents have perished immense impact on Genizah scholarship. outright, and are literally ground to dust in There were others, whose names I can In the first two decades of our century, the terrible struggle for space, whilst oth- only mention: Henry Malter, S.L. Skoss, Detroit joined Philadelphia and New York ers, as if overtaken by a general crush, Benzion Halper, Richard Gottheil, Moshe as a depository of Genizah fragments. are squeezed into big, unshapely lumps, Zucker, Shalom Spiegel, all deceased, Charles Freer, the famous collector of ori- which even with the aid of chemical appli- and Norman Golb, Marc Cohen, Norman ental art objects, purchased Genizah doc- ances can no longer be separated without Stillman, the Friedman brothers, Shamma uments in Egypt from a dealer. In all serious damage to their constituents. In and Mordecai (now in Israel), Elazar likelihood, the dealer had acquired them their present condition these lumps some- Hurvitz, and Neil Danzig, who fortunately earlier from the Genizah synagogue. An times afford curiously suggestive combi- are still with us and continue to be active alternative source could have been an nations; as, for instance, when you find a in Genizah research. ancient cemetery where they had been piece of some rational work, in which the originally buried. Be that as it may, the very existence of either angels or devils Let us start with Louis Ginzberg, best documents are now in the Freer Gallery of is denied, clinging for its very life to an known in the general community for his the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. A amulet in which these same beings (most- monumental Legends of the Jews.A detailed and elegant catalogue of the ly the latter) are bound over to be on their native of Lithuania, a descendant of the fragments was published, describing good behavior and not interfere with Miss Gaon of Vilna, a student of Lithuania some fascinating aspects of Jewish life in Jair’s love for somebody. The develop- yeshivoth and German universities, he the Middle Ages, relating to trade, travel ment of the romance is obscured by the came to this country in 1899. For the next and marriage. The Freer catalogue is in fact that the last lines of the amulet are half a century he taught at the Jewish itself a model work, as it includes pho- mounted on some I.O.U., or lease, and Theological Seminary in New York and tographs, transcriptions, and full transla- this in turn is squeezed between the was regarded as the foremost scholar of tions of the texts.12 sheets of an old moralist, who treats all his generation.20 In 1909, Ginzberg pub- attention to money affairs with scorn and lished a two volume work, Geonica.In The major boost to the Genizah collection indignation. Again, all these contradictory the first volume he provided a synthesis of in America came in 1922 through the pur- matters cleave tightly to some sheets the Geonic era, an approximately 500 chase by the Seminary Library of the from a very old bible. This, indeed, ought year period in Jewish history, mainly in library of Elkan Nathan Adler, the famous to be the last umpire between them, but it Babylonia. This span of time, between British traveler, collector and scholar, who is hardly legible without peeling off from the end of the Talmudic period and the was mentioned above. Elkan Adler trav- its surface the fragments of some printed beginning of the emergence of the great eled to Cairo in 1888 and again in 1895- work, which clings to old nobility with all European Jewish centers in Spain, Italy,

58 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 11 No. 1-2 Winter 2002 - Spring 2003 France and Germany, contained the Bialik Prize,29 and a street was named seeds of many later developments in Jew- Another major American figure in a differ- after him in Jerusalem.30 The immigrant ish life, culture and religion. The knowl- ent discipline of Genizah research was 25 boy, the City College graduate, the Ameri- edge on this period was meager, Israel Davidson. He was also a native can scholar became a central figure in the scattered and fragmentary. Ginzberg, in of Lithuania, who arrived in America in still unfolding scholarship of Genizah the second volume of Geonica, entitled 1888. Among various occupations of his poetry. Genizah Studies, published and analyzed early career, being a chaplain in the Sing for the first time many manuscripts relat- Sing prison deserves mention. A product The third scholar I want to mention is ing to