Genizah Update #9

Expedition Genizah Day 6: Cambridge Today, Cairo Tomorrow

Hello everyone!

Today is our last full day in Cambridge, and I wanted to get a final update out to you before we leave for Cairo tomorrow. Since including the pictures was such a hassle last time, I’m going to omit them from this email, hoping to convey the images to you through words, instead.

The past two days have been a real whirlwind. I’ll have more detailed reports when we get home, but here are a few highlights:

Day 5: Old Hebrew and Old Houses

Yesterday began back at the Genizah unit, where we planned to film an interview with its director, Dr. Ben Outhwaite. One member of our team, however (I won’t tell you who), forgot to bring a fresh battery for the camera. If Ben weren’t such a sweet guy and so willing to postpone the interview, it would have been a problem.

We zipped back to the hotel, grabbed the battery, and then went to meet with Dr. Geoffry Khan, a linguist who has done a lot of work in Genizah studies. He is, for example, the world’s leading expert on the Hebrew vowel, sh’va. One his many Genizah-related projects has been to use the manuscripts to reconstruct the way Medieval Jews pronounced Hebrew, which is very different from any modern Hebrew that I’ve ever heard. We have some video of him reading the first couple verses of Genesis in that Medieval Tiberian Hebrew dialect - it’s very cool.

We then went to the home of Sue Pearl, a delightful woman I’d met the day before when I spoke to the Cambridge Jewish Residents Association. Sue is a sculptor, and she lives in the house where Solomon Schechter first lived with his wife, children, and two servants when he moved to Cambridge in 1890. The house is a cozy place, and Sue gave it a very welcoming feel. It was fun trying to imagining Schechter living there.

Solomon Schechter had left that house by the time he first became involved in Genizah work, but Sue was kind enough to drive us over to Schechter house #2. This time, I didn’t know the occupants, but I mustered my chutzpah and knocked on the door anyway. A young man answered my knock. I explained why I was there, and he told me that his parents own the house, but that they were out of town. He said we could come in anyway, and he let us take some pictures. His father, it turns out, is a physician and an amateur painter. I don’t think Schechter would have used all of the modern art and furniture that this family does, but, again, it was fun to imagine the house as it might have been back in Schechter-times.

Day 6: Castlebrae

Today we began at Castlebrae, the 20-room mansion where Solomon Schechter first became aware of the riches of the Cairo Genizah. The beautiful, Tudor-style house was home to Margaret Gibson and Agnes Lewis, two wealthy and erudite identical-twin Scottswomen, who were collectors and scholars of ancient and medieval manuscripts. On May 13^th, 1897, in the Castlebrae dining room, they showed some newly-purchased antiquarian manuscripts to Solomon Schechter, and Schechter identified one of them as a page from the long-lost book of Ben Sirah (this was one of the pages Jacob and I held yesterday). Today, Castlebrae is a student dormitory for the students of Clare College, part of Cambridge University.

Arriving at Castlebrae this morning, we were greeted by our tour guide, Charlie Hampton, who is the head porter (security officer and all-‘round overseer) of Clare College. Charlie is a burly, balding and very feisty man of about 70 or so. He has a delightful, crooked smile, and that wonderful f British accent that makes T’s into apostrophes. Also joining us were three members of the Clare College staff, and Dr. Janet Soskice, who recently published a marvelous book about Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, called The Sisters of Sinai. Dr. Soskice is a very dignified and articulate woman, around 60 years old, who showed up Cambridge-style – on an upright bicycle with a large wicker basket on the front handlebars.

The rooms of Castlebrae have been chopped and redivided since the sisters lived there, but you can still get a sense of its grandeur. The dining room where they showed Schechter the Genizah documents, for example, is now the office of Terry Staton, the “supervisor” of Clare college, which I think is something of a cross between college advisor and director of student affairs.

At one point, I asked Terry, “Are you aware of the great historic events that unfolded right here in your office?” As I told her the story, a student approached her desk, waited for me to finish, and then asked a question of her own: “Terry, do you by any chance have my have my trousers?”

Charlie used his keys to let us into the students’ dorm rooms, some of which still held the original furniture from the 1890s – heavy oak stuff now draped with 21^st century rock posters and silly photographs. Near the end of the tour, we were in the main hallway off the foyer, and we came to a large cabinet with a high, arched top. It was locked. Charlie couldn’t find the key, and told us that he had worked there for over 20 years, and had never gone into that cabinet. Our little group stood around wondering what great secrets we might find if we could get into that cabinet, and then we began to walk away.

As I left, I turned around and saw Jacob – my innocent little boy – reach into his pocket, pull out his old student ID, and slide it into the door jamb. Within about five seconds, Jacob had picked the lock and was opening the door. The group froze, turned in its tracks, and hurried back. Slowly, Jacob opened the large door. Slowly, we peered inside. And slowly, we realized that the cabinet held….

