New books at New College Library – May

Posted on May 9, 2013 by cloverodgers

New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks.

New in this month is Religion on the move! : new dynamics of religious expansion in a globalizing world edited by Afe Adogame and Shobana Shankar, on the shelf at BL637 Rel.

Also new is Becoming frum : how newcomers learn the language and culture of Orthodox Judaism by Sarah Benor, at BM723 Ben.

These titles were purchased for Religious Studies at the School of Divinity, Edinburgh University.

You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet.

The Rescue that never was – remembering Holocaust Memorial Day #HMD2013

Posted on January 28, 2013 by cloverodgers

Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords /William Temple. London : Victor Gollancz, [1943] Z.h.30/24

Holocaust Memorial Day marks the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, and remembers those who died in the Holocaust and under Nazi persecution, and during subsequent genocides, such as Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.

New College Library holds this pamphlet, Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords. The author, William Temple (1881-1944) was a bishop in the Church of England who served as Archbishop of York Archbishop of Canterbury between 1942–44.

One of the founders of the Council of Christians and Jews in 1942, Temple was at the forefront of the Church of England’s campaign to draw attention to the plight of the Jews in Europe and to demand that the British Government provide rescue and sanctuary for Jewish victims. His speech urges:

“The Jews are being slaughtered at the rate of tens of thousands a day on many days … we cannot rest as long as there is any sense among us that we are not doing all that might be done.”

Sadly no changes to refugee policy were made by the British Government and after William Temple died in 1944, the impetus for rescuing the Jews did not continue.

This item is part of the Pamphlets Collection, and it was catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library

Festival Prayers for Hanukkah

Posted on December 10, 2012 by cloverodgers

Shaar Bat Rabim Mahzor Helek Rishon : ke-minhag kahal kadosh Ashkenazim. Ṿinitsiʾah : Stamperia Bragadina, 1716-[1731/32. New College Library Dal-Chr 9(1)

The Mahzor Ashkenazim is an example of a mahzor, or festival prayer book, for Ashkenazi usage, published in Venice in the early eighteenth century. Its large size makes it likely that it was intended for synagogue use rather than personal prayer. The Encyclopedia Judaica (available online to University of Edinburgh users) notes that mahzorim, which originally developed in medieval south western Germany, started to appear in the Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy in the fifteenth century.

This item is part of the Dalman-Christie Collection, catalogued as one of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library. The Dalman-Christie Collection was transferred to New College Library in 1946 from the Church of Scotland Hospice in Jerusalem. With thanks to our Hebrew Cataloguer, Janice Gailani, for helping to identify this item.

This opening shows festival prayers for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.

Manchester Contributes to the Friedberg Genizah Project

Posted on November 19, 2012 by cloverodgers

A growing resource for Jewish / Ancient World Studies – I see that as well as the digitized images of Genizah collections at Cambridge and Birmingham there are links to related open access journals and pdfs of all the 8 volumes of “Ginzei Kedem” – a Journal devoted to Genizah research and published by the Ben-Zvi Institute.

Medieval Jewish Biblical Scholarship at New College Library

Posted on September 19, 2012 by cloverodgers

Perush ‘al Nevi’im ahronim = Commentarius celeberrimi Rabbi Ishak Abarbanel super Iesaiam, Ieremiam, Iehazkelem, et prophetas XII. minores (1642) New College Library Dal-Chr 36

This item from New College Library’s Special Collections is a biblical commentary on the Old Testament prophets by the Portuguese Jewish scholar Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508). Abravanel was employed by King Alfonso V of Portugal as his Treasurer and his career encompassed statesmanship, philosophy and finance as well as biblical scholarship. In his commentaries he took time to include an introduction to each book, concerning its character and the intention of the original author. Much of his exegetical work was translated and distributed within the world of Christian scholarship, and this seventeenth century edition shows that Abravanel’s work was still in circulation nearly two hundred years after it was produced.

This book is part of the Dalman-Christie collection of Hebrew books, which was recently catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library – thanks go to our Hebrew Cataloguer, Janice Gailani, for sharing details of this item. The Dalman-Christie collection was transferred to New College Library in 1946 from the Church of Scotland Hospice in Jerusalem.

Historic record of Jewish festivals at New College Library

Posted on September 16, 2012 by cloverodgers

It’s September 16 and the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year festival. Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar, or ram’s horn trumpet, and eating apples dipped in honey – a symbol of the wish for a sweet new year.

New College Library holds an interesting volume of prayers and devotions for Ashkenazi Jewish festivals, Maḥzor ḥeleḳ rishon, published c. 1699 in Sulzbach in the Rhineland where medieval Jewish communities settled. The book still has some of its original brass studs and brass clasps intact.

This book is part of the Dalman-Christie collection of Hebrew books, which was recently catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library. The Dalman-Christie Collection was transferred to New College Library in 1946 from the Church of Scotland Hospice in Jerusalem. With thanks to our Hebrew Cataloguer, Janice Gailani, for sharing details of this item.

Maḥzor ḥeleḳ rishon [1699] New College Library Dal-Chr 14

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