this subject. In Ginzberg’s words: of City College and Columbia University, Jacob Mann. For a change, Mann was “There is no exaggeration in maintaining Davidson became a professor at the Jew- not from Lithuania, but from Galicia. He that the discovery of the Genizah by Prof. ish Theological Seminary of America and came to England in 1908 and then to the Solomon Schechter was in no other specialized in medieval Hebrew literature. United States in 1920. First Mann taught department of Jewish learning so epoch His best known work is the four volume 21 at the Baltimore Hebrew College and making as in the history of the Geonim. Thesaurus of Medieval Hebrew Poetry in later, until the end of his life, at the Ginzberg continued to enrich this field which he listed more than 35,000 31 26 Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. and in 1929 published a further volume of poems. In terms of originality, however, Examining the holdings of Genizah in the Genizah studies on Geonic Halakhah. In his discovery of Yannai was most decisive. various libraries, he became, in the words the introduction to this volume, Ginzberg Yannai’s name as composer of liturgical of Gerson D. Cohen, “an insatiable investi- maintained that the results of his 1909 poems had been known for a long time. gator of manuscripts” and, “a hunter who publications were still valid and listed His poetry, however, was unknown and no was determined to confine his quest to some of the major scholarly challenges facts were available about his life or times new game”32, the new game being the posed by the Geonic period: “the evolution until Davidson published his findings in 27 Genizah.While Ginzberg and Davidson of the Talmud from a literary compilation 1919. About twenty years before David- were mainly interested in literary and to the molder of Jewish thought and feel- son’s book appeared, one of the first and halakhic texts, Mann wanted to find and ing, the hegemony of Babylonian Jewry more sensational Genizah finds was utilize documentary evidence: letters, con- over all Israel, the rise of sects, the growth made by the English scholars, F. Crawford tracts, court records. These shed light on of mysticism, and the attempts at an inter- Burkitt and Charles Taylor. In one of the the communal life of the Jews in Babylo- pretation of Talmudic Judaism by the light fragments at Cambridge University, the 22 nia, Palestine and Egypt in the classic of Graeco-Arabic philosophy.” two scholars identified, underneath some Genizah centuries, namely, from ca. 900 Hebrew script, remnants of a lost Greek until ca. 1200. The non-literary fragments The Genizah documents, as deciphered translation of the Bible. They edited the of the Cairo Genizah moved into the fore- and analyzed by Ginzberg, and others, Greek, without paying attention to the front through the work of Jacob Mann. He played a major role in contributing to the Hebrew written over it. Davidson, observ- organized the huge quantities of data in solution of these scholarly challenges. ing the facsimiles of these manuscripts, chronological sequence in three monu- Ginzberg also published a major work became attracted to the Hebrew text and mental works, each of two volumes: The containing Genizah manuscripts that elu- found to his great amazement that it con- Jews in Egypt and Palestine,33 Texts and cidate many obscure passages of the tained poems that were connected to the 23 Studies in Jewish History and Litera- Talmud of Jerusalem. Ginzberg con- weekly Bible sections, divided according ture,34 and The Bible as Read and sciously chose to write his Geonic history to the ancient triennial cycle of public Preached in the Old Synagogue.35 Mann in English: “having cast in my lot with Torah reading. He recognized in the texts reconstructed events, restored forgotten American Jewry, I felt myself bound to the signature of Yannai and was able to names, and described the communal, write in the language of the land of my reconstruct the structure of these poetic political and organizational aspects of the adoption, and trust I shall not suffer in compositions. The language was innova- 24 life of the Jews, both Rabbinites and regarding myself as an American Jew”. tive, fresh and supple; the content mir- Karaites. Mann provided the raw materi- This remark must be understood against rored the conditions of Eretz Yisrael als for the continuing exploration of the the background of his times: most mod- toward the end of the Byzantine period; history