Nothing. It was just some old shelves, and a dated inventory from 1966 on the inside of the door listing sheets, napkins and tablecloths. Dr. Soskice guesses that Samuel Lewis, Agnes’ husband who died a few years after the house was built, may have used the cabinet to display his collections of ancient coins and pottery.

From there, it was back to the Clare College Library for tea. There we met Aaron (oops forgot to record his last name) an American Jewish graduate student in Classics, and nephew of David Bolnick, a mohel in Seattle with whom I have worked several times. Aaron walked us over to the Great Hall of Clare College – the dining room. The room had high, vaulted ceilings and magnificent portraits of some early enemies of our USA – General Cornwallis, Charles Townshend, etc.

The whole thing was very Hogwarts.

Ordinarily, I would share some thoughtful observations or comments at this point, concisely – maybe even pithily – summing up my experiences here. But by head is spinning with all that I’ve been seeing, and I am still processing. Pithy comments, I’m afraid, will have to wait.

Tomorrow, Back to Egypt

Tombi the driver is to meet us at 5:00 AM tomorrow to drive us to Heathrow for our 9:15 flight. Two days later, we visit the Genizah and make our “Climb Through Time.”

As I anticipate that visit, I’ve been trying to think of what I should say when I first set foot in that little room – I’ve been looking for a “One small step for man…” comment that would be fitting for the moment. Here are a few of the lines I’m considering:

· Ooh…look at all the Pez Dispensers up here! I never knew there was a Maimonides one!

· So this is where President Carter’s family stored all those un-bought cans of Billy Beer!

· Capone this…Capone that…Hey, Jacob – call Geraldo!

· Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?

· Gee, Starbucks stores really are everywhere these days!

Somehow, I don’t think that any of these would do. Your thoughts and suggestions, as always, would be most welcome.

Thank you so much for your interest in – and support of – this project. About 150 people now receive these emails, and your interest in, and enthusiasm for, this project inspires me beyond words. I am very, very grateful to you all.

Shalom,

Rabbi Mark Glickman

PS. A CORRECTION: In a previous update, I mentioned that I’d met Lady Marilyn Fersht, whose husband, Sir Alan Fersht, is a leading scientist involved in the Human Genome Project. In reality, however, Sir Fersht is not involved in the Human Genome Project. His expertise is in the field of proteins, and his connection with genetics is that his lab is next door to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where Francis Crick and James Watson discovered DNA. I apologize for the mistake.

Genizah Update # 8...Actually, Just Pictures from #7

February 23, 2010

Hello Everyone,

Boy, did I have computer problems last night. I spent about 2 hours trying to figure out how to send that last update, and finally succeeded…or so I thought. Unfortunately, I included about 10 pictures in that email, but I discovered today that they didn’t come through. This probably made much of my email sound senseless.

Some descriptions of the above attachements:

· Tombi was the guide waiting for us at the airport. As I said in last night’s email, despite what his large nametag says, this is a picture of him, not me,

· Chapel and Towers are pictures of some sights we saw in Cambridge

· Primer, Ben Sirah, and David to Moses are three documents Jacob and I held yesterday – the first is a children’s book, the second was the first document that opened Solomon Schechters’ eyes to the value of the Genizah (a page from a long-lost biblica-erea book), and the third was the final letter that the great thinker, Moses Maimonides, ever received from his brother David before David was lost at sea.

I hope these come through this time.

Off to work now,

Mark

Genizah Update #7
Expedition Genizah, Day 4 - Cambridge!

Hello Everyone,

I am pleased to report that expedition Genizah is well underway, and so far it’s been a huge success.

Here are some highlights:

Day 1, February 20 – Travel

Seattle to Washington DC; Washington to London. Cab from Heathrow to Cambridge. Our driver was a very nice man from Sri Lanka named Tombi:




Contrary to what his large nametag says, this is a picture of Tombi, not me.

Except for a snafu with our hotel reservation that took several phone calls and emails to fix, everything went smoothly. We are now cozily ensconced at the University Arms Hotel, in a room overlooking the field where the rules of modern soccer…uh…football were invented. The hotel also boasts the last surviving cage elevator in operation – it was installed in the 1920’s by Mr. Waygood Otis, himself.

Day 2: Sunday, February 21 – Arrival

By the time we settled in at the hotel, it was mid afternoon. We were tired, of course, and very hungry. We grabbed a bite to eat at a very British restaurant. (OK, it was Italian…and Jacob ordered a hamburger. But it was in England, so at some leve it had to be British, right?)

Then, we walked around town. Cambridge a beautiful and very European city of winding streets, narrow sidewalks, and breathtaking Gothic arches and spires. The town itself dates back to Roman times, and its university is over 800 years old. It is common to find oneself squeezing between a gray brick wall and pedestrian traffic on a sidewalk, and then to pass an archway through which is the gorgeous green quadrangle of one of the university colleges, surrounded by 16th century chapels and classroom buildings.


