Conservation and Digitization of the Cairo Genizah

FAIN: PW-51659-14

Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York, NY 10027-4649)
Naomi Steinberger (Project Director: July 2013 to October 2016)

The conservation and digitization of 6,000 manuscript fragments from the Library's Cairo Genizah collection.

The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary proposes to conserve, catalog, and re-house material from its Cairo Genizah collection and, in partnership with The Friedberg Genizah Project, digitize and provide online access to this material for scholars and the public. The Cairo Genizah is a valuable source of information about Jewish and non-Jewish religious, economic, social, and personal life in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean from the 9th to the 19th century. The Library's Genizah collection is comprised of 43,000 fragments--the second-largest in the world. This project will make approximately 6,000 of these fragments that are currently unreadable or too fragile to be handled and digitized widely available for research for the first time, and complete The Library's part in an ongoing international collaboration.

Media Coverage

The Cairo Geniza, Under Piecemeal Restoration (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Eve M. Kahn
Publication: The New York Times
Date: 9/25/2014
Abstract: Experts at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan are puzzling over curly bits of ancient paper recovered from a closet in a Cairo synagogue.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/arts/design/the-cairo-geniza-under-piecemeal-restoration.html?_r=0

JTS Geniza Collection on Deposit at Princeton (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Don Skemer
Publication: RBSC Manuscripts Division News
Date: 3/18/2016
Abstract: JTS's Cairo Genizah will be housed at Princeton until fall 2019 in the Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, and will accessible for scholarly purposes.
URL: https://blogs.princeton.edu/manuscripts/2016/03/18/jts-geniza-collection-on-deposit-at-princeton/