of the Jews in those areas. From ern Jewish scholarship in the first and the function revealed a synagogue Cincinnati Jacob Mann dominated the decades of our century was written in practice of including creative new poetry field and provided the solid bricks needed German, often referred to as the second- into the weekly Shabbat service. David- for future work. As he himself put it: “The most-used Jewish language. The impor- son’s discovery opened up a new area of more the material stored up in manu- tant discoveries of Ginzberg, achieved in study of ancient Hebrew poetry. Scholars scripts is made accessible in a scientific American and published in English, expressed their admiration for Davidson’s manner, the better will the history of the placed American Jewish scholarship into work and stood in awe of the rich and Jewish life and activities in the course of the mainstream of the academic study of beautiful poetry discovered by him; one the past ages be reconstructed anew.”36 Judaism and contributed toward the grad- scholar remarked that Yannai’s work ual transfer of Jewish learning from belongs alongside the folio volumes of the 28 With his familiarity with all aspects of the Europe to American, already in the pre- classics of Talmud and Midrash. In the Genizah, literary, Halakhic, and documen- Holocaust period. In subsequent Genizah last seventy years and more, the field of tary, Jacob Mann avoided the pitfalls of research of Rabbinics, particularly Geonic Hebrew poetry in Eretz Yisrael has indeed narrow specialization and provided the literature, Ginzberg remained the pioneer- exploded with many important new dis- outlines of a synthesis of the life of the ing authority, whose work still constitutes coveries, which were ultimately started by Jewish communities in the Near and Mid- the starting point in every serious study of Davidson’s initial identification and publi- dle East that would later serve as the the topic. Historical, Halakhic and socio- cation of Yannai. Davidson received the foundation of the scholarly achievements logical research of the Geonate builds on recognition of his colleagues in Europe of the fourth scholar, S.D. Goitein.37 the foundations Ginzberg had laid. and Eretz Yisrael, was honored by the

Judaica Librarianship Vol. 11 No. 1-2 Winter 2002 - Spring 2003 59 Goitein, where the G could stand for rather communities: the Jewish, the Arab here; but while reading many a Genizah, has spent his life, more or less and the Christian. As Amitav Ghosh, the Genizah document one feels quite at equally divided, between Germany, Israel author of a semi-fictional, semi-anthropo- home.43 and the United States. A native of Ger- logical book, inspired by the Genizah, many, the son of a rabbi, he was trained writes, “a trapdoor into a vast network of American institution - building, collecting in traditional Jewish sources, and also foxholes where real life continues uninter- zeal, scholarly ambition, concern for the acquired highly advanced knowledge in rupted” was opened by Goitein and his preservation of our heritage - all con- Semitic and classical philology. In Pales- colleagues.42 tributed to Genizah research world-wide tine, in the 1920’s and later, Goitein and made American Jewish scholarship a immersed himself in Arabic studies, espe- Just a brief glance at the table of contents proud partner in the ongoing effort of cially Islamic law, as well as in research of the five volumes gives an idea of the unraveling the multitude of documents on the Yemenite communities. Around richness of this work. Here are some preserved among the treasures of the 1950 his single-minded devotion to chapter headings: “The working people: Genizah. Genizah studies had begun, a preoccupa- craftsman, wage earners, agriculture and tion that lasted until his death in 1985. In fishery; professions of women”; “The the United States he was associated with world of commerce and finance: produc- the University of Pennsylvania and later ers, dealers, brokers, auctioneers, travel with the Institute of Advanced Studies at and seafaring, types of vessels”; “Commu- Princeton University. He was also the nal organization and institutions, medieval recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. democracy, social services, education, Before turning to the majestic volumes interfaith relations”; “The family: marriage, containing Goitein’s brilliant Genizah the nuclear family, the extended family, research, a word is in place on Goitein’s the