Join curatorial consultant Abby Schwartz and preparator and collections manager Sheri Besso for a behind-the-scenes look at the reinstallation of the galleries devoted to Torah, Life Cycle, and Holidays and Festivals. A light lunch will be served.
Please join us to celebrate the publication of two books memorializing our teacher and colleague Dr. Alan Mintz z"l and dedicated to the Hebrew fiction of Nobel Laureate S.Y. Agnon.
In 1540, a group of silk weavers from the city of Bologna, who called themselves “the partners” (ha-shutafim), printed a two-volume compendium of the Jewish liturgy for the yearly worship cycle. This maḥzor (prayer book) included both a commentary on the liturgy by R. Yohanan b. Joseph Treves, entitled Kimha d’avishuna (Flour Milled from Roasted Grain), and a commentary on Tractate Avot of the Mishnah (an oft-quoted anthology of rabbinic wisdom) by R. Obadiah b. Jacob Sforno.
A light catered Kosher lunch will be provided.
This talk will consider how the long history of Hebrew printing can transform dominant narratives about the history of the book and the origins of modernity.