My research made me familiar with the city even before my arrival. I had visited it often via Google Earth (sorry, Microsoft folks), and I was surprised to discover that I already knew my way around pretty well. Jacob and I checked out some of the old colleges, crossed the River Cam (over the Cam-bridge, of course) and took a peak at Castlebrae, the home of Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, where Solomon Schechter first began to feel the lure of the Genizah. Thursday, we get a proper tour of the place.

Then, we went to a pub for fish-n-chips, came home, and plotzed. It was 8 PM.


Day 3: Monday, February 22nd – The University Library

We awoke promptly at 3:30 AM, which gave us plenty of time to prepare for breakfast at 7:30 and our appointment at the library at 9:40. It was snowing.

Arrival:
First, we had to visit the library’s office of admissions to show our letters of introduction and file the appropriate paperwork. The woman who greeted us – Jacob dubbed her “Mrs. Frumpy McGee” – put up some age-related hurdles regarding Jacob’s entrance into to the library, but after a few harrumphs and several phone calls it all worked out. Her face has been the only non-smiling one we’ve seen since our arrival.

Soon, Dr. Ben Outhwaite, director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah research unit came to greet us. He escorted us to his office through a complex series of narrow hallways, dark library stacks, and reading rooms with arched windows and high vaulted ceilings. Along the way he explained that the University Library owns a copy of every English book printed in the United Kingdom since…since…I forget, but since a long time ago. It also has countless periodicals, manuscripts, and even a Genizah fragment or two.

The Genizah Unit is much smaller than I’d anticipated – it’s really just a reception room with three small offices attached to it. Working with Dr. Outhwaite and his assistant that day were:

• A German Ph.D. student researching Arabic bible translations
• Another scholar who was cataloging Cambridge’s collection of more than 193,000 Genizah manuscripts. Dr. Ernst Worman began that work in 1904, and continued until his untimely death in 1909. Now, after more than a century, the work has finally resumed.
• Dr. Shmuel Glick, director of the Schocken Institute, in Jerusalem, who was visiting Genizah Unit to research some response literature.

Ben Outhwaite is a very affable guy. He has a terrific sense of humor, he’s a very talented scholar, and Jacob and I were both drawn to him immediately. He showed us some albums of 800-1000 year-old manuscripts that he and the other scholars had been working on that day.

Then he brought us to the imaging department. There, a team of the University Library’s photo technicians are working diligently with very resolution scanners and cameras to capture high quality images of the Genizah manuscripts. They photograph about 200 pictures per-person-per-day – a total of 2,500-3,000 per week.

We then went to the conservation lab, where the staff is processing the Mosseri collection – an assortment of about 7000 documents recently given to Cambridge as a long-term loan. In 20 years, they will go to the Jewish National Library, in Jerusalem. One of the technicians explained how she painstakingly cleans, flattens, and repairs each manuscript, spending about an hour to an hour-and-a-half on each one. She works on several documents simultaneously, however, so she can conserve 4-10 of them per day.

Talking to another conservator, I marveled at how painstaking their work must be. She responded by saying, “Everyone has patience for something. We all have something that we can do meticulously. For some people it’s raising kids; for others it’s playing music; for us, it’s repairing old documents.”

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photographs inside the library, but their staff will be taking some for us, and we’ll be able to share the pictures when we receive them during the next couple of weeks.


Day 4: Seeing the Documents, Viewing the Stacks, Meeting the Jews

Seeing the Documents:

I’d asked Ben whether we could see several documents of particular interest, and today we got to see them. Among the treasures we saw were:

• Several of Maimonides’ documents written out by hand by the sage himself:



• The last letter Maimonides’ younger brother ever wrote to him before being lost at sea:



• Old palimpsests – medieval documents written on even older sheets of parchment and paper. Both layers of text are visible. In one the top text is from the 10th century CE, the under-text is from the 7th century CE:



• The Damascus Document – an early copy of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls:




• One of the oldest known pieces of Jewish sheet music in the world:

• A collection of schoolbooks, including some doodles and writing exercises written by children during the Middle Ages:



• A page of the original Hebrew of the book of Ben Sirah – this was the manuscript that Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson showed Solomon Schechter that first inspired him to visit the Genizah:

• The letter that Solomon Schechter wrote to Mrs. Lewis after he had confirmed his Ben Sirah find:


• And many, many more.

Jacob and I both had the privilege of holding each of these documents in our own hands. It was an unspeakable thrill.

Viewing the Stacks:

Ben then did some finagling and arranged to lead us into the stacks where the library stores its Genizah collection. We saw two or three long rows of library shelves that were linedfloor to ceiling, with albums holding the Genizah documents. Other, larger documents were stored in wide, flat-drawered cabinets. There was also a crate holding thousands of “manuscript crumbs,” tiny pieces of paper and vellum that had crumbled off their original pages over the years. Genizah gravel.

