The Cairo Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library
One of the jewels in the crown of Cambridge University Library is the Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection. It is the world’s largest and most important single collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts, comprising the massive contents of the storeroom for discarded books and other writings of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, Old Cairo. Some 200,000 manuscripts were famously acquired in 1896-7 by the Cambridge scholar Dr. Solomon Schechter with financial help from the Master of St. John’s College, Charles Taylor.
The Bibliographical Society hosted a virtual visit to the collection in February 2024, led by Dr. Ben Outhwaite, Head of the Genizah Unit, which focused on the little known printed survivals in the Genizah, introduced by Dr. Nick Posegay. https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/audio-and-video
The website for the collection is extensive and overflows with new discoveries ranging from manuscripts in the distinctive scrawl of the great philosopher, physician and codifier of Jewish law Moses Maimonides, to eyewitness accounts of the crusades, to the banalities of everyday life in 11th century Cairo. There is a “Fragment of the Month”, and the blog is frequently updated and always full of interest. https://genizahfragments.lib.cam.ac.uk/
Richard Linenthal, Past President
