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Collections Overviews - Area Studies

Hebraica and Judaica Studies

Scope

The collections of the Hebraic Section include materials in Hebrew and related languages (such as Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Persian, and Judeo-Arabic) on a wide-variety of subjects, as well as a collection of Amharic and Tygrina materials. In addition to these collections, the Library of Congress holds one of the world's most important collections of Judaic materials in all languages and research materials that document Israel.

Size

The Hebraic collections number approximately 135,000 volumes, most of which are in Hebrew. The collections include an extensive range of monographs; a broad selection of Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals- -current and retrospective, popular as well as scholarly; and a variety of Yiddish, Hebrew, and Amharic newspapers. The Judaic collections have been variously estimated as numbering between 350,000 to 500,000 additional pieces and are housed in appropriate custodial divisions.

General Research Strengths

The Library of Congress holds comprehensive Judaic and Hebraic collections. Its holdings are especially noteworthy in the areas of the Bible and rabbinics, liturgy, Hebrew language and literature, responsa, Jewish history, and the history, politics, and sociology of Israel. The section's reference collection encompasses virtually all pertinent encyclopedias, indexes, and bibliographies. Of particular interest to genealogists is the Library's comprehensive collection of Holocaust memorial volumes documenting Jewish life in Eastern Europe before the Second World War, as well as a large collection of rabbinic bio-bibliographical works in Hebrew. The section houses an extensive collection of Israeli government documents and includes virtually complete sets of official statistical abstracts critical for social science research on Israel.

Areas of Distinction

Housed among the 2,000 rarities in the special collections of the section are cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, incunables, decorated Jewish marriage documents, micrographies, miniature books, amulets, and the section's most noteworthy treasure: The Washington Haggadah, a 15th-century illuminated Hebrew manuscript copied by Joel ben Simeon. The more than two-hundred Hebrew manuscripts held in the section include a translation of the Koran into Hebrew, various responsa of the rabbis, an 18th-century decorated Scroll of Esther, and an early Ethiopian Psalter in Ge'ez. The section's treasures include examples from among the first books printed in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, and the African continent. With 24 Hebrew incunables housed in the section, and an additional 15 in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, the Library of Congress ranks as one of the world's most important public collections of Hebrew incunables--books printed before 1501. Also unique to its collections are more than 1,000 original Yiddish plays, in manuscript or typescript form, written between the end of the 19th and the middle of the 20th-centuries, that were submitted for copyright registration to the Library of Congress and intended for production on the Yiddish stage. Dispersed throughout the Library of Congress' special collections are such Judaic treasures as letters from Presidents Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and Lincoln (among others) to prominent American Jewish leaders of their times; music composed by Leonard Bernstein, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, and Arnold Schoenberg; and papers and manuscripts of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.

Weaknesses/Exclusions

There are occasional gaps in holdings of serials, monographic series, and working papers from Australia and New Zealand. In the past, exchange agreements with government agencies and state libraries have ensured that the Library received complete sets of Australasian government documents. With the recent cancellation of some of these agreements and a trend toward privatization of government document printing in these areas, maintaining the quality of the Library's collection of Australasian government documents will become more difficult.