Sarah Feiga Foner’s story is found in an obscure handwritten text inscribed in Solitreo script from Ioannina, Greece…
The only mentions of a sukkah in the Cairo Genizah refer to communal sukkot in synagogue courtyards. A fact that caused quite a bit of trouble.
About a year after the renowned scholar’s Talmud set finally found its way home, his Mishna has too…
In 1600, three scholars from completely different worlds met in the “New Venice” castle outside Prague. The meeting lasted three weeks and resulted in a Hebrew astronomy book, as well as in a lesson about the unifying power of love for the sciences and the quest for knowledge
Kabbalistic literature looked for ancient symbols through which it could express its daring innovations. It found such a symbol in the Menorah…
This story of the purchase of this Spanish Kabbalistic manuscript encapsulates much of the work done here at the National Library.
“3/12/1941 – My heart is burning and my body is freezing. My head is hurting beyond all reason. Why? Is all justice forsaken?”
Take a glimpse at the coded letters that expose a complex operation to smuggle Jewish women who were in danger out of Italy.
No one knows the exact origins of the little black suitcase filled with hand-written scrolls now kept at the National Library of Israel.