world of women”; “Daily Life: the city, 1 role in cataloging, classifying and organiz- domestic architecture, clothing and jewel- New York Times, May 15, 1997 (Op-Ed Page). ing Genizah fragments and the data ry, food and drink”; “The Individual: gath- derived from them. Goitein himself erings, poverty, illness, death, awareness 2 On the Ben Ezra Synagogue see Phyllis regarded this aspect of his activity “not of personality, the ideal person, rank and Lambert (ed.), Fortifications and the Syn- less vital than [his] published work.”38 He renown, sex, the true believer, the pres- agogue: The Fortress of Babylon and the acquired an almost complete collection of tige of scholarship.” At the end of the fifth Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo. London, photostats of the fragments and arranged volume Goitein paints the portrait of Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994. them in order of the manuscript collec- seven prominent personalities, among 3 tions, creating a subject catalog, arranged them that of Abraham, the son on Mai- For a biography of Schechter, see Nor- around groups such as letters on trade monides. man Bentwich, Solomon Schechter: A Biography. Philadelphia, The Jewish Pub- between the Mediterranean and India, lication Society, 1938. accounts, and marriage contracts. The Besides the brilliance and hard work, following indexes were devised: persons, what made this monumental achievement 4 Ibid., pp.140-144. families, honorific titles, Arabic words and possible? Goitein himself was not reticent phrases, dated manuscripts in chronologi- in speaking and writing about the forces 5 Grace Cohen Grossman with Richard cal order, and occupations.39 This cata- that shaped him. Among other things, he Eighme Ahlborn, Judaica at the Smith- logue is now at Princeton University, wrote: sonian: Cultural Politics as Cultural Model. where Genizah research is being contin- Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution ued by Goitein’s student, Professor Marc Last, and strangest of all, I believe I Press, 1997, esp. pp. 28-31, 42-61. Cohen. would have missed many aspects of the 6 Cyrus Adler, I Have Considered the Genizah documents had I not been Days. Philadelphia, The Jewish Publica- The undisputed crowning achievement of granted the opportunity of observing tion Society, 1941, 116-117. 100 years of non-literary Genizah the American scene for many years. research is Goitein’s five volume A Authoritarian Germany, where I spent 7 Ibid. p.364. Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Com- my childhood and youth and the Jewish 8 munities of the Arab World as Portrayed society in Palestine and later Israel with See B. Halpern, Descriptive Catalogue in the Documents of the Cairo Genizah.40 its socialist, welfare and protectionist of Genizah Fragments in Philadelphia. These large volumes provide a panoramic tendencies which saw most of my work- Philadelphia, Dropsie College, 1924. sweep, based on the most minute atten- ing life, were utterly different from the 9 On the Haggadah see The Passover tion to detail, of the life of the Jewish com- Genizah society, which was loosely Haggadah: Its sources and History, ed. by munities and their coexistence with the organized and competitive in every E.D. Goldschmidt. Jerusalem, Bialik Insti- Arab world. Goitein created a new term to aspect. This vigorous free-enterprise tute, 1960, pp. 73-84 (in Hebrew); on the describe his scholarly specialization: he society of the United States, which is letter see S.D. Goitein, A Mediterranean called himself a sociographer.41 The main not without petty jealousies and often Society.Volume 1. Berkeley and Los feature that grabs the reader is the liveli- cheap public honors, its endless fund- Angeles, University of California Press, ness of the society described through his raising campaigns and all that goes 1967, plate 1 (after p.20) discussions. In the masterly portrayals, with them, its general involvement in 10 See The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of his subjects, their lives, and their mentali- public affairs and deep concerns (or lip the Jewish Quarterly Review. Ed. by Abra- ties become vivid and palpably concrete. service, as the case may be) for the ham A. Neuman and Solomon Zeitlin. Goitein presents a picture of the totality of underdog - all proved to be extremely Philadelphia, Jewish Quarterly Review, an active, dynamic, living community or instructive. We do not wear turbans 1967, pp. 62-64.

