Harvard Judaica in the 21st Century
The Judaica Division’s latest publication—Harvard Judaica in the 21st Century by Charles Berlin—was recently published to celebrate the recent 50th anniversary of the Division, which was established in 1962 with the appointment of Charles Berlin as Lee M. Friedman Bibliographer in Judaica and Head of the Division.
Alan Garber, Harvard’s provost, noted in his foreword, “The Harvard Judaica Collection has grown into one of the most extensive, and eclectic, collections of cultural and intellectual records of the Jewish world that can be found anywhere.…To partake of even a small part of its riches is to begin to understand how vigorously Charles Berlin, his colleagues and their predecessors have pursued the Collection’s mission of ‘the documentation of the Jewish people throughout history.’”
As one would expect of an anniversary volume, it chronicles the Division’s history and achievements. It includes an account of the growth of the Judaica Collection from Harvard’s earliest days, through the first half of the 20th century when several major collections of Judaica were acquired, to the recent half-century, the period in which the Judaica Division undertook the systematic development of Harvard’s Judaica collection into a world-class resource.
