Judaic Studies

We collect materials for Judaic studies research in all languages, particularly Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, and Aramaic, as well as other Jewish and Western languages. Topics range from Biblical, Talmudic, and Rabbinic Judaism to modern literatures and cultures, history, Israel and the diaspora, antisemitism and the Holocaust, art, and film, among others.

In addition to print and electronic books and databases, our collection contains audio and video recordings, microform, graphic novels, artwork, photos, postcards, ephemera, and more. Our materials support scholars and students at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, as well as other departments across the university.

Judaica special and rare materials are housed at the Special Collections Research Center and listed in our guide to Judaica Special Collections. Of particular interest are, among others, the Irwin M. Alterman Haggadah Collection, the Jewish cookbooks in the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive, works by and about Jewish-Polish illustrator Arthur Szyk, and the Jewish Heritage Collection.

Jewish Heritage Collection

The Jewish Heritage Collection reflects Jewish life through its assemblage of books, artwork, ephemera, and objects of everyday and religious significance.

The collection includes several hundred editions of the Haggadah; cookbooks; sheet music; postcards, calendars, and other ephemera; household objects; and ritual items such as menorahs and Purim groggers.

Works by fine artists, including those of the Bezalel school movement, along with magazine caricatures and political cartoons, reveal how Jewish life has been portrayed from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Images and supporting descriptions of over 600 objects are available in the Jewish Heritage Collection Digital Archive.

The collection was established in 2003 with a donation of more than 2,000 items from Constance and Theodore Harris.