On the Cost of Scholarship, or: There is No Garage Sale @ Brill

I just initialed a purchase requisition for 14 books – not an uncommon act of an academic library’s director. The price tag: $3032.00 – less and less an uncommon price tag for scholarly publications. Why should you care? Because as I was excitedly reading the back-cover summaries and endorsements, pouring over their rich tables of content, and congratulating myself on once again putting our collection on the cutting edge of scholarship, it dawned on me that it may take a long time before anyone else gets excited over any of them, or over the total amounts that our library system invests in anticipating and meeting the needs of our faculty and students.

Why is that? I asked myself, and what can the library do to make you more aware, and to make the books more visible? But before I answer my own questions (not a Hokhmeh*, as my mother would say…), I am going to have you taste the titles, breath in the aromas of intriguing ideas, and hopefully, have you order from the menu:
Cover image of book
Studies in the History of Culture and Science: a Tribute to Gad Freudenthal. Edited by R. Fontaine, R. Glasner, R. Leicht and G. Veltri. Twenty two chapters on the history of science and the role of science in Judaism.

From Two Kingdoms to One Nation – Israel and Judah; Studies in Division and Unification. By Shamai Gelander.

Bene Israel: Studies in the Archaeology of Israel and the Levant during the Bronze and Iron Ages in Honour of Israel Finkelstein. Edited by A. Fantalkin & A. Yasur-Landau.

“From a Sacred Source”: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif. Edited by B.M. Outhwaite & S. Bhayro. Papers from the 2007 Cambridge conference

Spirituality in the Writings of Etty Hillesum: Proceedings of the Etty Hillesum Conference at Ghent University, November 2008. Edited by K.A.D. Smelik, R. van den Brandt & M.G.S. Coetsier.

The Same but Different? : Inter-Cultural Trade and the Sephardim, 1595-1640. By J. V. Roitman. The study challenges historiographical arguments that the Sephardim achieved their commercial success by relying on geographically dispersed family members and fellow ethnics.

Opening the Gates of Interpretation: Maimonides’ Biblical Hermeneutics in Light of His Geonic-Andalusian Heritage and Muslim Milieu. By M.Z. Cohen.

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah, in Honor of Professor Louis H. Feldman.The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah, in Honor of Professor Louis H. Feldman. Edited by Steven Fine.

Legal Fictions: Studies in Law and Narrative in the Discursive Worlds of Ancient Jewish Sectarians and Sages. By S. D. Fraade

From Conquest to Coexistence: Ideology and Antiquarian Intent in the Historiography of Israel’s Settlement in Canaan. By K. van Kekkum.

Without Any Doubt: Geronides on Method and Knowledge. By S. Klein-Braslavy.

The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint.The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint. By S. Vance On the martyrdom of Sol Hatchuel, a Jewish girl from Tangier, that traumatized the Jewish community and inspired a literary response in Morocco and beyond.

The City Besieged: Siege and Its Manifestations in the Ancient Near East. By I. Eph’al.

History of Modern Jewish Religious Philosophy; v. 1: The Period of the Enlightenment. By Eliezer Schweid.

ARE YOU STILL READING THIS BLOG? WHY AREN’T YOU IMPATIENTLY TAPPING YOUR FINGERS ON THE CIRCULATION DESK SO WE CAN HURRY UP AND CHECK ANY OR ALL OF THESE BOOKS TO YOU?

Book cover for From conquest to conexsistence.Aha! Time to Jewishly answer my original questions – that is, with more questions – and make a few suggestions that will make such treasures more visible and accessible to you.

Did you know you can find out about our recent acquisitions when you log on to our website? Try: http://blog.huc.edu/aquisitions/LA/

Do you ever look at the bookstand at the entrance to our Joseph Reading Room? This serves as the “hot off the press” carousel to books that are even newer than the ones listed on the “New Books” page!

How about looking at the dust jackets’ displayed on our bulletin board? (Librarian lingo for book covers…) Everything up there is catalogued, shelved, and ready to go!

OK. Now it’s up to you to make me a true believer, allow me to complete the purchase request with a clean conscience and consider it money well spent.

Enjoy!

Yaffa

* Profound wisdom, in (sarcastic) Yiddish

Jewish Book Carnival

Welcome to the August Jewish Book Carnival

Jewish book carnival

There are lots of cool and refreshing choices to help beat the summer heat dulldrums

On My  Machberet, Erika Dreifus shares fond memories of a beloved book from childhood:   Habibi and Yow: A Little Boy and His Dog, by Althea O. Silverman.

Our favorite Boston  Bibliophile, reviews The Elected Member, by Bernice Rubens, a Booker-Prize-winner  about a Jewish family.

Amy Meltzer reviews a “not your average” Alef-Bet book by  Michelle Edwards at Kveller

For all you Potter-heads (me included!) JPS rounds up a bunch of links on the question: “Is  Harry Potter Jewish?”