60 Judaica Librarianship Vol. 11 No. 1-2 Winter 2002 - Spring 2003 11 See S.D. Goitein, Palestine Jewry in 23 Ye rushalmi Fragments from the 34 See above note 33 [i.e. 32, Ed.]. Orig- Early Islamic and Crusader Times in the Genizah. Edited by Louis Ginzberg. New inal edition: Cincinnati, Hebrew Union Col- Light of the Genizah Documents. Jeru- Yo rk, The Jewish Theological Seminary, lege, 1931-1933. salem, Yad Ben Zvi. 1980, pp.312-314. 1909. 35 Jacob Mann, The Bible as Read and 12 See Richard Gottheil and William H. 24 Eli Ginzberg, Keeper of the Law (see Preached in the Old Synagogue.Volume Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo above note 21 [i.e. 20, Ed.]), p.94. 1: Cincinnati, Union of American Hebrew Genizah in the Freer Collection. New York, Congregations, 1940. Volume 2: with Isa- Macmillan, 1927, esp. p.XIV. 25 On his life see his wife’s memoirs: C. iah Sonne. Cincinnati, Hebrew Union Col- Davidson, Out of Endless Yearnings: A lege, 1966. 13Adolf Neubauer (1831-1907), a well- Memoir of Israel Davidson.New York, known Jewish scholar, librarian at the Bloch, 1946. 36 Texts and Studies (see above note 33 Bodleian Library in Oxford, England. and 35 [i.e. 32 and 34, Ed.]), vol. 1, p. VIII. 26 The work was published in New York 14 Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts in by the Jewish Theological Seminary, 37 On his life and work see Shelomo Dov the Collection of Elkan Nathan Adler. between the years 1924-1933. Goitein 1900-1985. Published in 1985 by Cambridge University Press, 1921, p.V. The Institute for Advanced Study at 27 Israel Davidson, Mahzor Yannai: A Princeton University. 15 Jewish Quarterly Review, old series, IX Liturgical Work of the VIIth Century.New (1897), pp. 672-673. Yo rk, The Jewish Theological Seminary, 38 See Religion in a Religious Age. Edit- 1919. ed by S.D. Goitein. Cambridge, Mass., 16 Ibid. p.673. Association for Jewish Studies, 1974, 28 Saul Lieberman, Studies in Palestinian p. 143. 17 Solomon Schechter, Studies in Judaism, Talmudic Literature. Jerusalem, Magnes, Second Series, Philadelphia, The Jewish Publi- 1991 (in Hebrew), p.152. 39 Ibid., pp. 141-146. cation Society, 1908, pp. 6-7. 29 C. Davidson (see above note 26 [i.e. 40 Published by The University of Califor- 18 See the brief entry about him in Ency- 25, Ed.]), pp. 174-177. nia Press, 1967-1988. clopaedia Judaica, (German), vol. 10, col. 405-406. 30 In the Nayot section. 41 See Shelomo Dov Goitein (above note 38 [i.e. 37, Ed.]), p. 9. 19 See Festschrift zu Israel Lewy’s 31 On Mann see Victor E. Reichert in vol- siebzigstem Geburtstag. Breslau, Marcus, ume 2 of Mann’s The Bible as Read and 42 Amitov Ghosh, In an Antique Land. 1911, p.36-46. Preached in the Old Synagogue. Cincin- New York, Knopf, 1993, p. 15-16. nati, Hebrew Union College, 1966, pp. XI- 20 On his life see the personal memoir by XVII. 43 A Mediterranean Society (see above his son, Eli Ginzberg: Keeper of the Law: note 41 [i.e. 40, Ed.]), vol. 2, IX. Louis Ginzberg. Philadelphia, Jewish Pub- 32 Gerson D. Cohen, Reconstruction of lication Society, 1966. Gaonic History, Introduction to: Jacob Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History 21 Louis Ginzberg, Geonica.Volume 1. and Literature.Two volumes. New York, New York, The Jewish Theological Semi- KTAV, 1972, p. XLVII. nary, 1909, pp. VIII-IX. 33 Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and in 22 Genizah Studies in Memory of Doctor Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs.Two Solomon Schechter:Volume II: Geonic volumes. Oxford University Press, 1920- Menahem Schmelzer is Professor of and Early Karaitic Halakah by Louis 1922. New edition with Preface and Medieval Hebrew Literature and of Jewish Ginzberg. New York, The Jewish Theologi- Reader’s Guide by S.D. Goitein, New York, Bibliography at the Jewish Theological cal Seminary. KTAV, 1970. Seminary of America.

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