Nourishing Tradition
JEWISH COOKBOOKS & THE STORIES THEY TELL
TREASURES FROM THE DAVID BERG RARE BOOK ROOM
AT THE CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY
The David Berg Rare Book Room at the Center for Jewish History is a shared exhibition space for the Center partners’ treasures. In exhibitions and collections of rare books, first editions, illuminated manuscripts and letters, the room brings together Jewish written materials from around the world, in 23 different languages and dating back five and a half centuries.
The David Berg Rare Book Room was made possible by a $2.5 million grant from The David Berg Foundation. David Berg, the youngest son in a struggling immigrant family who came to Ellis Island from Russia in 1904, was a real estate lawyer who established the foundation in 1994 to support Jewish, education and law-related charities. The David Berg Foundation is a supporter of major cultural institutions around the world.
The Center for Jewish History is home to the American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
AMERICAN JEWISH
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, 1498-1909
I. N. Phelps (Isaac Newton Phelps) Stokes
New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.
F128.37 .S88
American Jewish Historical Society
This six-volume set is one of forty-two copies printed on Japanese vellum; 360 additional sets were printed on English hand-made paper. The front blank leaf of Volume I is inscribed and autographed by the author: “Air, water, soul, of greatest purity; and all, combined in sweetest harmony, unite the ploughed up land to fructify." New York, July, 3d 1916. I.N. Phelps Stokes.”
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, 1498-1909
I. N. Phelps (Isaac Newton Phelps) Stokes
New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928
F128.37 .S88
American Jewish Historical Society
This six-volume set is one of forty-two copies printed on Japanese vellum; 360 additional sets were printed on English hand-made paper. The front blank leaf of Volume I is inscribed and autographed by the author: “Air, water, soul, of greatest purity; and all, combined in sweetest harmony, unite the ploughed up land to fructify." New York, July, 3d 1916. I.N. Phelps Stokes.”
SIDDUR (SEPHARDIC)
BM665 .L36 1837
American Jewish Historical Society, Milton Gottesman Rare Book Collection
Includes a bookmark, most likely hand-stitched, and embroidered with the name Isaac Phillips.
A collection of prayers, in English and Hebrew, according to the custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. This rare book was edited, carefully compared, and corrected by Isaac Leeser, reader of the Congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia, by using earlier translations.
ORATION DELIVERED OVER THE REMAINS OF AARON DE CORDOVA... 9TH JULY, 1866-18TH TAMUZ,5626
D. P. Kidder
New York: Lane & Scott, 1851
DS112 .K32
American Jewish
Historical Society
THE JEW, AMONG ALL NATIONS
D. P. Kidder
New York: Lane & Scott, 1851
DS112 .K32
American Jewish
Historical Society
THE BIBLE ON THE SABBATH
D. P. Kidder
New York: Lane & Scott, 1851
DS112 .K32
American Jewish
Historical Society
SIDDUR (SEPHARDIC)
BM665 .L36 1837
American Jewish Historical Society, Milton Gottesman Rare Book Collection
Includes a bookmark, most likely hand-stitched, and embroidered with the name Isaac Phillips.
A collection of prayers, in English and Hebrew, according to the custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. This rare book was edited, carefully compared, and corrected by Isaac Leeser, reader of the Congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia, by using earlier translations.