Along the way, we passed the Darwin aisle, where Charles Darwin’s papers are stored, including the original copies of his diaries from the Beagle expedition. Not far, we knew, were the papers of Sir Isaac Newton. Many other recognizable names whizzed by my eyes, but my brain is so overloaded that I can’t remember them.

Meeting the Jews:

If all of that weren’t enough, we then had a special treat. We left the library, and were picked up by Sara Kemp. Sara grew up in Cairo, moved to Israel just before that country’s revolution in the 1950’s, and, for the past several years, has lived in Cambridge. She has transcribed many Genizah documents, and was a HUGE help to me in planning my trip.

Sarah brought us to her home, where I spoke about my project to some members of the Cambridge Jewish Residents Association. About 20-25 people attended, most were seniors, and the vast majority were women – they were a delightful group, and they were all so British! Jacob and I both had a terrific time.

The president of this group, by the way, is Lady Marilyn Fersht, whose husband, Sir Alan Fersht, is a leading biologist involved in the Human Genome Project. Afterwards, I noted that, in the US, she and Michelle Obama might very easily been confused with one another – one is Lady Fersht, and the other is the First Lady. (Sorry.)

Looking Ahead:

Tomorrow we meet a leading philologist of Semitic languages who has done extensive Genizah work, and we visit a former home of Solomon Schechter. Thursday, we meet a Maimonides scholar, tour Castlebrae, and take more photos and videos for the documentary version of the book, and on Friday we get in a cab at 5:00 AM and head to Cairo. (Along the way, we’ll board an airplane, too.)

An adventure this trip truly iss; a vacation it ain’t!

Thanks for reading this far. More updates coming soon.

Shalom,

Rabbi Mark Glickman

Expedition Genizah 2010, Update # 6: The Final Countdown
Only Four Days Left!

February 16, 2010

Hello Everyone,

The schedule continues to get finalized, the suitcases are open and ready, and we’ve gotten all of our shots. Expedition Genizah will soon begin!

This will be the final update before Jacob and I leave on our trip, and I hope it will be briefer than its predecessors. That said, I am a rabbi, and in my line of work verbosity is a professional hazard.

Expedition Genizah in Cyberspace

• The Blog

With some trepidation as to my technological limitations, I have opened a blog about this trip: www.expeditiongenizah.blogspot.com.

As of now, all that I’ve posted on the blog are the updates I’ve been sending you – I haven’t even figured out how to link to the attachments. If any of you have suggestions as to how I might spiff it up, please feel free to let me know. This blogosphere place is a new and foreign world for me, and I would welcome any help you could offer.

• Facebook

Also, Jacob tells me that he has opened a Facebook fan page about our trip. I’m not a Facebook person, but I am confident that you who are will be able to find the page that Jacob has set up.

Media Coverage

• The first news article about my trip and book appeared this weekend in the Bainbridge Island Review: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/bir/community/84488532.html. Although it gets several of the details wrong, it does give a good sense of the spirit of the project.

• Also, I have been approached by a reporter from PRI’s The World, a nationally syndicated public radio news program, who wants to do a story about the trip and my project after I return. Keep watching for updates.


Fun Stuff to Read

• Jacob recently received some questions about our trip from a reporter. For a variety of reasons, his answers didn’t get included in the story, but I found Jacob’s response to be articulate, inspirational, and touching. I’ve attached them to this email as “Thoughts on an Expedition.”

• Among the many groups in which I am blessed to participate is an interfaith association called “Northshore Interfaith Leaders.” At our most recent meeting, the group gave me a wonderful sendoff –a delightful “Bon Voyage” card, a generous donation to the project, and kind words of encouragement.

Then, to top it off, Ken Williams, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, pulled out his ukulele and sang the song I’ve attached as “Ghost Rabbi in the Sky.” You can read the words for yourself, but know that my favorite lyric in it is:

For whether it's for manuscripts, or corn when hunger's strong,
When Jews head for Egypt, their stay can be quite long.

As I told Ken later, I am pretty confident that I’m the only rabbi in history ever to be sent off to Egypt by Mormon playing a ukulele. It was terrific!


Most Important of all, Thank You!

A complete set of acknowledgements will appear in my book, but I have been utterly overwhelmed by the support so many of you have shown. Now that I am on the eve of my departure, I would be remiss not to express my gratitude.

• First, I thank the members of Congregations Kol Shalom and Kol Ami. Not only have many of you been financially supportive of this project, but, even more important, the enthusiasm you have shown for it has energized and inspired me. I am grateful for your ongoing support. The interest you have taken in this project and the blessings you have given to my participation in it make me proud beyond words to know and work with you, and I hope that this work will only add to my ability to serve as your rabbi.

• I also thank the many people who have helped me prepare for my upcoming trip. The complete list would be too long to include here, but a few people have given of themselves in particularly generous ways. Many thanks to Jere Bacharach, Barbara Fudge, Sara Perez Kemp, Michael Strong, and “Dr. Shaloha” (you know who you are).

