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 50th anniversary of the Division. In 1962 the Division was established with the appointment of Charles Berlin, 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.