LEO BAECK
INSTITUTE
E.M. LILIEN, SEIN WERK MIT EINER EINLEITUNG VON STEFAN ZWEIG
Ephraim Moses Lilien; Berlin: Schuster & Löffler, 1903
r (q) NE 654 L5 E4
Leo Baeck Institute
PHAEDON; ODER, ÜBER DIE UNSTERBLICHKEIT DER SEELE, IN DREY GESPRÄCHEN
Moses Mendelssohn
Berlin, 1767
r B 2691 P3 1767a
Leo Baeck Institute
SPIELZEUG
Oscar Seyffert; illustrated by W. Trier
Berlin: E. Wasmuth, 1920s
r (q) 43
Leo Baeck Institute
JÜDISCHES LEBEN IN WORT UND BILD
Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch; Illustrated by Alphons Levy Gerardin
Mannheim: j. Bensheimer, 1891
r (q) pt 2461 s3 j8 1891
Leo Baeck Institute
THE TRIAL
Franz Kafka; illustrated by George Salter
New York: The Modern Library, 1956
st 4610 Salter v. 99
Leo Baeck Institute
GHETTO; SIEBEN ERZÄHLUNGEN
Scholem Alejchem, Scholem Asch and Jizchok Lejb Perez; translated by Alexander Eliasberg; illustrated by Max Unold
München: G. Müller, 1921
r (q) PJ 5128 G4
Leo Baeck Institute
FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIDNEY LAPIDUS
DISCOURSE ON THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS DELIVERED AT THE TABERNACLE, OCT. 28 AND DEC. 2, 1844
M. M. (Mordecai Manuel) Noah; New-York: Harper & Brothers,1845
BS649.J5 N63 1845b; American Jewish Historical Society, Milton Gottesman Rare Book Collection, Gift of Sidney Lapidus
ANNO REGNI GEORGII II; REGIS MAGNAE BRITANNIAE, FRANCIAE, & HIBERNIAE, VICESIMO SEXTO
Isaac Abendana
Oxford: Printed at the theater, [1698]
Center for Jewish History
Gift of Sidney Lapidus
AN ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF CHRIST 1698 BEING THE SECOND AFTER BISSEXTILE OR LEAP-YEAR
Isaac Abendana
Oxford: Printed at the theater, [1698]
Center for Jewish History
Gift of Sidney Lapidus
YESHIVA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
A[LEF] B[ET] G[IMMEL] LE-YALDEL YISRAEL (ALEF BET GIMEL FOR CHILDREN OF ISRAEL)
Compiled, edited and illustrated by Rachel Caspi and Zvi Malewenczik Livni
Daat Publishers: Tel-Aviv, ca. 1956
Hebrew
The Jean Sorkin Moldovan Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
Gift of the Jesselson Family
This delightful alef-bet book contains a cheerful two-page spread of a train and railroad tracks ornamented with all 22 Hebrew characters.
THE TRIAL OF THE JEWS OF TRENT
Trent, 1478-1479
German, Hebrew and Italian
Ink, gouache and gold on paper
Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
Gift of Erica and Ludwig Jesselson
Written for Eberhardt I, Duke of Württemberg, and bearing his arms, this is the only known German copy of the records of the trials of the Jews of Trent, accused of the ritual murder of a young Christian boy named Simon in 1475.
The influx of immigrants after the Holocaust doubled the population of Israel. The government instituted rationing based on the British parameters established during World War II to solve the problem of providing food to everyone. An austerity program was instituted at the same time since Israel suffered from a deficit which was covered by loans and foreign financing. Dov Yosef (1899-1980), Minister of Rationing and Supply in the new State of Israel, wrote the introduction to this book. In addition to recipes, this book contains advertisements for products such as the one for detergent, illustrated here, touted by a Betty Boop look alike.
WHAT SHALL I COOK FROM AUSTERITY RATIONS
Author and publisher: Lilian Cornfeld
Tel Aviv, 1949
Hebrew
Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
ESPEJO FIEL DE VIDA QUE LAS PSALMOS DE DAVID EN VERSO
(FAITHFUL MIRROR OF LIVES: THE PSALMS OF DAVID IN VERSE)
Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna
London, 1720
Spanish
Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
Gift of Herbert M. Honig in memory of Alexander and Esther Honig
The author began to compose this poetical account of his experiences, and the consolation he found in the Psalms, when imprisoned by the Inquisition as a Marrano in Portugal. He completed the manuscript when he escaped to Jamaica. It was published in England under the patronage of Mordecai Nunes Almeyda.
AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION
PRAYERS FOR SHABBET, ROSH-HASHANAH AND KIPPUR
Prayers for Shabbat, Rosh-Hashanah and Kippur
Translated by Isaac Pinto
J. Holt (New York, 1766)
English
American Sephardi Federation, Gift of an anonymous donor
“Hebrew,” writes Isaac Pinto (1720-1791), “being imperfectly understood by many, by some, not at all,” necessitated an English rendering of the siddur. His model, Ishac Nieto’s “elegant Spanish translation,” was (and was to remain) predominant in Sephardi-majority England. Pinto, amongst the first US Government translators, was described as “a learned Jew at New York” by Ezra Stiles (Yale’s President), and may also have lived in Stratford, Connecticut.
QANUN AL NISA
קנון אל ניסא
Yosef Hayyim Ben Elijah (Ben Ish Hai)
Livorno, Italy, Calcutta, India, 1905
American Sephardi Federation
“Every part of the [Moroccan] empire,” writes William Lemprière (1751-1834) in this travel chronicle, “more or less abounds with Jews, who… are not confined to towns, but are spread over the whole face of the country….” Lemprière, a British Army doctor, made this and other observations while traveling, beginning in 1789, to treat the son (and later harem) of Sultan Sidi Muhammad.
VIAGENS DE GIBRALTAR
Viagens de Gibraltar
William Lemprière
Na Officina de Simão Thaddeo Ferreira (Lisbon, 1794)
Portuguese
American Sephardi Federation, Gift of The Cahnman Foundation
TSEMAH DAVID: DITTIONARIO NOVO
David ben Isaac de Pomis
Ioannem de Gara (Venice, 1587)
Hebrew, Aramaic, Italian, Latin
American Sephardi Federation, Louis N. Levy Ladino and Rare Book Library Collection
Dedicated to Pope Sixtus V, this first edition of De Pomis’ (1525-93?) tri-lingual dictionary sought to explain Hebrew or Aramaic terms, many of them biological or medical, in Latin and Italian. A physician, philosopher, and rabbi, De Pomis was permitted to practice medicine amongst Tuscany Christians after delivering a discourse in Latin to Pope Pius IV.
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, 1498-1909
I. N. Phelps (Isaac Newton Phelps) Stokes
New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.
F128.37 .S88
American Jewish Historical Society
This six-volume set is one of forty-two copies printed on Japanese vellum; 360 additional sets were printed on English hand-made paper. The front blank leaf of Volume I is inscribed and autographed by the author: “Air, water, soul, of greatest purity; and all, combined in sweetest harmony, unite the ploughed up land to fructify." New York, July, 3d 1916. I.N. Phelps Stokes.”
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, 1498-1909
I. N. Phelps (Isaac Newton Phelps) Stokes
New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.
F128.37 .S88
American Jewish Historical Society
This six-volume set is one of forty-two copies printed on Japanese vellum; 360 additional sets were printed on English hand-made paper. The front blank leaf of Volume I is inscribed and autographed by the author: “Air, water, soul, of greatest purity; and all, combined in sweetest harmony, unite the ploughed up land to fructify." New York, July, 3d 1916. I.N. Phelps Stokes.”
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SIDDUR (SEPHARDIC)
BM665 .L36 1837
American Jewish Historical Society, Milton Gottesman Rare Book Collection
Includes a bookmark, most likely hand-stitched, and embroidered with the name Isaac Phillips.
A collection of prayers, in English and Hebrew, according to the custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. This rare book was edited, carefully compared, and corrected by Isaac Leeser, reader of the Congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia, by using earlier translations.
ORATION DELIVERED OVER THE REMAINS OF AARON DE CORDOVA... 9TH JULY, 1866-18TH TAMUZ,5626
D. P. Kidder
New York: Lane & Scott, 1851
DS112 .K32
American Jewish Historical Society
THE JEW, AMONG ALL NATIONS
D. P. Kidder
New York: Lane & Scott, 1851
DS112 .K32
American Jewish Historical Society
THE BIBLE ON THE SABBATH
D. P. Kidder
New York: Lane & Scott, 1851
DS112 .K32
American Jewish
Historical Society
SIDDUR (SEPHARDIC)
BM665 .L36 1837
American Jewish Historical Society, Milton Gottesman Rare Book Collection
Includes a bookmark, most likely hand-stitched, and embroidered with the name Isaac Phillips.
