Klau Library, Cincinnati

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Happy Shavuot from the Klau Library! 🌷Minhagim (Dyhernfurth, 1692)The Shavuot woodcut from this book of Jewish customs i...
05/21/2026

Happy Shavuot from the Klau Library! 🌷

Minhagim (Dyhernfurth, 1692)

The Shavuot woodcut from this book of Jewish customs is presented along with a reinterpretation by artist Marc Podwal that currently hangs in the Mayerson Auditorium at the Cincinnati Skirball Museum on our Cincinnati campus.

Here, Podwal adorned Mt. Sinai with flowers, weaving in a post-biblical tradition of decorating for Shavuot with flowers. It seems Podwal’s inspiration was taken from another version of the print. Many editions of this work were printed in the 16th-17th centuries, and many use the same or similar scenes for each custom. See if you can notice any small differences, like the top of Moses’s head.

In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, we are exhibiting our 1950s Jewish chaplain’s kit for the US Armed Forces. Y...
05/13/2026

In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, we are exhibiting our 1950s Jewish chaplain’s kit for the US Armed Forces. You may recognize this kit from a post last November. This “portable synagogue” contains all the necessary ritual items to hold Shabbat and daily prayer services. The whole kit packs into a carrying case, which can be covered in the pictured fringed velvet to create a beautiful ark and reading platform.

Come see the kit and its miniature Torah ark in our Cincinnati library! The kit will be exhibited in the Klau Library through May (Jewish American Heritage Month) and into summer 2026.

With Passover beginning tomorrow, many Jews are participating in the tradition of creating their own Haggadah, the Passo...
03/31/2026

With Passover beginning tomorrow, many Jews are participating in the tradition of creating their own Haggadah, the Passover prayer book. In Reform traditions, this often entails changes, cuts, or complete reworking of the “traditional” Haggadah text.

One choice which must be made, if one’s own haggadah is decorated, is how to depict the Egyptians and Pharaoh. Even since the aesthetics of ancient Egypt were discovered in the West, Jews have still chosen to portray these characters in ways that relate more to their own contexts.

This Haggadah was created by the students of the Jacob H. Schiff School in New York City in 1942. At that time, the US was fully engaged in World War II, and the German chancellor’s evil cruelty, especially toward Jewry, was already apparent.
This Haggadah positions the liberation of the oppressed during WWII as part of a redemptive story arc similar to the Haggadah’s telling of the Exodus. It cleverly layers illustrations of ancient Egypt with WWII-era imagery, which would both be familiar to the students and their families in 1940s New York.

The cover portrays a Mosaic figure reaching out to touch the hand of a young Jewish soldier in a 1940s military uniform. From the very beginning, this anachronistic pairing helps accomplish one the Haggadah’s own goals: to make the Passover story relevant to the lives of “present-day” Jews—whatever day was present at the time.

The Haggadah, written for school children, lays out four specific similarities between the downfall of Pharaoh and the trajectory of Hi**er and his National Socialist regime. Moses and Aaron come before Hi**er, who wields a scepter portrayed as a sw****ka. The Egyptian soldiers are portrayed in the uniforms of Storm Troopers.

In case all this talk of war frightened the children, the page ends with a surefire declaration of Hi**er’s impending doom: “Pharaoh ended up in the Red Sea. A minute after the waves closed over him and his horse, he was remembered only to be laughed at. The story of Hi**er is so much like the story of Pharaoh that I think we can all guess where Hi**er is going to end up.”

The Haggadah ends with a description of Passover observance in a Jewish worker’s colony in British Mandate Palestine. This short summary is framed by images of joyful Jewish youth peacefully singing and studying.

While the present fight for liberation was not over, this simple image of peaceful Jewish life and joy certainly left the students with hope when they, as we do, approached Passover in the midst of turbulent times.

Ted Gilien (d. 1967)Maccabees #6, 1951Oil on CanvasTed Gilien was a Jewish artist based in California and New York. He ...
12/11/2025

Ted Gilien (d. 1967)
Maccabees #6, 1951
Oil on Canvas

Ted Gilien was a Jewish artist based in California and New York. He was educated at the National Academy of Design in New York. This example of his Maccabees series depicts a fierce Jewish warrior ready for battle. Jacob Raschel writes, “In the Maccabee series, Gilien had highlighted the leading personalities and decisive moments that of the struggle in broad outlines and with striking plays of color. He has sought to emphasize the tragic and heroic aspects and he has, in considerable measure, succeeded.”

