On Friday, June 2, the Institute hosted Columbia alumni for a special event at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Elisheva Carlebach, Co-Director of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, and Michelle Margolis, the Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies, discussed the history of Jewish Studies at Columbia and walked guests through centuries-old selections from the Alexander Library of Jewish Studies.
Dr. Margolis brought out an exciting array of treasures from the Library’s collections, sorted into the following categories:
New Acquisitions
Columbia History
Jews in the East (Near and Far)
Women
Yiddish
Early Printing
Columbia alumni and families from all backgrounds had the opportunity to directly explore and interact with manuscripts as old as the fifteenth century that represented the diversity of Jewish history and culture throughout time and across the world.