A collection of prayers, in English and Hebrew, according to the custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. This rare book was edited, carefully compared, and corrected by Isaac Leeser, reader of the Congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia, by using earlier translations.
SPIELZEUG
Oscar Seyffert; illustrated by W. Trier
Berlin: E. Wasmuth, 1920s
r (q) 43
Leo Baeck Institute
JÜDISCHES LEBEN IN WORT UND BILD
Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch; Illustrated by Alphons Levy Gerardin
Mannheim: j. Bensheimer, 1891
r (q) pt 2461 s3 j8 1891
Leo Baeck Institute
PHAEDON; ODER, ÜBER DIE UNSTERBLICHKEIT DER SEELE, IN DREY GESPRÄCHEN
Moses Mendelssohn
Berlin, 1767
r B 2691 P3 1767a
Leo Baeck Institut
GHETTO; SIEBEN ERZÄHLUNGEN
Scholem Alejchem, Scholem Asch and Jizchok Lejb Perez; translated by Alexander Eliasberg; illustrated by Max Unold
München: G. Müller, 1921
r (q) PJ 5128 G4
Leo Baeck Institute
GHETTO; SIEBEN ERZÄHLUNGEN
E.M. LILIEN, SEIN WERK MIT EINER EINLEITUNG VON STEFAN ZWEIG
Ephraim Moses Lilien; Berlin: Schuster & Löffler, 1903
r (q) NE 654 L5 E4
Leo Baeck Institute
THE TRIAL
Franz Kafka; illustrated by George Salter
New York: The Modern Library, 1956
st 4610 Salter v. 99
Leo Baeck Institute
LEO BAECK
INSTITUTE
LEO BAECK
INSTITUTE
DISCOURSE ON THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS DELIVERED AT THE TABERNACLE, OCT. 28 AND DEC. 2, 1844
M. M. (Mordecai Manuel) Noah; New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1845
BS649.J5 N63 1845b; American Jewish Historical Society, Milton Gottesman Rare Book Collection, Gift of Sidney Lapidus
ANNO REGNI GEORGII II; REGIS MAGNAE BRITANNIAE, FRANCIAE, & HIBERNIAE, VICESIMO SEXTO
Isaac Abendana
Oxford: Printed at the theater, [1698]
Center for Jewish History
Gift of Sidney Lapidus
AN ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF CHRIST 1698 BEING THE SECOND AFTER BISSEXTILE OR LEAP-YEAR
Isaac Abendana
Oxford: Printed at the theater, [1698]
Center for Jewish History
Gift of Sidney Lapidus
FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIDNEY LAPIDUS
AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION
PRAYERS FOR SHABBET, ROSH-HASHANAH AND KIPPUR
Prayers for Shabbat, Rosh-Hashanah and Kippur
Translated by Isaac Pinto
J. Holt (New York, 1766)
English
American Sephardi Federation, Gift of an anonymous donor
“Hebrew,” writes Isaac Pinto (1720-1791), “being imperfectly understood by many, by some, not at all,” necessitated an English rendering of the siddur. His model, Ishac Nieto’s “elegant Spanish translation,” was (and was to remain) predominant in Sephardi-majority England. Pinto, amongst the first US Government translators, was described as “a learned Jew at New York” by Ezra Stiles (Yale’s President), and may also have lived in Stratford, Connecticut.
KANUN AL NISA
(אסנ)ןונאק לא
Isaac Abendana
Oxford: Printed at the theater, [1698]
Center for Jewish History
Gift of Sidney Lapidus
VIAGENS DE GIBRALTAR
Viagens de Gibraltar
William Lemprière
Na Officina de Simão Thaddeo Ferreira (Lisbon, 1794)
Portuguese
American Sephardi Federation, Gift of The Cahnman Foundation
“Every part of the [Moroccan] empire,” writes William Lemprière (1751-1834) in this travel chronicle, “more or less abounds with Jews, who… are not confined to towns, but are spread over the whole face of the country….” Lemprière, a British Army doctor, made this and other observations while traveling, beginning in 1789, to treat the son (and later harem) of Sultan Sidi Muhammad.