It’s not too late for a great summer mystery – Jonathan Kirsch reviews The  Honored Dead by Joseph Braude at the Jewish  Journal

The Jewish Book Council Blog features an article by Melissa Fay Greene on Raising  an Ethiopian Jewish child in Georgia.

Over at the Whole Megilla, Barbara Krasner offers a video  of the Editors Roundtable from the Second Annual Highlights Foundation Workshop   on Writing Jewish-themed Children’s Books with Margery Cuyler, Publisher of   Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books/Shofar Books as well as a review   of a YA/middle school boy lit! Beyond Lucky by Sarah Aronson

Not your typical summer reading – Ann Koffsky ruminates on kid-lit and shares her Thoughts  on Tisha b’Av & Books

Over at the The  Book of Life, Heidi Estrin interviews Joan Leegant about her novel Wherever  You Go

Linda K.  Wertheiner offers some literary tips on handling Shabbat services with a toddler at her blog the Jewish  Muse.

And for those who have spent their summer writing, Yotzeret Publishing offers  some suggestions on polishing your transcript with some lessons  from Dr. Seuss

Many of us attended a baseball game or 2 this summer – Kathe Pinchuck not only attended but was truly inspired in Life is like a Library.

Enjoy this great assortment of blogs and stop by and leave the authors a comment!

Israeli Summer Harvest – New Books from Israel

I love the end of the budget year! When all the research and curricular materials have been added to our collection, and some money is left in the budget, my inner Israeli signals “go for it!” This is when I go shopping for books that illuminate contemporary interests of the Israeli cultural and academic universes, just in case somebody will come looking…

Here is a sampling of our latest acquisitions:

 

ha-Tikvah cover

התקווה- עבר, הווה, עתיד: מסע רב תחומי בעקבות ההמנון הלאומי. אסתרית בלצן. משרד החינוך, האגף לתכנון ולפתוח תכניות לימודים. 2009

+ 2CDs.

www.edu.gov.il/tal/portal

A literary, artistic and musical journey following the historical foot prints of Israel’s national anthem.

 

 

Sacred trees in Israel

עצים מקודשים בישראל. אמוץ דפני. הקבוץ המאוחד/קק”ל. 2010

Sacred trees in Israel/ Amots Dafni

A colorful look at traditions, locations and customs surrounding trees in Israel that are sacred to specific religions.

 

שעור מולדת: חינוך לאומי וכינון מדינה 1966-1954 . טלי תדמור שמעוני. מכון בן-גוריון לחקר ישראל והציונות/ אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, 2010 .

National education and formation of state in Israel/  Tali Tadmor-Shimony.

“Moledet” means “Homeland” in Hebrew. Coming from the verb indicating “birth”, a “moledet” class was the place where you learned the geography, botany, agronomy of the Land of Israel. This book looks at the relationship between teaching the love of the land and the formation of the State of Israel between 1954-1966.

 

 

לבשל בטעם לאדינו: לקט מתכונים מהקהילות היהודיות-ספרדיות/ מתילדה כהן-סראנו. ש. זק  2010

Gizar kon gozo: rikolio de rechetas de kuzina de las Kommunitas sefaradias/ Matilda Koen-Serano.

Cooking a-la Ladino! Bi-lingual recipes for the Sephardic cooking aficionados.

 

 

בעקבות הבעש”ט: מאוצרות הספריה הלאומית. 2010

In the footsteps of the BESHT: exhibition of treasures from the collections of the National Library of Israel.

Literary and archival treasures about the Ba’al Shem Tov and rabbi Nachman of Bratslav.

איורי התנ”ך של גוסטב דורה ואמנות ישראלית עכשווית. הגלריה האוניברסיטאית לאמנות, אוניברסיטת תל-אביב, 2010

Gustav Dore’s illustrations for the Bible and Contemporary Israeli art.

Artistic commentaries on the famous Dore` illustrations of biblical scenes.

 

 

נעמי: אמה של אומה/ פנינה גלפז-פלר. כרמל 2010

Naomi: a mother of a nation – a new reading of the book of Ruth/Pnina Galpaz-Feller.

 

 

לכתוב בשפת האחר: מבטים על ספרות עברית וערבית. רסלינג 2010

Writing in “the other’s” language: studies in Hebrew and Arabic literature.

Collaborative volume of Israeli Jews and Arabs about “the other” in their respective literatures.

 

תשע אמהות ואמא: ייצוגי אימהות בסיפורת העברית החדש/ אברהם בלבן. הקבוץ המאוחד 2010

Nine mothers and Mother: representations of motherhood in modern Israeli fiction/Avraham Balaban.

 

 

אשת חיל עבריה: עיונים בשירות נשים מהיישוב העברי במערכות הבטחון / ניר מן (עורך). כרמל 2010.

“Woman of Valor”: studies in Yishuv women’s participation in defense forces/ Nir Mann (ed.)

Abstracts in English.

 

Yaffa Weisman, your LA librarian and bibliophile!

