{"title":"Baltimore Hebrew Institute Collection: A Jewish Studies Library Re-imaged","authors":"Elaine Mael","doi":"10.14263/22/2022/557","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/557","url":null,"abstract":"The Baltimore Hebrew University (BHU) was one of a handful of independent Jewish studies institutions in the United States during the twentieth century. Located in the heart of the Baltimore Jewish community, it grew from a small teachers’ college to a doctoral degree-granting university over the course of its many decades. Several factors, including shifting educational trends, pragmatic economic considerations, and societal expectations altered the academic landscape for this institution; dwindling enrollment forced the once-thriving school to consider options for re-location, re-organization, or closure. A little more than ten years ago, BHU’s programs, faculty, and library were incorporated into a large public university located in nearby Towson, Maryland. As part of this move, the extensive resources of the BHU library were integrated with the much larger library of Towson University (TU), and both collections are now housed in one multi-storied building in the middle of a busy urban university campus. This article addresses the phenomenon of merging two disparate library collections and focuses on both the positive and negative results of consolidating academic libraries of different sizes, content, and cultural heritage. The author was a former librarian at BHU and is currently a librarian at TU.","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44511410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Caroline Jessen, Kanon im Exil: Lektüren deutsch-jüdischer Emigranten in Palästina/ Israel. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2019. 398 p. ISBN: 9783835333482. [German]","authors":"Renate Evers","doi":"10.14263/22/2022/569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/569","url":null,"abstract":"Kanon im Exil is an interdisciplinary biographical study of the reading canon and writings of five German-Jewish authors who emigrated to Palestine in the 1930s. Caroline Jessen’s eloquent and creative work, an abridged version of her dissertation, brings together literary and exile studies, social and cultural history, history of the book, and the history of ideas. It is embedded in the specific political context of a newly formed society in Palestine/Israel, which chose Hebrew as its unifying language and embarked on new national literary expressions and cultural narratives. Immigrants to Palestine found themselves in a very different situation in comparison to those in other prominent places of German-Jewish emigration in the 1930s—mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom—where the newcomers entered established societies and negotiated their space there. The lives of the five people profiled in this book offer an impression of the tensions and conflict areas they encountered. Jessen argues that the conscious and unconscious discourse with the German literary canon that each of these writers grappled with is an invaluable tool for the study of contemporary discourses as an expression of cultural memory. 1 Before embarking on a theoretical framework for canon research, Jessen introduces the topic with an observation regarding German book collections taken to Palestine/Israel by emigrants from Germany as material manifestations of their literary culture: These once ubiquitous collections are now vanishing from everyday Israeli life together with the last generation of their owners.","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44935510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"History of YIVO’s Prewar Archival Collections from 1925 to 2001","authors":"Stefanie Halpern","doi":"10.14263/22/2022/707","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/707","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses YIVO's prewar collections, their looting and dispersion during the Holocaust, and the various subsequent efforts to recover them. The article includes a brief overview of YIVO's founding and prewar activities; a discussion of the Nazi looting of YIVO's materials during the Holocaust and the heroic efforts by Jews to save these materials during and after the war; YIVO's shift of its headquarters to New York City in 1939–1940; the US Government restitution of materials to YIVO in 1947; and efforts to reclaim additional materials from Lithuania from 1989 to 2001. The article closes with a brief note on YIVO's newly completed Vilna Collections Project to digitally reunite YIVO's pre-war materials in New York City with materials housed in three Lithuanian repositories. ","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45654737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Scatter of the Literature, March 2020–December 2022","authors":"Rachel Leket-Mor, N. Sharon","doi":"10.14263/22/2022/729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/729","url":null,"abstract":"a cross","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44720534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Jason Lustig, A Time to Gather: Archives and the Control of Jewish Culture. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. ix, 265 p. ISBN: 9780197563526","authors":"Larissa Allwork","doi":"10.14263/22/2022/725","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/725","url":null,"abstract":"Archives are not merely collections of materials, nor are they simply the buildings that house them, but are also the multiple people and communities that coalesce around them at the conceptual and the material level at different points along the records continuum (Evans et al. 2017). Archival records gain new meaning as creators, users","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48601436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jewish Identity and American Acceptance: Welcoming a Firstborn Son in Two Classic Children's Books","authors":"Emily Schneider","doi":"10.14263/22/2022/567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/567","url":null,"abstract":"Jewish-American-themed children’s fiction often includes descriptions of ritual observance. Yet, although ritual circumcision (brit milah, or bris) is a requirement in halacha (Jewish religious law) for all newborn males, this event is virtually absent from Jewish children’s books; the incorporation of a surgical procedure would create obvious narrative difficulties. Sydney Taylor and Sadie Rose Weilerstein, two of the most important twentieth century Jewish-American children’s authors, each wrote a series of books including a newborn son. Instead of a bris, they both included the less common, nonsurgical ritual of pidyon ha-ben. Thus, they eluded a problematic description, while informing readers about a lesser-known Jewish practice.","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48145567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jewish German Immigrant Booksellers in Twentieth-Century Ecuador","authors":"Irene Munster","doi":"10.14263/22/2022/517","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/517","url":null,"abstract":"When German Jews looked for a country to receive them in the late 1930s Ecuador had its doors open for immigration. This paper traces the story of four German Jewish refugees who landed in Ecuador and established bookstores and libraries in a country that knew little of either. Rescuing their lives from oblivion is a way to highlight their cultural contribution to their host country.","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46004704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The UCLA Sephardic Archive Initiative: Finding the Keys to an Untold History","authors":"M. Daniel","doi":"10.14263/jl.v21i.533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/jl.v21i.533","url":null,"abstract":"This essay introduces the scope and aim of the Sephardic Archive Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles. In conjunction with the Library, Special Collections, and the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, this project seeks to locate, collect, archive, and share documents and ephemera relating to Sephardic history. With a focus on their journeys to Los Angeles and Southern California, the initiative aims to tell the stories of Jews from North Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and the lands of the former Ottoman Empire. The transnational ties of Sephardic commercial, intellectual, religious, social, and family networks have produced a richly tangled web of history, which for the past century has found a thriving base in Los Angeles. The project seeks to create a hub of scholarly and communal investment, interest, and exploration of materials related to the Sephardic past.","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":"21 1","pages":"38–48-38–48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46613558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"JS/DH: Primary Sources and Open Data","authors":"Michelle Chesner","doi":"10.14263/jl.v21i.543","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/jl.v21i.543","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":"21 1","pages":"119–121-119–121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45114833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Victor Perera Papers","authors":"Gabriel Mordoch","doi":"10.14263/jl.v21i.529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14263/jl.v21i.529","url":null,"abstract":"The author shares the circumstances that led to his encounter with the personal archives of Victor Haim Perera (1934–2003), an award-winning Sephardic-American writer, journalist, environmental and political activist, and academic born in Guatemala City. Perera published six books on topics as varied as Sephardic history, the Maya Indians, and the Loch Ness monster, and contributed dozens of articles, short stories, and essays to newspapers, trade journals, magazines, and literary anthologies. This paper also provides an overview of Perera’s life and work and shares information about the Victor Perera Papers collection at the University of Michigan Library. It presents a case study illustrating that library catalogers can improve discoverability of and access to library special collections by expanding beyond their core duties and investigating the contexts behind the materials that cross their desks. The article ends with a preliminary bibliography of Perera’s works.","PeriodicalId":81746,"journal":{"name":"Judaica librarianship","volume":"21 1","pages":"5–29-5–29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46117850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}