TSEMAH DAVID: DITTIONARIO NOVO
David ben Isaac de Pomis
Ioannem de Gara (Venice, 1587)
Hebrew, Aramaic, Italian, Latin
American Sephardi Federation, Louis N. Levy Ladino and Rare Book Library Collection
Dedicated to Pope Sixtus V, this first edition of De Pomis’ (1525-93?) tri-lingual dictionary sought to explain Hebrew or Aramaic terms, many of them biological or medical, in Latin and Italian. A physician, philosopher, and rabbi, De Pomis was permitted to practice medicine amongst Tuscany Christians after delivering a discourse in Latin to Pope Pius IV.
AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION
YESHIVA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
A[LEF] B[ET] G[IMMEL] LE-YALDEL YISRAEL (ALEF BET GIMEL FOR CHILDREN OF ISRAEL)
Compiled, edited and illustrated by Rachel Caspi and Zvi Malewenczik Livni
Daat Publishers: Tel-Aviv, ca. 1956
Hebrew
The Jean Sorkin Moldovan Collection of Yeshiva University Museum Gift of the Jesselson Family
This delightful alef-bet book contains a cheerful two-page spread of a train and railroad tracks ornamented with all 22 Hebrew characters.
THE TRIAL OF THE JEWS OF TRENT
Trent, 1478-1479
German, Hebrew and Italian
Ink, gouache and gold on paper
Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
Gift of Erica and Ludwig Jesselson
Written for Eberhardt I, Duke of Württemberg, and bearing his arms, this is the only known German copy of the records of the trials of the Jews of Trent, accused of the ritual murder of a young Christian boy named Simon in 1475.
WHAT SHALL I COOK FROM AUSTERITY RATIONS
Author and publisher: Lilian Cornfeld
Tel Aviv, 1949
Hebrew
Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
The influx of immigrants after the Holocaust doubled the population of Israel. The government instituted rationing based on the British parameters established during World War II to solve the problem of providing food to everyone. An austerity program was instituted at the same time since Israel suffered from a deficit which was covered by loans and foreign financing. Dov Yosef (1899-1980), Minister of Rationing and Supply in the new State of Israel, wrote the introduction to this book. In addition to recipes, this book contains advertisements for products such as the one for detergent, illustrated here, touted by a Betty Boop look alike.
ESPEJO FIEL DE VIDA QUE LAS PSALMOS DE DAVID EN VERSO
(FAITHFUL MIRROR OF LIVES: THE PSALMS OF DAVID IN VERSE)
Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna
London, 1720
Spanish
Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
Gift of Herbert M. Honig in memory of Alexander and Esther Honig
The author began to compose this poetical account of his experiences, and the consolation he found in the Psalms, when imprisoned by the Inquisition as a Marrano in Portugal. He completed the manuscript when he escaped to Jamaica. It was published in England under the patronage of Mordecai Nunes Almeyda.
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, 1498-1909
I. N. Phelps (Isaac Newton Phelps) Stokes
New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.
F128.37 .S88
American Jewish Historical Society
This six-volume set is one of forty-two copies printed on Japanese vellum; 360 additional sets were printed on English hand-made paper. The front blank leaf of Volume I is inscribed and autographed by the author: “Air, water, soul, of greatest purity; and all, combined in sweetest harmony, unite the ploughed up land to fructify." New York, July, 3d 1916. I.N. Phelps Stokes.”
AMERICAN JEWISH
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, 1498-1909
I. N. Phelps (Isaac Newton Phelps) Stokes
New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.
F128.37 .S88
American Jewish Historical Society
This six-volume set is one of forty-two copies printed on Japanese vellum; 360 additional sets were printed on English hand-made paper. The front blank leaf of Volume I is inscribed and autographed by the author: “Air, water, soul, of greatest purity; and all, combined in sweetest harmony, unite the ploughed up land to fructify." New York, July, 3d 1916. I.N. Phelps Stokes.”