This figure stands defiantly, bold against a brooding background. The figure is probably Judah Maccabee, “The Hammer,” who led the charge against the Seleucid Greek occupation of Jerusalem in the events that inspire Hanukkah.

Gilien painted fierce depictions of this war throughout his later life. In the 1940s, Gilien joined the US military and witnessed the horrors of World War II. These traumatic years shaped the rest of his artistic career. Before the war, he worked on murals for public buildings built during the Great Depression, including murals on Ellis Island.

The piece is quite early in the Maccabees series. In a 1965 interview with Betty Hoag McGlynn of the Archives of American Art, Gilien clarifies that connection between the Maccabean Revolt and his experiences in World War II was “not a religious one but kind of a civil liberties thing of people wanting to get, you know, what they rightly deserved.” This interview took place during the McCarthy era, and Ted discusses with the interviewer how throughout the years of the series, the meaning he expressed through the series shifted. The first thirty or so paintings, Gilien notes, are battle scenes, created as Gilien “painted the war out of himself.”

This painting from the HUC collections will be on display in the Klau Library atrium this Hanukkah!

Last week’s parashah (Vayeitzei) tells the story of Jacob as he lives in Haran, marries and raises a family with Leah an...
12/01/2025

Last week’s parashah (Vayeitzei) tells the story of Jacob as he lives in Haran, marries and raises a family with Leah and Rachel, and eventually departs from his father-in-law Laban. The family saga is interspersed with subtle notions of supernatural intervention—from Laban’s divination (Genesis 30:27) to Jacob’s dream of a “ladder” (סלם). This mysterious “ladder” has fascinated readers for centuries. However, most modern commentators agree that the vision in the dream probably resembled a ramp or staircase akin to those of Mesopotamian ziggurats (similar in structure to Mesoamerican pyramids) rather than a simple ladder.

Atop the ladder is God, who speaks to Jacob and reaffirms the covenant to him and his descendants—the last of the Patriarchal covenant affirmations. In Beresh*t Rabbah 68, the rabbis compare the image of the ladder to that of Nebuchadnezzar’s giant statue in Daniel 3. The messengers ascending and descending the staircase are compared to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (the Hebrew names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego), Daniel’s friends who were promoted after the furnace incident (ascending) and whose steadfastness brought down Nebuchadnezzar’s great pride (descending). This juxtaposition is typical of classical midrash, in which the Scriptures are inter-webbed in dense comparative and expansive interpretation.

Another interpretation links the “ladder” to the layered statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2), which inspired the statue in chapter 3’s fiery furnace story. In chapter 2, Daniel miraculously interprets the different sections of the statue as referring to different empires—Babylonia, Persia/Media, Greece, and a final section made of iron and earthenware, which the rabbis interpret to mean Rome (using the name ‘Edom’). The rabbis of Midrash Rabbah lived during the fall of the Roman Empire and saw this prophetic text as relevant to their own time.

Through this somewhat anachronistic analogy, the rabbis connect the covenant which was reaffirmed to Jacob in his dream with the messianic expectations implicit in the Daniel narrative, bending time to assure themselves that the decline of the Roman Empire was not the end of the Jewish story.

Pictured here are two illustrations of Jacob’s dream. The first is a 1917 recreation of an anonymous woodcut from the 1494 Lübecker Bibel. It depicts Jacob on a hillside with a ladder extending from his chest to a cloudy portal where God appears. The ladder may be leading out of Jacob because of the uncertain phrase used in Hebrew: בו, ‘on him/it,’ which grammatically could refer to Jacob or the ladder. In Beresh*t Rabbah, R’ Chiya and R’ Yannai have a dispute over whether the messengers are ascending and descending over the ladder or over Jacob himself. The sages, however, state that if the pronoun refers to Jacob, it must be metaphorical.

The second depiction comes from Bible Pictures, a series of illustrations by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, published in Boston in 1888. The image captures very clearly two groups of angels, one ascending and one descending. This is quite compatible with Rashi’s idea that the ascending angels are departing because they were assigned the land Jacob came from and the descending angels are those bound to the land he is entering, coming to meet him.

While these depictions were made by Christians and not Jews, the ways the story is illustrated show the variety in how people of all faiths have come to interpret this strange text.

As the weather cools off and leaves begin to pile here in Cincinnati, let’s embrace spooky season by discussing the spoo...
10/30/2025

As the weather cools off and leaves begin to pile here in Cincinnati, let’s embrace spooky season by discussing the spookiest discipline of all—mathematics! Ms 890 contains folk medicinal recipes for childbirth, commentary on halacha, and a theological treatise by Eleazar b. Judah of Worms—alongside an anonymous mathematical treatise called ספר המספר (literally, ‘The Book of the Number’).

