Hebraic Section

About the Hebraic Collections

The Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress has long been recognized as one of the world's foremost centers for the study of Hebrew and Yiddish materials. Established in 1914 as part of the Division of Semitica and Oriental Literature, its beginnings can be traced to Jacob H. Schiff's gift in 1912 of nearly 10,000 books and pamphlets from the private collection of Ephraim Deinard, a well-known bibliographer and bookseller.

In the years that followed this initial gift, the Library has developed and expanded its Hebraic holdings to include all materials of research value in Hebrew and related languages. Today, the section houses works in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic, and Amharic. The section's holdings are especially strong in the areas of the Bible and rabbinics, liturgy, Hebrew language and literature, responsa, and Jewish history. Extensive collections of printed editions of Passover Haggadot have been assembled, as well as a comprehensive collection of Holocaust memorial volumes.

The Hebraic Section received a second major boost as a result of the enactment of Public Law 480 in 1958, through which 25 American research libraries (including the Library of Congress) were supplied with a copy of virtually every book and journal of research value published in Israel. The PL-480 program for Israeli imprints, coordinated by the Library of Congress, lasted nine years, from 1964 to 1973, and provided each of the participating institutions with an average of 65,000 items over the course of the program.

Since 1973, substantial efforts and resources have been expended to maintain this high level of acquisitions from Israel--efforts reflected in the overall comprehensiveness of the Library's current collection of Hebrew language materials. Almost 150,000 items are housed in a stack area adjacent to the section and are available for examination by researchers and scholars. The collection includes an extensive range of monographs; a broad selection of Hebrew periodicals, current and retrospective, popular as well as scholarly; and a variety of Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers reflecting all shades of opinion, from the religious to the secular and from the far right to the extreme left. 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's treasures include examples from among the first books printed in Portugal, Turkey, and on the African continent. With 24 Hebrew incunables housed in the section--including works from the major 15th-century Hebrew presses--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 the year 1501. 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 the American Yiddish theater.

Special Collections in the Hebraic Section

Abraham H. Berman Haggadah Collection: In 1976, Mr. Abraham H. Berman donated his collection of 600 haggadot to the Hebraic Section. The haggadah is the book of benedictions, prayers, commentaries, and psalms recited every year at the seder meal on the eve of Passover. Two-thirds of the Berman haggadot appear in the Library’s online catalog. The remainder of the collection is in the process of being cataloged. The Abraham H. Berman collection forms part of a larger group of Passover haggadot available at the Library of Congress. Click here, then click on the entry "Abraham H. Berman Haggadah Collection (Library of Congress)" to search for records.

The Ephraim Deinard Collection: In 1912 and 1914, Jacob H. Schiff, a New York financier and philanthropist purchased two Hebraic collections for the Library of Congress that had been assembled by book seller and bibliographer Ephraim Deinard. Two additional collections were acquired from Deinard in 1916 and 1921. Together, these four collections total some 20,000 volumes and include Hebrew manuscripts, incunabula, rare books, as well as the Library's most important Hebraic treasure -- an illuminated manuscript completed by Joel ben Simeon in 1478 called "The Washington Haggadah" because of its location in the Library of Congress. A facsimile edition of the Haggadah was published by the Library in 1993. A selection of titles from this collection is retrievable by searching the Library's online catalog under "Ephraim Deinard Collection.” Click here to search for records

The Kirkor Minassian Cuneiform Tablet Collection: In 1929, the Library acquired thirty-eight cuneiform tablets from collector and antiquarian dealer Kirkor Minassian. The collection includes twelve school exercise tablets; three votive and commemorative tablets; and twenty-two accounting tablets.

The Lawrence Marwick Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays: Unique to the Library of Congress are its holdings of more than one thousand original Yiddish plays--in manuscript or typescript--written between the end of the nineteenth and the middle of the twentieth century and submitted for copyright registration to the Library of Congress. Intended for the Yiddish American stage, these plays document the hopes, the fears, and the aspirations of several generations of immigrants to America. They were identified by Dr. Lawrence Marwick, head of the Hebraic Section from1949-1979 and are currently housed in the Hebraic Section. A finding aid to these plays is available for consultation in the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room. Seventy of these plays have been digitized by the Library of Congress and may be examined in the American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920 collection of American Memory in the section Yiddish Playscripts.

The Holocaust-Era Judaic Heritage Library: Between 1949-1952, the Library of Congress received 5,708 books, pamphlets, periodicals, and newspaper issues from Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (JCR), a New York-based umbrella organization that served as a trusteeship for the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust. By agreement, JCR received these "heirless" and "unidentifiable" books from the United States Military Government in Germany, which had taken exhaustive steps to identify and restitute items seized by the Nazi regime to their original owners or to their countries of origin. JCR subsequently distributed almost 500,000 of these orphaned books to scholarly institutions in the United States, Israel, Europe, and Latin America. Items that the Library of Congress received from JCR bear a unique bookplate marking their special provenance. In addition -- through federal transfers that occurred before JCR began its distributions in 1949 -- the Library received approximately 150 Hebraic volumes bearing the stamps of antisemitic Nazi organizations that are also likely to have been seized by the Nazis from Jewish victims of the Holocaust. In recognition of the special provenance of these books, the Library of Congress has created a virtual library aggregating both collections in its online catalog under the "Holocaust-Era Judaic Heritage Library." The full bibliographic record for each work includes a provenance note indicating the specific acquisition source and accession date for each title. Click here to search for records

Yizker Book Collection: The Library of Congress holds more that 400 Yizker Books, or Holocaust Memorial volumes, that commemorate the Jewish communities of the cities, towns, and villages of Europe that were destroyed in the Holocaust. These volumes are cataloged in the Hebraic collections under place name and are especially useful to individuals doing genealogical research because they include names of Holocaust victims as well as photographs and maps from the particular locality. To see a selected list of Yizker Books prepared by a college student who interned in the Hebraic Section in 2001/2002. Click here to search for records