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By: Stephen Winick
Note: This is part of a series of posts about Far Away Moses, a fascinating celebrity of the 19th century, who served as the model for one of the keystone heads on the Thomas Jefferson Building. Moses, a Sephardic Jew from Constantinople, knew some of the most prominent Americans of his era, including Theodore Roosevelt …
Posted in: Folklife Today
By: Erin Allen
We wrap up our Letters About Literature series with the second tie-winning National Honor Award letter for Level 3 (grades 9-12). The national reading and writing program asks young people in grades 4 through 12 to write to an author (living or deceased) about how his or her book affected their lives. Winners for 2016 were announced …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post from retired cataloger Sharon McKinley. May is Jewish American Heritage Month. Over three million Jews, mainly from Eastern Europe, flooded into the United States between 1880 and 1920. Like other large immigrant populations, they crowded into cities such as New York, living in often squalid conditions as they tried …
Posted in: In The Muse
By: Stephen Winick
The following guest post by Ann Hoog is part of a series of blog posts about the 40th Anniversary Year of the American Folklife Center. Visit this link to see them all! The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce a new online presentation of the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection. The photos and audio …
Posted in: Folklife Today
By: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Sharon Horowitz, Reference Librarian, Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division.) In 1882 three Blumenthal brothers, Sam, Philip and Barney, left the Duchy of Courland, today part of western Latvia, bound for the United States. Michigan became the place they called home. Initially working as traveling peddlers, the three …
Posted in: 4 Corners of the World
By: Betty Lupinacci
The Law Library has put on a display of items from the Jewish American collection for Jewish Heritage Month.
Posted in: In Custodia Legis
By: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Sharon Horowitz, reference librarian in the Hebraic Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division.) Exodus 23:15 tells us that Passover should be celebrated in the spring. The rabbis understood this to mean it was their job to maintain the holiday in the spring, which required some manipulation …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Stephanie Hall
March 20 is World Storytelling Day. Tying storytelling with the equinox in March is thought to have originated in Sweden as Alla berättares dag (all storytellers day) in 1991 or 1992. Other countries joined to celebrate storytelling on the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere and the first day of autumn in the …
Posted in: Folklife Today
By: Erin Allen
(The following post is by Ann Brener, Hebraic area specialist in the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division.) Every age has its own image of the “woman of valor,” and in the crumbling Jewish world of post-exilic Spain, that image was embodied in the persons of two unique women: Doña Gracia Nasi and Signora Benvenida …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Dr. Uri Golomb (Editor, Israel Music Institute) and Dr. Ronit Seter (Jewish Music Research Centre, Hebrew University Jerusalem), both of whom recently visited the Performing Arts Reading Room to explore Mordecai Seter materials in the Music Division’s collections. February 26, 2016 marks the centenary of Mordecai Seter (1916-1994), …
Posted in: In The Muse