This treatise begins by stating that all calculations can be done using only the numbers 1-9. Hebrew ricaltraditionally uses an alphanumerical system, where the letters of the alphabet have numerical values, with א׳ for 1, ב׳ for 2, and so on, with the later digits representing tens (כ' = 20; צ' = 90) and hundreds (ק' = 100; ת' = 400).

This differs from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, used in modern English-language mathematics, which uses positional notation. Ten (10) is different from one (01) because of the position of the 1. In Hebrew, however, these numerals are written with different symbols, י׳ and א׳.

The text in Ms 890, however, instructs the reader only to use 1-9, because “in these nine letters from א to ט are all the innumerable calculations in the world.” Importantly, the text also supplies a symbol for 0, a circle, without which positional notation does not work. In this emended system, 347 would be written זדג׳, and 90 would be written ט׳○.

The text discusses using מעלות (ma'alot; degrees° or ‘digits’) to represent tens, hundreds, and thousands using only those nine letters (and the ‘zero’).
The text continues with instructions on how to use these nine letters for various calculations, including several methods of multiplication like lattice multiplication.
The text also supplies a table of multiplication products for numbers 1-9, to aid with the smaller calculations used in the methods discussed. This table, as well as all the marginal examples, is written in both Hindu-Arabic numerals and Hebrew positional numerals.

The manuscript was completed by Judah (יודא) b. Samuel Reutlingen of Fulda in Hanau (in modern Germany) on the 23rd of Av in 1641, meaning our mathematician and scribe was a contemporary of Galileo and Descartes. It is fascinating to see that the same methods used to teach arithmetic in classrooms today were being used nearly 400 years ago. Not so scary, after all!

Meshal Ha-Ḳadmoni is a collection of fables written by 13th century Spanish poet Isaac ibn Sahula. The fables are told t...
10/24/2025

Meshal Ha-Ḳadmoni is a collection of fables written by 13th century Spanish poet Isaac ibn Sahula. The fables are told through a discussion between two proverbial figures, the Cynic and the Moralist, who illustrate their ideas through stories about anthropomorphized animals and occasionally human characters.

In the introduction, Sahula identifies his purpose—demonstrating the profundity of Hebrew language in a time dominated by Greek and Arabic literature and philosophy. He indicates that he does not rely on Christian or Islamic literature, but on the parabolic teaching of the biblical prophets as his inspiration as a fabulist, though he also draws from contemporary events as satirical inspiration. The text itself contains many allusions and quotations from the Bible, as well as from Rabbinic literature and Greek and Jewish philosophy.

Pictured here are two early printings of Meshal Ha- Ḳadmoni. The first image contains Gershom Soncino’s second printing of the work. Bibliographers date the edition between 1497-1505, and the location of the printing is uncertain due to the movement of the Soncinos’ presses during this time. Gershom Soncino completed the first edition of the work in 1491, the first illustrated Hebrew printed book. This second edition contains the same illustrative woodcuts as the first.

The other book here is the third known edition, printed in Venice in 1547 by Me’ir Parenzoni. The woodcuts in this edition are similar to Soncino’s, as can be seen in the juxtaposition of the celestial map illustrations in the third image. Note also the inclusion of a running heading indicating the section of the text and page numbers on the front of each page. Each illustration is also numbered. These differences demonstrate the development of printing between these early editions, with added features that aided the printer, binder, and reader in the creation and use of these books.

The major resourse consulted for this post is Raphael Loewe’s critical edition and translation (Meshal haqadmoni, The Litman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004), which includes an extensive introduction to the text and its historical witnesses.

The 1547 edition, as well as many other rare books and manuscripts, can be viewed online at mss.huc.edu.

The Jewish High Holidays are packed with special liturgy. Simchat Torah is no exception. These holidays mark beginnings ...
10/14/2025

The Jewish High Holidays are packed with special liturgy. Simchat Torah is no exception. These holidays mark beginnings and endings, of the Jewish year on Rosh Hashanah and of the annual Torah cycle on Simchat Torah. Let’s take a look at Ms. 393, a small collection of special liturgy for the holidays after Yom Kippur.

The manuscript contains ten poems, some of which are Yotzer piyyutim, which are added to the blessings of the Shema on certain occasions, like the Yotzer for the morning of Hoshana Rabbah in the second photo and that of Shabbat Beresh*t in the third.

In the fourth photo, you can see where the compiler of the work, Hezekiah Olivetti of Turin, signed his name around the six points of a star. This colophon ends what seems to be the original collection of poems.