The Pleasures of Meeting the Sachs Family

Some stories are better told from the end. Being an avid reader of stories, I know that the good ones reveal what you had hoped for as they unfold: a great plot, fascinating characters, and amazing chapters that make up the book of life as they take you on the journey back in time.

Here is “the end” of this story: I am standing in a warehouse in Panorama City surrounded by 18,000 books neatly packed in boxes. This is a gift from the estate of the late Elliot Sachs of Santa Barbara, generously donated to the Frances-Henry Library by the executrix, Ms. Doris Sturgess, through the mediation of a few good people (another amazing story to be told another time).

About a month before my first “visit” of what is now the largest gift this library has ever received, I knew nothing about Elliot Sachs or his family, and when the initial contact was made, I did what every cautious librarian would do: I researched the subject.

The Anti-Semites ... a playIn addition to the fact that he was a professor of Political Science in the UC system, I was told by Ms. Sturgess that his father was a rabbi in Santa Monica, having moved there in the early 50s from Toronto, Canada. My initial research revealed a family saga fit to be “treated” and produced as a mini-series in this tinsel-town of ours: a young immigrant from Lithuania, Samuel Sachs, arriving in New York at the beginning of the 20th century, possibly with his parents, with a good probability that the father, Yehudah, was a rabbi in Lithuania. Samuel is ordained by JTS in 1916, and after receiving his B.A. from Columbia University, he is invited in 1926 by congregation Goel Tzedek in Toronto to serve as their rabbi. Somewhere on this time-line he marries Florence [later “find”  her cookbook and recipes], and they have two children. One of them, Elliot-Elijah, is born in 1933 [later “find”: Bar Mitzva Book of the Jewish National Fund, 1946]. After twenty years of service and social justice activism [later “find”: hundreds of pamphlets on issues of Labor relations, Zionism, Pioneers in the Land of Israel, Antisemitism, Communism, Socialism, Nazism, Jewish Philanthropy], they move to Santa Monica where Rabbi Sachs serves as the rabbi of Mishkan Tefilah (1952-1964).  Elliot studies Political Science and begins teaching in the UC system… and by now I am hooked…

I tell Ms. Sturgess that I need to come and see the collection before I make a decision, but my hunch tells me that there is a very good chance that the collection encompasses the lives of 3 Jewish scholars.

Picture Stories from the Bible.One week later I am standing in the middle of a townhouse in Santa Barbara that is empty, except for book shelves everywhere; entrance, hallway, kitchen, bedrooms, and a whole second floor that is designated as a library. Wall to wall book cases, hundreds of books meticulously protected by wrapped dust jackets, and in the middle of the room – about a hundred boxes ready to go. I ask for permission, and once given, I start pulling out books at random. I glimpse title pages of books dating back to the 1920 & 1930s from Great Britain, European imprints of early Christianity scholarship, an occasional commentary in Hebrew, published in Europe in the 19th century. The “kid in the candy store” feeling intensifies…Ms. Sturgess mentions a guesthouse in the front. I open the door and the studio apartment is filled with more boxes…I’m sold!

Fast forward: It is now the end of April, the first month of my Sabbatical leave. Assisted by my host’s, Eric Klein, staff, and by my old friend Liz, we have managed to unpack half of the collection. My initial hunch is proving to be right: I have scanned, researched and processed books and pamphlets that belonged to three generations of this family. More than the large number of items we do not own that will be entered into our collection, I am touched and overwhelmed by the care given to them; from rare imprints dealing with the Spanish Inquisition to Responsa literature published in Eastern Europe, from thinly published warnings against the meaning and the rise of Nazism in Germany AND in the USA, to texts of radio broadcasts urging the British government to honor its Balfour Declaration. From fund-raising programs for Goel Tzedek Memorial Park, to a Hebrew primer for children, published in 1945 and using a young boy’s description of the war from inside the Warsaw Ghetto as a vocabulary teaching tool.

For my own “professional development” I have learned that books in Hebrew were published in Johannesburg in the 1850s; that a “Pro-Palestinian Federation of America”, whose members were Christian clergy and academics, advocated on behalf of Jews in Europe in the late 1930s and against Anti-Jewish propaganda; that a small anarchist-atheist publishing house, the Haldeman-Julius Company of Girard, Texas, was publishing Big Blue Books and Little Red Books that were affordable to all and promoted social justice.(http://www.haldeman-julius.org/ and http://www.lib.k-state.edu/depts/spec/findaids/pc2004-11.html)

Balfour Declaration ... radio broadcastThere is really no defined or planned “ending” to this story. I have 400 more boxes of books to unpack and more to learn about the Sachs family. The Library staff is busy cataloging, processing and conserving these new additions to our collection. We are planning an event that will recognize the Sachs gift and the people that helped to bring it about during the upcoming Jewish Book Month, so stay tuned.

And, if you are curious about the items from this gift that were designated “Special” or “Rare”, you can do a keyword search for “sachs collection”. And for more pictures, go to our Facebook page.

 

Enjoy!

 

yaffa