The National Library of Israel has recently reunited all three volumes of the Lisbon Mahzor, a rare prayer book, making them accessible online. This acquisition follows the library's ongoing efforts to consolidate significant Jewish historical documents. The missing volumes appeared in the catalogue of the Kedem Auction House, prompting the library to appeal for direct acquisition, supported by the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Foundation and the Zukier family.
Among the library’s collections is a fragment from an ancient Yom Kippur prayer book, penned in the late 11th or early 12th century. Its scribe, Hillel Ben-Eli, a cantor from Baghdad, later served as the official scribe of the Cairo rabbinical court after immigrating to Egypt. Certificates in his distinctive handwriting appeared between 1066 and 1108, marking a period of significant Jewish intellectual activity.
This prayer book fragment is the oldest in the National Library of Israel’s holdings, and it's recognized as one of the most ancient globally. It offers a tangible link to Jewish life centuries ago. The Cairo Genizah, where hundreds of thousands of Jewish documents and fragments were discovered in the mid-1800s, yielded this and other holy books, letters, and legal texts from a synagogue attic in Fustat, the ancient city of Cairo.
The library also holds a two-volume Yiddish and Hebrew prayer book, printed in New York in 1942 by Ziegelheim Press. It contains a Dutch inscription, partly in Hebrew, commemorating David Meyer Wald, an American Army soldier. He fell 81 years ago, on September 27, 1944, during the liberation of Holland, which was Yom Kippur 5705.
His parents, Zelg and Hania Wald, signed the inscription, requesting his soul be commemorated and noting his burial place in the cemetery of Margraten, Plot Nn, row 9, grave number 222. Researchers identified David Meyer Wald as one of 8,288 soldiers interred in the American military cemetery near Margraten. Born in Timkovichi, now in Belarus, in 1923, his family immigrated to the United States in 1938, settling in Pittsburgh, PA. He served in the 325th Infantry Regiment of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, killed in Holland in 1944, and re-interred in Montreal 77 years ago.
The Journey of Dispossession
Researchers at the National Library of Israel were initially puzzled by the prayer book until 2007, 19 years ago, when they discovered a Torah scroll dedicated in Wald’s memory by his parents. This scroll was donated to a synagogue near his original burial site in Holland. The Walds also donated two prayer books, and possibly other volumes, to the National Library of Israel at that time.
The exact path of these books to the National Library of Israel remains unclear. One prayer book mistakenly carried a label from the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR), an organization that worked to recover books stolen by the Nazis from Jewish libraries and private collections across Europe after the Holocaust. This highlights the widespread dispossession of Jewish cultural heritage during that period.
The Lisbon Mahzor itself carries a history of forced displacement. Produced just after Jews were expelled from Spain, its journey reflects a period of profound upheaval. King John II of Portugal initially allowed tens of thousands of Spanish Jews to settle, recognizing their commercial skills and trade networks as an opportunity. However, this brief respite was short-lived.
Soon after, Jews in Portugal faced new restrictions. Jewish children were seized and shipped to Portugal’s colonies, families had to pay large sums to renew their right to remain in Lisbon, and many faced forced baptism. This systematic oppression forced many to abandon their heritage or flee.
Centralizing Heritage
The Lisbon Mahzor eventually found its way to the Jewish community of Aleppo, where it was guarded alongside the famed Aleppo Codex. In 1957, 69 years ago, one volume was given to then-president of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi by the Aleppo community, remaining in the archives of Yad Ben-Zvi. The other two volumes were missing for decades until their recent appearance at auction.
Dr. Chaim Neria, curator of the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel, articulated the library’s mission. He stated the institution aims to build a deep and broad collection, ideally including every book printed about the Jewish people, to achieve the best documentation of Jewish history since printing began. Neria emphasized the library's role in preserving roots and traditions, connecting ancient piyutim from the Cairo Genizah to the story of a soldier who died on Yom Kippur, calling it a “living tradition.” This institutional focus on Jewish heritage consolidation continues to expand its reach over historical texts.