The George Washington University’s Gelman Library System is pleased to announce that Brad Sabin Hill has been offered and accepted the position of Curator of the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection. 

Mr. Hill comes to GWU with extensive knowledge and experience in Hebraic and Judaic bibliography and librarianship.  Before serving as Dean of the Library and Senior Research Librarian at the YIVO Institute in New York (2002-2007), he held positions in Britain and Canada, as Librarian and Fellow in Hebrew Bibliography at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (1996-2001), as Head of the Hebrew Section of the British Library (1989-1996), and as Curator of Rare Hebraica in the National Library of Canada in Ottawa (1979-1989).  The author of a number of books and articles in the field of Hebrew bibliography and booklore, including Incunabula, Hebraica & Judaica (1981) and Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust (1989), Hill has published studies on Hebrew typography and Hebrew libraries, as well as on Yiddish manuscripts and Yiddish bibliography.  He has curated exhibitions of rare Hebraica in Ottawa, London and New York, among them a display of early Hebrew printing at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, and most recently on Spinozist writings in Yiddish at the YIVO Institute.  Formerly a member of the Oriental Faculty of the University of Oxford, Hill is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a Senior Associate of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.  Brad Sabin Hill will take on his new duties as Curator of the Kiev Collection at the end of 2007.

The I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection was established in 1996 with the donation of the personal library of Rabbi I. Edward Kiev, late chief librarian of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.  The original donation of about 18,000 books, pamphlets, and periodicals, as well as manuscripts, graphics, artifacts, maps and Jewish music, has grown to over 22,000 volumes.  Comprised of both Hebraica and western-language Judaica, the Kiev Collection covers the range of Jewish studies, from biblical exegesis and rabbinic texts to archeology, Jewish history and modern Hebrew literature.  Together with much German-Jewish scholarship and extensive Judaic bibliographic literature on which I. Edward Kiev was expert, the collection holds Hebraica printed over five centuries, and is especially rich in books from Central and Eastern Europe.  The Kiev Collection is housed in its own reading room in the Gelman Library, suite 710. 

Greg D. Kubiak, Board Chair of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW), announced today that an agreement has been reached between GMCW and The George Washington University to allow the University’s Gelman Library to collect, preserve and make accessible the Chorus’s archives as part of the library’s Gay and Lesbian Collections. “The GMCW board’s approval of this agreement was reached this spring after meeting with Gelman Library officials,” said Mr. Kubiak. “The GMCW Archives will offer a great resource for scholars, researchers or anyone interested in local GLBT history,” he continued, “while providing a secure home for the Chorus’s papers and other materials. The women and men of GMCW are honored to have their history included in the Gelman Library Special Collections.” The Chorus’s archives, including Board of Directors’ minutes and official documentation, financial and tax statements, publications, performance and promotional materials, concert programs, membership rosters, correspondence, newsletters, newspaper articles and clippings, video and audio recordings, and other archival material, will be transferred to Gelman Library this summer.

Steve Mandeville-Gamble, Head of Special Collections at Gelman Library, added: “With the generous donation of their organization’s records to the Gelman Library, GMCW has ensured that a vital voice of the cultural and social fabric of Washington, DC will be preserved and made available to this and future generations. These records document how the gay community of DC not only withstood adversity but also did so with its head held high and with a creative rejection of the intolerance that it encountered. This response ultimately lead to a greater acceptance of — and respect for — the GLBT community as a whole.” The official contract signing between the Chorus and the Library took place on June 28, 2007, at 11 AM in the Kiev Room (#710) of Gelman Library, 2130 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20052. June 28th is significant in that it is the 26th anniversary of the Chorus’s founding as well as the 38th anniversary of New York City’s Stonewall Riots — a pivotal moment in the U.S. GLBT rights movement. Closely aligned is the gay choral movement, as evidenced by GMCW’s mission — to entertain through excellent musical performance, to affirm the place of Gay people in society and to educate about the Gay experience. Signing the contract for GMCW was Kathy McGee, Board of Directors Secretary, who was accompanied by C. Michael Baker, Jack Gerard, Steve Herman, and Phil Rogerson — founding and continuing members of the Chorus since 1981.”