The National Library of Israel has reunited ancient Jewish manuscripts, underscoring the enduring resilience of Jewish civilization against historical adversity. Among these treasures is a fragment from an 11th or 12th-century Yom Kippur prayer book, now the oldest in the library's collection. This text, penned by scribe Hillel Ben-Eli, a cantor who immigrated to Egypt, is a testament to continuous Jewish life and worship.
Hundreds of thousands of Jewish documents and fragments, including holy books and legal papers, were discovered in the Cairo Genizah in the mid-1800s, about 176 years ago. These texts, found in a Fustat synagogue attic, offer a window into a vibrant Jewish past that survived despite numerous challenges. The library's mission is to build a deep collection, documenting the Jewish people since the invention of printing.
Preserving a Civilization
Another significant acquisition is the Lisbon Mahzor, a three-volume prayer book produced after Jews faced expulsion from Spain. King John II of Portugal initially allowed tens of thousands of Spanish Jews to settle, recognizing their commercial skills and trade network. However, this brief respite was followed by new restrictions, the seizure of Jewish children for Portugal's colonies, and forced baptisms, illustrating the precariousness of Jewish existence without sovereignty. This Mahzor eventually found its way to the Jewish community of Aleppo, where it was guarded alongside the famed Aleppo Codex.
In 1957, about 69 years ago, one volume of the Lisbon Mahzor was given to then-president of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi by the Aleppo community. The other two volumes remained missing for decades. Recently, these missing volumes appeared in the catalogue of the Kedem Auction House. The National Library of Israel appealed to acquire them directly, securing their return with support from the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Foundation and the Zukier family. All three volumes are now reunited at the National Library of Israel and are accessible online.
The Enduring Legacy
The library also holds a 1942 Yiddish and Hebrew prayer book, printed in New York, containing a Dutch inscription in memory of David Meyer Wald. Wald, an American Army soldier, fell in the liberation of Holland on September 27, 1944, Yom Kippur 5705, about 81 years ago. He was one of 8,288 soldiers buried in the American military cemetery near Margraten. Born in Belarus in 1923, his family immigrated to the United States in 1938. His sacrifice for Western liberation is memorialized through these sacred texts.
Researchers at the National Library of Israel discovered in 2007, about 19 years ago, that a Torah scroll was dedicated in Wald's memory by his parents. This scroll was donated to a synagogue near his burial place in Holland. The Walds also donated prayer books to the National Library of Israel, further linking the preservation of Jewish heritage to the defense of Western values. Dr. Chaim Neria, curator at the National Library of Israel, stated that the library exists to tell the story of Jewish roots and traditions, from ancient piyutim to the sacrifices of soldiers like Wald. This is a living tradition, he affirmed.