The Early Years of Jewish Studies at Cornell

Isaac Rabinowitz. List of prominent Arabists. 1963.

Rabinowitz's list of prominent Arabists to consult for recommendations of junior scholars who could be hired to teach Arabic at Cornell.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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Isaac Rabinowitz. Letter to Professor S. D. Goitein. June 13, 1963.

Letter from Cornell Professor Isaac Rabinowitz to renowned Genizah scholar S.D. Goitein asking for recommendations for teachers of Arabic to join the young Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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S. D. Goitein. Letter to Isaac Rabinowitz. July 24, 1963.

Goitein's response to Rabinowitz's letter of 13th June, noting his previous letter has likely been lost and attaching a copy of it. Goitein suggests calling or meeting to discuss the contents.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

Isaac Rabinowitz. Memo to Dean W. R. Keast and members of the Educational Policy Committee. 1963.

Memo from Rabinowitz to W.R. Keast, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, with a proposal to establish a Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures. Includes a list of required attachments for consideration. Handwritten annotation from Rabinowitz with context for this major milestone.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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Cornell University Board of Trustees. Memo to Isaac Rabinowitz. December 21, 1965.

Memo from the Board of Trustees to Isaac Rabinowitz informing him of his appointment as Chairman of the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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Cornell Daily Sun. “Hebrew, Arabic New Majors.” Ithaca, NY: April 5, 1966.

Excerpt from the Cornell Daily Sun announcing new majors in Hebrew and Arabic, and the visiting professorship of David Patterson.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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Notes on plans for the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures
Notes on plans for the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures

Isaac Rabinowitz. Notes on plans for the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures. [1966].

Rabinowitz's annotations on a notecard summarizing his plans for the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures: course-choices, course design, points to include in a statement advocating for the establishment of the Department, and the anticipated careers of graduates.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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Isaac Rabinowitz. Note on 1966-1967 course assignments. [1966].

Note listing 1966-1967 course assignments for the three professors of the fledgling Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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G. F. Cronkhite. Letter to Isaac Rabinowitz. April 13, 1967.

Letter from the Secretary of the College of Arts and Sciences informing Rabinowitz that the proposed new course on "Mishnah and Tosephata" was approved.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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Edward Fox, Paul Olum, Isaac Rabinowitz, and Arthur Rovine. Cornell student and faculty petition. April 14, 1969.

Petition addressed to Stuart M. Brown, Jr., Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, from faculty and students at Cornell in support of the establishment of a Jewish Studies Program.

Image courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.

Collection/Call #: 4085

Harry Barron. Letter to Professor Milton Konvitz. May 1, 1969.

Letter from Harry Barron, Executive Director of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, to Milton Konvitz, founding faculty member of the School of Industrial Labor Relations and proponent of the establishment of Jewish Studies at Cornell. Barron asks Konvitz if rumors about 700 students petitioning Cornell for a Jewish Studies Program are true.

Image courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.

Collection/Call #: 4039

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Cornell University Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures. “Purposes, Objectives, and Needs.” [1969]

Pamphlet produced by the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures describing the state of the department, its plans for the future, and campaigning for an increase in faculty and course offerings.

Image courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.

Collection/Call #: 4039

Minutes of Department Meeting. January 7, 1971.

Excerpt from the minutes of a 1971 Department meeting, at which fundraising, TA assignments, and whether Jewish History should be taught within the Department or if it was better situated in the Department of History were discussed. This is reminiscent of larger discussions that occurred in the mid to late 20th century about the appropriate academic position of Jewish History.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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Alfred E. Kahn. Memo to members of the Semitics faculty. March 6, 1974.

Letter from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, complimenting the faculty of the Department of Semitics on their successful running of the department.

Collection/Call #: 14-30-3937

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David Owen. Letter to Milton Konvitz. September 9, 1975.

Letter from David Owen, Professor in the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures to Professor Konvitz, noting the extremely high enrollment in Hebrew classes and the Jewish Studies Program. As Director of the Jewish Studies Program, Professor Owen, along with former Dean of Arts & Sciences Philip Lewis, successfully led the program’s first endowment campaign, which produced the Mann, Schapiro, Konvitz, and Hendrix Professorships. His leadership in this position was essential to the growth and shape of the program today.

Image courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.

Collection/Call #: 4085

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Isaac Rabinowitz. A Witness Forever: Ancient Israel's Perception of Literature and the Resultant Hebrew Bible. Edited by Ross Brann. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1993.

Professor Isaac Rabinowitz’s A Witness Forever: Ancient Israel’s Perception of Literature and the Resultant Hebrew Bible was published posthumously and edited by Cornell professors David I. Owen and Ross Brann. Each editor wrote a brief afterword reflecting on Professor Rabinowitz’s contributions to academia and to Cornell. A Witness Forever was the inaugural volume in an occasional series of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Jewish Studies Program—a salute to the role Professor Rabinowitz played in establishing them at Cornell. The book elaborates on his theory about the nature and power of words in the Hebrew Bible as imagined by its creators.

Professor Brann has taught at Cornell since 1986 and served for nineteen years as chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies. During this time, he also intermittently directed the Jewish Studies Program. Professor Brann’s leadership has had a major impact on Jewish Studies at Cornell, not least through his fundraising efforts to establish named chairs in Jewish Studies. Professor Owen’s similarly significant contributions to the program are noted elsewhere in the exhibition.

Collection/Call #: BS1171.2 .R29 1993

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Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Letter to Milton Konvitz. June 19, 1993.

Brief handwritten letter from then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Professor Konvitz, expressing her pride at being compared to him by a Cornellian after a lecture she gave.

Image courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.

Collection/Call #: 4241

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Letter to Milton Konvitz. April 10, 2001.

Letter from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Professor Konvitz, noting the impact his teaching had on her.

Image courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.

Collection/Call #: 4241

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Letter to Milton Konvitz. June 11, 2003.

Letter from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Professor Konvitz with recollections of her time in Konvitz's class as a Cornell student, and noting her intention to participate in the inauguration of Cornell's first Jewish President, Jeffrey Lehman.

Image courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.

Collection/Call #: 4241

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