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JEWISH BOOK ANNUAL
Special mention should be made o f such major manuscript acqui
sitions as the gift to the Library o f the Rothschild Manuscript,
which is a beautifully illuminated Hebrew codex, written in
Florence, Italy, in 1492; a Spanish Haggadah, written and illumi
nated around the year 1300; and a richly illum inated
prayerbook, written in Pforchheim, Germany in 1720. Selected
pages o f the magnificent Rothschild Manuscript were repro
duced and published in 1983, with an introduction and essays in
honor o f the dedication o f the new Library building.
During its attempts to modernize its collections, and bring the
richness o f its holdings under bibliographical control, the Library
initiated a number o f projects. It received funding for two such
projects from the National Endowment for the Humanities:
Re
cording and Microfilming of Newspaper and Periodical Collections
and
the
Support fo r the Archival Activities at the Library o f theJewish Theo
logical Seminary o f America.
As a result o f these projects the Semi
nary’s archival holdings and periodicals collection became more
easily accessible to the scholarly public. The latter grant also pro
vided funds for the preservation on microfilm o f some runs o f
rare titles. A recent grant from the Perlow Foundation will make
it possible for the Library to catalog and preserve its old Yiddish
and hasidic books from Eastern Europe. The publication o f a cat
alog is planned upon the successful completion o f the project.
For a period o f seventeen years most o f these activities took
place in a temporary prefabricated structure that was erected in
the courtyard o f the Seminary for the reconstruction effort. The
erection o f this structure became imperative as a result o f the to
tal internal damage that the Library tower suffered at the time o f
the fire. Soon after 1966 planning began for a new Library build
ing. In fact, plans for such a building were made even before the
fire, and Nahum Sarna’s above-mentioned article concludes with
the following words: “It is hoped that the greatest Jewish Library
o f all time, and one o f the great cultural assets o f the United
States, will, in the not too distant future, be housed in a building
worthy o f its importance and fully equipped to fulfill its role as
the mecca o f Jewish scholars.” Still it was not until the year 1980
that ground was broken for the erection o f a new Library struc
ture. In 1983 the building was completed and the Library’s hold
ings were moved into the new quarters. At the dedication the Li
brary was named the Ivan F. & Seema Boesky Family Library.