• Most of all, thanks are due to my wife, Caron. She has tolerated my months-long obsession with this project, encouraged me when I needed it most, and has somehow remembered that she, and not some lady named Genizah, is the woman I love most of all. Words could never adequately express how grateful I am for her presence in my life.

• Finally, I thank all of you for your ongoing interest and support. It is your interest that energizes me in my work. Together, I like to think that we are opening the Genizah and letting its people come out of the dust to join us today. This process is, in the words of Solomon Schechter, “an act of resurrection in miniature,” it is a true mitzvah; and I feel honored to be able to perform it with you.

And now, with gratitude to you all, I’m off to the Cairo Genizah. Thank you once again.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Mark S. Glickman


Note:

Donations may be sent to:

Rabbi Mark Glickman
15030 232nd Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98077

These funds will be used to cover costs for writing the book; additional monies will be donated to organizations housing and caring for the documents of the Cairo Genizah.

Genizah Update #5: The Countdown Continues

EXPEDITION GENIZAH, 2010: THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES

12 Days …And Counting!

February 8th, 2010

Hello Everyone!

As the Expedition Genizah departure-date approaches, preparations and writing continue at an increasingly feverish pace. I’m getting very excited and, of course, growingly nervous. The fact that I had to deal with a major computer-crash last week didn’t help, but my good friends at HP fixed my machine, and now I’m back on track and eager to share with you some highlights the upcoming adventure.


REALITY HITS, AND IT’S GREAT!

Last week, I sent some promotional information to the folks at Jewish Lights Publishing, and I also had a telephone conference about the book-cover with their production team. Those discussions and emails added a new and exciting dimension of reality to this project. The book will be about 300 pages long, a six-by-nine inch hardcover, and it will be released this fall.

I even have an ISBN…and ISBN!!! I’ve never had an ISBN before, and having one now is quite the thrill!


A TITLE, A TITLE, MY KINGDOM FOR A TITLE

I also sent the editor my selection of title “finalists.” She discussed it with “the team,” they weighed in on behalf of one of my choices, I responded, and now we’re getting really close to a decision. It looks as if we are down to three very similar possibilities:

• Longest The Cairo Genizah: Unfolding the Story of the Greatest Literary Treasure Ever Discovered
• Shorter The Cairo Genizah: The Story of the Greatest Literary Treasure Ever Discovered
• Shortest The Cairo Genizah: The Greatest Literary Treasure Ever Discovered

Hmm…I like the brevity of the “shortest,” but I also like the words “unfolding,” and “story.” I’m also reluctant to begin both title and subtitle with “The.”

Thoughts?


GENIZAH GARB: THE LATEST THING IN SYNAGOGUE FASHION

I am pleased to announce that, during several key moments of our trip, Jacob and I will wear the world’s very first Genizah T-Shirts. Yes, with the help of my younger brother and budding fashion designer, Larry Glickman, we have developed a stunning design for this garment. It is attached as “T-Shirt.pdf”above , and will be silkscreened onto a stonewashed blue background as pictured in “Shirt Example.pdf.” (Despite the similarity of the man in the picture to Jacob and me, he is not related to us, and he will not be accompanying us on our trip.)

For now, I am only having a dozen shirts printed – one for me, one for Jacob, and the others to give as gifts to supporters during the expedition. However, if you are interested in having one for the low, low cost of $20, please let me know, and I’ll arrange for printing after we return. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to organizations preserving the documents of the Cairo Genizah.


A DELIGHTFUL EMAIL SURPRISE

Late last night, I received an email from Rabbi John Schechter, the great-grandson of Rabbi Solomon Schechter. He had heard about my book and was interested in speaking with me. Rabbi Schechter serves at a Conservative congregation in New Jersey, and we are arranging a meeting during the New York leg of the expedition.

As it turns out, Rabbi Schechter and I grew up no more than three miles from one another, and during the 1970’s he may have been my camp counselor at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, in Wisconsin. I told him that I was the gangly 13 or 14 year-old with curly brown hair and zits – didn’t he remember me? 

I am looking forward to meeting Rabbi Schechter very much.


ANOTHER EXCITING DEVELOPMENT

• In Cairo, we will be meeting with Dr. Mohamed Hawary, professor of Jewish studies at Ain Shams University (180,000 undergraduates). He is an accomplished scholar, and has done a lot of research using Genizah documents. Here are two interesting articles about him:
o http://www.forward.com/articles/109595/ (Focuses on the divisive issue of his stance on Israel, but gives a good sense as to his academic stature and accomplishments.)
o http://huc.edu/newspubs/pressroom/07/8/firestone.shtml (Press coverage of a fascinating incident involving Dr. Hawary. These articles refer to him as Muhammad al-Hawari.)


