Zachary M. Baker, Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica and Hebraica Collections, Stanford University Libraries will be giving a talk on The Taube-Baron Collection of Jewish History and Culture and The Samson / Copenhagen Judaica Collection held at Stanford University.

The talk will be given in the Kiev Judaica Collection Reading Room in the Gelman Library (rm. 710) on The George Washington University Campus, 2130 H. Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20052, on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 3:00 p.m.

Professor Salo Wittmayer Baron (1895-1989) of Columbia University, held the first Jewish History chair established in the United States (1930-1963). His 20,000-volume collection was purchased by Stanford in 1985 and includes Hebrew editions of the Bible dating from the 15th century, rare volumes of Jewish literature and history from Eastern Europe and around the world, works on Jewish Americana, Jewish anthropology and sociology, and thousands of pamphlets and journals.

The Samson Collection, acquired by Stanford in 2003, includes close to 2,000 works printed in over 115 locations from 1517 to 1939. These books cover a wide range of topics, including Bible and Talmud texts and commentaries, Jewish law and ritual, Jewish liturgy, rabbinical responsa, treatises on Jewish law (halakhah), scientific works in Hebrew, kabbalah, apologetics, bibliography, the sciences, ephemeral publications relating to the Jewish communities of Denmark and other Northern European countries, and even poetry. The books in the Samson Collection belonged to the Jewish Community of Copenhagen, Denmark, until the early 1980s, when they were purchased by Herman R. Samson, a native of Copenhagen.

Invitation to Zachary M. Baker talk on the Taube-Braon and Samson/Copenhagen Judaica Collections

For more information, call (202) 994-7549 or email speccoll@gwu.edu