I find it interesting that Judith Baskin’s recently published essay about the present and future state of Jewish Studies in North America (see citation below) ignores investments made by universities and Jewish American communities in libraries, either by funding librarian lines and/ or supporting material budgets.
The only reference to libraries in the article is in the context of ties with Israel: “On the professional level, many programs have also welcomed academic colleagues from Israel into their midst as speakers and visiting scholars, while North American professors frequently spend summers and sabbaticals at conferences and libraries in Israel” (p. 10, my emphasis). Jewish Studies collections in North American libraries are not mentioned at all. Librarians are mentioned as members of AJS (p. 5): “By 2013 the AJS had more than 1,800 members, most of whom were university faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, and library and museum professionals who represented the breadth of Jewish Studies scholarship.” A survey of RAS libraries that support Jewish Studies may be a worthwhile project for RAS leadership or for an individual RAS librarian. I welcome an evidence-based article about the current state of Jewish Studies libraries in North American colleges and universities in the next volume of Judaica Librarianship. Baskin, Judith R. 2014. "Jewish Studies in North American Colleges and Universities: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 32 (4) : 9–26. Thank you, Rachel Rachel Leket-Mor Associate Librarian Religious Studies, Philosophy, Jewish Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Arizona State University Libraries PO Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 Phone: 480 965 2618 Editor-in-Chief, Judaica Librarianship Association of Jewish Libraries http://ajlpublishing.org
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