JACOB “SCORSESE” GLICKMAN

On Sunday morning, Jacob and I had a long telephone conference with Michael Strong, a literary agent in New York who will be producing the DVD version of the book. Mike briefed Jacob on camera angles, lighting, sound, choice-of-shots, etc. As expedition cinematographer, Jacob certainly seems to be a Scorsese in-the-making. Or is it a Spielberg? Maybe a Woody Allen…?


FUNDING

Many of you have donated generously to this project, and I appreciate it more than words can say. But unexpected costs seem to be arising every day –a $400 “fee” for photography in the Ben Ezra Synagogue, another photography fee for the Cambridge library, expensive fares to get from London to Cambridge, $300-$400 for a driver in Cairo, etc. I remain in search of funds.

More important, the overall goals of this project are to raise awareness of the treasures of the Cairo Genizah, to help ensure that the documents are properly stored and preserved, and to encourage students and scholars to draw from the deep wells of knowledge they can offer. I am deeply dedicated to these causes; I believe that advancing them is sacred work; and I hope you share my commitment.

Please remember that all funds remaining at the conclusion of this project will be donated to organizations that care for and/or advance our knowledge of the documents of the Cairo Genizah. Please give generously.

You can send your donations to me at my home:

15030 232nd Avenue NE
Woodinville, WA 98077

Thank you!

Shalom,


Rabbi Mark Glickman


P.S. Depending on how my preparations go, this may or may not be my final update before the expedition. Assuming I have internet access, however, you can count on further updates as the trip progresses.

Genizah Update #4 - Expedition Genizah: The Countdown Begins

EXPEDITION GENIZAH, 2010: THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

25 Days …And Counting!

January 26, 2010

Hello Everyone,

The excitement grows; the schedule fills; and there are reports that the dust-clouds in the Genizah have halted mid-billow in anticipation of the arrival of Expedition Genizah.

A RAPIDLY DEVELOPING ITINERARY

The schedule for this two week expedition is filling rapidly. In fact, my full itinerary, replete with phone numbers, contact information, addresses, etc., is now almost five pages long. Here are some highlights of the recent additions:

Cambridge

• We have arranged for a full, behind-the-scenes tour of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at the Cambridge University Library, home of Cambridge’s 193,000 Genizah Manuscripts.

• At the library, we will see the “Mosseri Collection” – 7,000-8,000 Genizah fragments discovered in Cairo shortly after Solomon Schechter’s 1897 visit. The collection is still raw, clumped and jumbled together just as it was in the Genizah. Conservators are now working to “declumpify” the documents so that they can be studied. It is painstaking work, and they only separate three or four documents each day. Here’s a sample:



These manuscripts will give us a glimpse of what all of the manuscripts looked like just after they emerged from centuries of Genizah storage.

EXCURSUS: The Genizah and Adam Sandler

For many years, the Mosseris were among the largest and most prominent of all Egyptian Jewish families. In fact, their name was probably derived from Mitzri, the Hebrew word for “Egyptian.” Most or all of the Mosseris have left Egypt for other countries, such as France and Israel. One of the Israeli Mosseris is an actor, Ido Mosseri, who recently had a large supporting role as Adam Sandler’s Israeli sidekick in that paragon of cinematic excellence “Don’t Mess with the Zohan.”

Yes, my friends, the web of Genizah connections extends far and wide. Even as far as Adam Sandler.

• In Cambridge, we also plan to meet with several scholars:
o A Maimonides scholar
o An Israeli Arabist
o An expert on Middle Eastern Jewish languages who has written a detailed history on the pronunciation of the tzere – the Hebrew vowel beneath this alef: אֵ. Another source I studied contained nine pages on the pronunciation of the sheva – אְ. Knowing what I do now about horizontally arrayed tzere and the vertically aligned sheva, all that’s left is to learn about the shuruk – אֻ – and I’ll be all set.

• I’ve been invited to speak about my research to the Cambridge Jewish Residents Association.

• Finally, I had long been looking forward to retracing Solomon Schechter’s footsteps on May 13, 1896, the day he first say the manuscript that led him to the Cairo Genizah. Here was his path:

o Home
o Errands on Kings Parade – Cambridge’s main shopping district. It’s still there.
o Visit to Castlebrae, the home of Margaret Gibson and Agnes Lewis, where they showed him their newly acquired manuscripts. Now a dormitory, we’ve arranged a tour.
o Research at the University Library. Arrangements for the visit already made.
o Home

As you can see, we’d made arrangements to visit each of Schechter’s stops that day, except for home.

Well, last week, in an email from a woman who has been helping me make these arrangements she said, “…and, by the way, I should introduce you to my friend, Sue. She’s Jewish, and she lives in Solomon Schechter’s old house.”

Ding! I contacted Sue. I arranged a visit. The loose ends are loose no more. Thank God for good friends!

Cairo

• The Genizah: As I mentioned in previous updates, I do have official permission to visit the Genizah room at the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. However, a friend in Egypt warned that many people visit the country with great plans…”and Egypt laughs.” I am therefore in the process of arranging plans B, C, and D to ensure my access to that room.