On the next page is an additional poem commemorating a miracle on Simchat Torah in 1763. The poem dramatically tells the story of a fire at the synagogue, which spread even to the holy ark, and offers praise and thanksgiving that the Torah scrolls within the ark were miraculously saved from the fire.

The collection also includes a poem about a fire on the second day of Pesach, though the manuscript does not include an introduction about its context like the editor did for the poem about Simchat Torah. That introduction can be found, however, in a printing of a collection of poems entitled ספר שיר ידידות, published in Mantua in 1777 (photos 8 and 10). All the poems in the manuscript appear in this book, and it is possible that the compiler, Hezekiah, used this book or one similar in the manuscript’s composition.

Each of these poems was recited by the Jewish community of Turin on the anniversaries of the miraculous deliverance from tragedy. These poems remind us today as we move forward into the new year not only to remember difficult times but to give thanks and praise for deliverance from them.

This year, we are especially joyful for the deliverance of the living hostages, and we hope and pray that this miracle is the beginning of peace for both Israelis and Palestinians in 5786. Chag sameach!

To view all of Ms. 393 and many other manuscripts and rare books, visit our digitization website at www.mss.huc.edu/

For today’s Klau Check-in feature, meet Dr. Kostiantyn (Kostia) Moharychev, a fellow at the American Jewish Archives. Or...
10/09/2025

For today’s Klau Check-in feature, meet Dr. Kostiantyn (Kostia) Moharychev, a fellow at the American Jewish Archives.

Originally from Ukraine, Kostia is a visiting scholar at Purdue University. At the American Jewish Archives and here at the Library, Kostia is researching Jewish agriculture and the projects to establish a Jewish national region in Crimea and southern Ukraine in the early 20th century. In the earliest days of the USSR, political and economic instability caused the industries in which most local Jews were involved to crumble. These former artisans and merchants found themselves struggling in this new economic landscape.

A movement arose among Soviet leaders and some Jewish organizations, like the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, to settle these Jewish communities in Southern Ukraine and Crimea, where they would form an autonomous Jewish agricultural nation under the Soviet Union. While this plan was never implemented, it was heavily discussed in the international Jewish community and was considered as an alternative to Palestine.

Kostia is researching the correspondence and files of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee at the AJA. At the Klau, he consults resources on Soviet Jewish history, territorialism, and travelogues by American Jews who visited the USSR and Crimea in the 1920s-1930s, such as Evelyn Morrissey. Through this research, he tackles the history of alternative projects of Jewish national revival in 20th century.

Kostia presented some of his findings in a seminar entitled, “Our New Soviet Zion?”: Jewish Agricultural Colonization in Crimea, 1920s-1940s. The seminar took place on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, at the American Jewish Archives.

To plan your own research visit to the Klau, just fill out this brief form on our website - https://huc.edu/libraries/plan-a-research-visit/

In October of 1800, one Isaac Jacob was granted a passport, allowing him to travel freely between several countries duri...
07/29/2025

In October of 1800, one Isaac Jacob was granted a passport, allowing him to travel freely between several countries during the reign of Frederick William III (1770–1840). The large passport pictured here demonstrates how it was used: folded several times and carried by the traveler, with each visiting country stamping the reverse side to grant the bearer freedom of movement. The passport lacks a photograph for identification; instead, there is a descriptive section (located on the far right), detailing the holder’s age, hair and eye color, facial features, height, build, and other distinguishing characteristics.

Frederick William reigned during the issuance of the 1812 edict, which granted Jews in Prussia equal citizenship rights to Christians. The edict states: “Jews and their dependents dwelling at present in Our States, provided with general privileges, patent letters of naturalization, letters of protection, and concessions, are considered natives [Einländer] and as state citizens of Prussia.” The edict includes several clarifying articles, noting that Jews were expected to serve in the army and pay taxes like their Christian neighbors, but were exempt from additional "special taxes." They were also free to engage in commerce and live anywhere they chose, and with full property rights.

Although the edict, proclaimed by Frederick William, seems more generous to Jews than much of the legislation of his predecessors, it did not fully integrate the Jewish community. Jews were still barred from holding state offices or academic appointments, and Frederick William did not recognize the military accomplishments of Jewish soldiers. Conversion to Judaism was prohibited, while he actively promoted conversion from Judaism to Christianity.

Subsequent legislation in 1848 and again in 1867 further lifted restrictions on Jews and people of all religions, granting them full citizenship rights. Although antisemitic policies and sentiments remained pervasive, Jews in Germanic lands enjoyed a period of relative peace until the N**i rise to power in the 1930s.




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