Jewish Studies

History of Collection

The history of Yale University Library’s Jewish studies collection goes back to the first decades of Yale college.  Then, and in the centuries after, the collecting of materials concerning Jewish languages, literatures, religion, and histories was mostly driven by Christian Hebraists’ and Orientalists’ interests, later intersecting with nineteenth-century antiquarian practices and a strong philological impetus.

Following the receipt of two major gifts in 1915, Yale University Library established a separate Judaica collection, whose breadth and diversity grew especially under the curation of Leon Nemoy, Yale’s first curator for Hebrew and Arabic; he served at Yale from 1923 to 1966. This development was continued by the establishment of the Yale Program in Jewish Studies in the mid-1980s and the creation of the position of the Jewish Studies Librarian, which was graciously endowed by the Joseph and Ceil Mazer foundation.

Collection Highlights and Expanding Areas of Focus

Yale’s Jewish studies collection includes thousands of items which are designated as part of special collections and are in their majority housed by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library but also by Yale Divinity Library Special Collections, the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library Special Collections, the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library Special Collections, and other repositories. Among the rare materials are more than 350 Hebraic manuscripts, thousands of premodern as well as modern printings, ephemera, periodicals, scores, and more than 160 archival collections.

Collection Highlights

• Over 350 manuscripts
• Forty-five incunabula and around 450 sixteenth-century Hebraic printed books  
• The Alexander Kohut Memorial Collection of Judaica
• The Selah Merrill collection of Josephus
• The Goodhart collection of Philo imprints
• The Sholem Asch papers and collection
• An extensive Yiddish collection, which includes rare personal prayers (teḥines), periodicals, working class, avant-garde literature, and early illustrated children’s literatures  
• The Yehuda Amichai papers
• The North African Jewish manuscript collection
• A global collection of more than one hundred forty illuminated Jewish marriage contracts (Ketubot)
• Jewish items within the Arts of the Books collection  
• Yale’s official records documenting the history of Jews at Yale

Expanding Areas of Focus

• E-materials
• Databases
• Materials that enable the engagement with fields such as Sephardic studies, Mizrahi studies, Beta Israel studies, Black Jewish studies, class studies, disability studies, inequality studies, Sephardi and Mizrahi studies, as well as women’s, gender, and sexuality studies
• Materials that reflect the intersectionality of Jewish histories, cultures, and experiences
• Materials that reflect the Jewish experience in relation to terms such as rabbinization, enlightenment, emancipation, modernism, avant-garde, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, (post)colonialism, homeland, refugee, exile, minority
• Materials that support the study of Jewish (material) cultures
• Yiddish and Hebrew avant-garde literature
• Yiddish publications after 1945
• Hebrew, Yiddish, and Jewish Graphic novels

Academic Departments and Programs Supported

• Program in Jewish Studies
• Modern Hebrew Program
• Department of Comparative Literature
• Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures  
• Department of History
• Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations  
• Department of Philosophy
• Department of Religious Studies
• Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures  
• Divinity School

This list is by no means exhaustive. Since Jewish studies is an intrinsically interdisciplinary field, the collection strives to support all areas of the humanities and social sciences that engage with the study of Jewish experiences, histories, thought, and cultures.

Selection Responsibilities

Formats Collected

• E-books
• Print books
• Serials (electronic-preferred, print subscriptions when an online format is not available, not stable, or not adequate)
• Online databases
• Graphic novels (print and electronic)
• Audiovisual materials in DVD/Blu-ray (selectively) and in streaming format (very selectively)
• Sound recordings (very selectively)
• Reference materials (e-preferred, and, in selection, in print for the Jewish Studies Reading and Reference Room)
• Printed single pamphlets (selective)
• Seforim, contemporary (related to Jewish thought; very selective)  

Languages Collected

• Hebraic and Jewish languages (Hebrew, Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, Ladino, etc.)
• English
• Czech
• French
• German
• Italian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish

Materials relating to Jewish studies in all other languages are collected very selectively to strengthen the diversity and inclusiveness of the collection or the content relates directly to current research at Yale or represents major scholarly achievements.  Yale faculty and students can request the acquisition of Jewish Studies materials in all languages if these relate to their research, teaching, or study.  Yale faculty and students are welcome to discuss their need of a greater selection of materials in languages not listed above with the Joseph and Ceil Mazer Librarian for Jewish Studies.

Chronological and Geographical Focus