• The other night, I spoke on the telephone with Carmen Weinstein, the president of the Jewish Community of Cairo, and I look forward to meeting her during our visit.

• The Egyptian government has recently done a complete and magnificent renovation of the Maimonides Synagogue – not the Ben Ezra of Genizah fame – and it will be dedicated only a few days after our departure. It’s an exciting event, and it’s too bad we’ll have to miss it.

New York

• I will be speaking about my at Sinai Reform Temple in Bay Shore, Long Island. We plan to film the session for possible use in the DVD.

• I have also set up a meeting with Dr. Burton Visotzky, at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the author of a novel based on Genizah texts. He also appeared in the Bill Moyers series on Genesis, and was a consultant for Dreamworks on their movie, “The Prince of Egypt.”


TITLE SEARCH

Many of you sent suggestions as to a title for the book – I received dozens of them! They all got me thinking, and I appreciate your input very much. Here, in edited form, are a few of my favorites:

1. Under the Dust in the Attic: Rediscovering Cairo Genizah
2. Forgotten Treasures: The Fantastic Tale of the Cairo Genizah
3. Unfolding History: The Story of the Cairo Genizah
4. Another Man’s Treasure: The Amazing Tale of the Cairo Genizah
5. Sacred Scraps: The Cairo Genizah Rediscovered

Of course, we could recombine the various titles and subtitles above, I may go back to one of my original ideas, and my editor may very well veto them all.

Your input, as always, is welcome.


EXCERPT

Amidst all of this excitement, of course, I still need to write the book! I’ve attached an excerpt – the DRAFT of the first section of the chapter about one of the greatest Genizah scholars of all, Dr. Shelomo Dov Goitein. The rest of the chapter will discuss Goitein’s biography and the lasting significance of his work.

I would love some feedback on this excerpt. Please don’t hesitate to be brutal – I welcome your input on anything from tone to wording to sentence structure to the overall flow of the piece. I may not agree with all of your suggestions, but I promise that I will take them all seriously.

Thanks in advance.


EXPEDITION GENIZAH: THE BLOG

As blog on Expedition Genizah will be opening soon – just as soon as I can figure out how to open a blog. Keep watching your email for announcements.


GENIZAH IN THE NEWS

A couple of interesting Genizah related news stories have come out of Israel recently:

1. Billboards in the Genizah

Here is a billboard advertising an Israeli TV show called S’rugim, a program about Modern-Orthodox families living in Jerusalem.



It may not show in this picture, but the background behind the woman is an image of a Torah scroll.

You can probably guess where this is going.

A group of rabbis pointed out that the Torah in the billboard is a sacred text bearing the name of God, and, as a result, they insisted that the billboards all be put into genizahs. Rather than enter into a full-blown religious smackdown, the advertising agency responsible for the billboards agreed. I believe, however that it will just be the paper advertisements that will end up “going-genizah,” and not the structures holding them up. In other words, the bills will end up in genizahs, not the boards.

2. Genizahs Fall Prey to Budget Cuts

For many years, there have been public genizahs scattered throughout Jerusalem’s Orthodox neighborhoods – special receptacles into which observant Jews could deposit their no-longer-needed sacred texts. However, with the economy being what it is these days, Jerusalem’s municipal government recently announced that it is eliminating the program. The religiously observant community is up in arms over the decision, and rumor has it that privately owned pay-genizahs will soon open throughout the city.


Funding

I remain in search of funds to support the costs of publishing this book – travel, reprint permissions, etc. As I have mentioned, I will donate any remaining monies at the conclusion of the project to one or more of the main organizations now housing and caring for the manuscripts. The list includes, but is not limited to:

• The Taylor Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University
• The Jewish Theological Seminary Library
• The Friedberg Genizah Project, which is now digitizing the entire corpus of Genizah manuscripts


The more research I do, the more I realize that the people who run these organizations care for these priceless treasures on a shoestring budget, and they need our help and support. I hope that my book will demonstrate the vital importance of what they do and thus encourage readers everywhere to give. And I also hope that, with your help, my project can offer some gifts directly, as well. Please contribute as you are able – your gifts will go far in preserving the precious treasures of the Cairo Genizah.

Thank you so much for reading this far. More updates will come your way as news develops.

Shalom,

Rabbi Mark S. Glickman

Genizah Update #3: Expedition Plans Coalesce

January 14, 2007

Dear Friends,

Shalom! Since my last email, plans for the Glickman Genizah Expedition 2010 have been progressing - quickly in some areas, and at a snail’s pace in others.

As you know, I’ll be traveling with my assistant/cameraman, the almost-16-year-old Jacob Glickman, and our expedition will take us too three foreign countries: England, Egypt, and New York.

Due to the complexities of the trip, I’ve been working with three travel agents – an American in America, and American in Egypt, and an Egyptian in Egypt – and in the process I have learned that working with three travel agents for a single trip is really quite foolish.

