From The
, AgraPY., A'W,
248A," .1.10 •
he Library of Congress has
descriptions and books explain the mo-
mentous nature of each piece, with the
catalogue, written by Rabbi Abraham
historical documents — Karp, relating additional historic infor-
books, manuscripts, letters, mation.
prints, maps, musical scores
"There's a great deal of pride gener-
— relating to the Jewish people.
ated by everyone who's seen the exhibit,"
From a Hebrew grammar text required said Talisman, whose foundation was
for every Harvard student in the 1700s formed to preserve, rehabilitate, exhibit
to papers and manuscripts of Albert Ein- and disseminate Judaic culture.
stein and Sigmund Freud, the reposito-
"The Library of Congress collection
ry holds materials that celebrate Jewish doesn't only represent our culture as
culture, spirit and intellect.
Jews, it also represents what happened
Under the direction of Mark Talisman, to our Jewish community in America and
president of the independent Project Ju- in regard to our history."
daica Foundation, 165 of these items are
Ten years ago, Talisman brought a dif-
being exhibited in nine United States ferent collection to the Detroit Institute
cities for the first time, marking the 75th of Arts: "A Precious Legacy," Judaica
anniversary of the Hebraic Section of the amassed in Prague by Hitler and now re-
Library of Congress.
turned to the Jewish museum in that city.
"From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic
After Daniel J. Boorstin, then Librar-
Treasures of the Library of Congress" will ian of Congress, saw "A Precious Legacy"
be at the Cleveland College of Jewish in Montreal, the idea for this year's dis-
Studies through Oct. 26. Legends, taped play started to take shape.
ept guarded in its inner re-
prk cesses
more than 1 million
On Our JN Entertainment Cover
"Among the greatest of medieval Hebrew illuminated manuscripts is the Wash-
ington Haggadah, fashioned by Joel ben Simeon, the most productive scribe and
illuminator of Hebrew manuscripts in the 15th century. Though not as elabo-
rately illustrated as many other illuminated Haggadot, the beauty of its calligra-
phy, which is never subordinated to the illustrations, the proportions of the page
and the vividness of the illumination, which has come down in unusually fine con-
dition, make this one of the most admired of Hebrew manuscripts." This page,
Ho Lahma, "the bread of affliction."
— Abraham Karp, guest curator, from the exhibit catalogue From the Ends of
the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress
1 .1 171-7
77PN . - 7)7D.
7771 1r) 1.1 )) 11.v171) 7.M-7-» )1 1/771V
The American artist Ben Shahn dedicated this Haggadah, which he calligraphed and illustrated in color,
to his father, for "it reflects my memories of Passover in my father's house." This page depicts an
impressionistic menorah, resplendent in gold, purple and blue — colors regal and Jewish. Below, the
artist has written the benediction: "Blessed art thou, 0 Lord our God, who has kept us in life, sustained
us, and enabled us to reach this day."
The Judaica now on exhibit, paralleled Library of Congress after the British
by Library of Congress collections repre- burned Washington in 1814 and de-
senting other ethnic groups that settled stroyed the contents of the Library of Con-
into the United States, tells many stories. gress. At the time, Jefferson was retired
If the items could talk, here is a bit of and facing poverty. The sale of his 26,000-
what they would say:
plus volumes allowed him to maintain
himself financially.
A traveling exhibit of
Judaic treasures from the
Library of Congress.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
• At the core of the exhibit are the
books in Hebrew that President Thomas
Jefferson owned. He read Hebrew as well
as the ancient languages of Greek and
Latin, understood it perfectly and made
notes in the margins of many of the pages.
Jefferson sold his personal library to the
• On the back of an envelope, in Abra-
ham Lincoln's handwriting, is an order
rescinding an anti-Semitic act by Gener-
al Grant. Lincoln's order was made after
he visited his chiropodist, who was Jew-
ish and informed the Civil War president
that four days earlier Grant had essen-
tially removed all Jews from participa-
tion in the Union Army.
• More than 2,000 manuscripts on
school-lined paper express the hopes and
dreams of immigrants who came over in
steerage in search of opportunities along
New York's Second Avenue, in Jewish-
based theater and on Broadway. They
wanted to be produced in one of those
venues and find their fortune in the gold-
ene medineh.