Here, however, are some of the details:


IT’S OFFICIAL

At 4:12 AM yesterday, I received an email from Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, giving Jacob and me special permission to visit the Genizah room at the Ben Ezra Synagogue. As I mentioned in a previous update, I don’t believe that any westerners have been in that room for many, many years. I’d been told that this permission was on its way some time ago, but then I hit a couple of bureaucratic bumps, and I had to resubmit my request. Now, finally it’s official, and I am very excited…and relieved!

MEDIA COVERAGE

I’ve been approached by a reporter from a nationally syndicated public radio news program interested in doing a story on my trip. It’s still not a sure thing, but I will keep you posted.


CAMBRIDGE – Feb 21-26

• The university community is just back from its “Winter Holiday,” and as a result, it has been difficult to connect with the caretakers of Cambridge’s collection of more than 140,000 Genizah manuscripts. I’ve sent several emails, however, and I am confident that I will be able to connect with them soon to make all of the necessary arrangements.

• I have, however, arranged for us to visit Castlebrae. Pictured below, Castlebrae was the home of Margaret Gibson and Agnes Lewis, the identical-twin Scholars-Collectors-Explorers who first showed Rabbi Solomon Schechter the documents that alerted him to the treasures of the Cairo Genizah. In fact, it was in the Castlebrae dining room (behind the cones in the picture below) that Schechter first examined these documents. Today, Castlebrae is a dormitory for Clare College at Cambridge, and we have arranged with the college archivist and head porter to see the building during our visit.





• When Solomon Schechter first returned to Cairo from Cambridge, the University assigned him a workroom in the library that afforded him some quiet and good lighting by which he could study the manuscripts. The library has since moved, but I am working to determine whether the Schechter Genizah Garret is still there. If so, I hope to visit it. By then, I may look even more overwhelmed that he does in this picture:




• Jacob and I will be staying at the De Vere University Arms Hotel in Cambridge. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t bore you with a detail like that, but this hotel was originally built in 1834 in preparation for Queen Victoria’s coronation. It overlooks a field called Parker’s Piece where, according to the Great Sages of Wikipedia, many of the rules of soccer were first formulated (such as the “no hands” dictum). And I think it looks really cool.




• Finally, in Santa Monica last week, I met with Mr. Gifford Combs, an investment banker who owns one of the last remaining private collections of Genizah documents. Mr. Combs’ collection is now in a vault at Christie’s in London, and he has graciously offered to arrange for us to see it when we are in England.


CAIRO – Feb 26-March 2

• There are literally dozens of people around the world who have helped me make the necessary connections in Cairo, and I am grateful to them all. Because of the complexities of the way things work in Egypt, I won’t mention them by name, but you all know who you are, and I thank you very much. I hope to meet several of you during my visit.

• I have hired an agent to meet us at the airport, and a driver/guide to shlep us around for the duration of our stay.

• On February 28th, we are scheduled to visit the Ben Ezra synagogue, Pictured below from outside and in. Evidently, the Supreme Council of Antiquities will be sending a government representative with us during our visit to the Genizah “to make sure everything runs smoothly.”





Here is a picture of the Genizah room at the Ben Ezra. I have no idea what lies behind that dark opening, but I’ll be sure to let you know when I find out.




• I am in the process of arranging meetings with representatives of Cairo’s small Jewish community, and also, I hope, with a leading scholar of Islamic history – a former high-ranking university official – who has used Genizah materials in his research.

NEW YORK – March 2-6

• Our time in New York will be spent interviewing scholars at the Hebrew Union College (Reform) and Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative).

• We will also be working on the DVD with Michael Strong of the Regal Literary Agency, who will be producing it.

• Finally, the night before we depart, I plan to speak at a local synagogue about the Genizah and my trip. The local congregation gets what I hope will be a good talk. We get some film footage, I hope, of people becoming fascinated with the Genizah story.

IN SEARCH OF A TITLE

• In my last update, I issued a call for suggestions as to a title for my book. I received many responses – some were wonderful, others came from my family. A few of you even liked my original title ideas. I have attached the list and, although I won’t say who suggested which title, I will tell you that my youngest brother’s name is Jimmy.

Of course, your further thoughts on the matter would be quite welcome.


FUNDING

• I have been seeking funds to help cover the costs of travel and other expenses involved this project (although Jacob is traveling at our family’s expense). Many of you have been very generous in your support, and I have also received a grant from the Fritz and Adelaide Kaufmann Foundation in New Jersey. Thank you! I am , however, still in search of funds; I plan to direct whatever monies remain at the end of the project to organizations now housing and caring for the Genizah documents.

If you’d like to send a donation, please mail it to me at my home:

15030 232nd Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98077


I thank you all for your ongoing support and interest. Your enthusiasm is a powerful inspiration to me as I strive to write a book that does justice to the fantastic story of the Cairo Genizah.

With Best Wishes,

Rabbi Mark Glickman